Health
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lakeview Health Center has expanded access to pediatric care in Lake County with the addition of full-time pediatrician Dr. Rishika Singh.
Dr. Singh has extensive experience with newborns, having worked in a hospital with a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
She can perform intubations, insert umbilical lines when needed, attend high-risk deliveries and help in stabilizing sick newborns. She is also well trained in performing circumcisions.
“I like to joke around with little kids. For example, when I look in their ears I say, ‘Let’s see if I can find any puppies in here,’ or something like that to make them laugh,” she said.
With adolescent patients, she interacts on a more mature level. “My goal is to educate them, to let them know they are responsible for their own health,” she said.
Rather than putting adolescents on the spot about their behavior, she sometimes asks about their friends’ behaviors, which gives her insight into the types of risks and activities the patient may be exposed to. She builds rapport and “usually, the adolescents will come out with the truth.”
For Dr. Singh, becoming a pediatrician was a “no brainer” – she knew she wanted to work with children in some capacity and her parents are both doctors who encouraged her to pursue medicine.
After graduating from medical school in 2011, Dr. Singh completed her pediatric residency at Western Michigan University. She enjoyed learning about various pediatric specialties, and loved the people in her program, but she “did not love the Michigan winters,” so she and her fiancé moved to Georgia where Dr. Singh spent three years caring for pediatric patients of all ages.
When her husband’s work brought him to California, Dr. Singh looked for a small community where she could build relationships with her patients.
The reason she chose Lakeview Health Center is because she liked their comprehensive approach and the expertise of the team members, from colleagues, nurses and medical assistants to schedulers and receptionists.
“We have dentists right here, so if a patient needs dental care we send them right over. If a patient needs behavioral health support, we can do a warm hand-off. We can introduce the patient to the psychologist and make sure they’re comfortable,” she explained.
She also noted that Lakeview was a good fit for her because of the way the health care team supports patients without judgment.
Regardless of a patient’s condition or how patients become ill, Dr. Singh and the team at Lakeview Health Center are focused on helping patients get well.
Lakeview Health Center is part of MCHC Health Centers – a local, nonprofit, federally qualified health center offering medical, dental and behavioral health care to people in Lake and Mendocino counties.
Lakeview Health Center can be reached at 707-263-7725.
- Details
- Written by: California Treasurer’s Office
Eight private nonprofit children’s’ hospitals are each eligible for $135 million, five University of California Children’s Hospitals are eligible for $54 million, and public or private nonprofit hospitals that provide pediatric services for children eligible for California Children’s Services (“CCS Hospitals”) are eligible for $150 million in total funding.
CHFFA is in the process of developing emergency regulations for the Children’s Hospital Program so that awards can be made on a non-competitive basis and to the CCS Hospitals on a competitive basis.
“We are moving quickly to help children who are facing life-threatening illness or injury,” Treasurer Ma said. “The public’s input is needed on how we do that.”
To register for the webinar, please visit CHFFA’s Web site. It will be held Feb. 5 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Ma said she encourages people to participate in the upcoming webinar.
During the webinar input will be sought from stakeholders, questions will be answered about the proposed regulations, and an overview will be provided of the development of the program’s structure specific to hospitals that provide services to children eligible for the CCS program.
In November 2018, California voters, voted to approve Proposition 4, the Children’s Hospital Bond Act of 2018 enabling California to issue an additional $1.5 billion in general obligation bonds to fund the Children’s Hospital Program of 2018.
California’s network of regional children’s hospitals provide vital health care services to children in need. Over one million times a year, children are cared for at these hospitals without regard to their family’s ability to pay.
- Details
- Written by: Covered California
There was a 7.5 percent increase in the number of existing consumers renewing their coverage and a 23.7 percent drop in the number of new consumers signing up for 2019.
“Covered California’s overall enrollment has held steady, but recent actions at the federal level appear to be causing large drops in enrollment that will lead to more uninsured and higher premiums for all Californians,” said Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee. “The federal removal of the individual mandate penalty appears to have had a substantial impact on the number of new consumers signing up for coverage.”
The total number of net plan selections for 2019 is 1,513,883, which reflects 1,217,903 consumers having their coverage renewed and 295,980 consumers who newly signed up for coverage during open enrollment .
Overall, there is a difference of 7,641 fewer plan selections compared to 2018, a decrease of 0.5 percent.
“While we end open enrollment in line with the number of plan selections we saw at this time last year, it is too early to draw any conclusions,” Lee said. “We have seen the impact that federal decisions have had on new enrollment, and we do not yet know how that will play out for renewing consumers down the road.
In addition to the impact of the penalty, Covered California conducted analysis and has released an issue brief, “Covered California 2019 Open Enrollment: Early Observations and Analysis,” that examines its open enrollment plan-selection demographic compared to last year.
Covered California found larger differences in the share of Bronze consumers, unsubsidized consumers and those populations in which English is not the preferred spoken language. However, other demographics do not appear to be a factor.
“With the reduction being relatively evenly spread across demographics, the primary driver of the loss of new enrollees appears to be removal of the individual mandate penalty,” Lee said.
In August, Covered California shared analysis from national experts that projected that the removal of the penalty could lead to a reduction in enrollment ranging from 7 to 26 percent across the entire individual market.
As part of its budgeting process, Covered California projected that the federal removal of the individual mandate penalty would reduce effectuated enrollment at the end of fiscal year 2018 to 2019 by between 7 and 18 percent, with the midpoint estimate of 12 percent. When combined with other factors, this would result in approximately 162,000 fewer consumers insured at the end of June 2019.
“The drop in new enrollment affirms the leadership Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken to propose an individual mandate and enhanced subsidies aimed at making coverage more affordable for Californians,” Lee said.
In addition to the federal removal of the mandate penalty, other potential factors affecting new enrollment could include the continued challenges of affordability and Covered California’s previous success in signing up healthy consumers.
“California has done tremendous work in building one of the healthiest consumer pools in the country,” Lee said. “One impact of successfully enrolling so many healthy Californians in previous years is that there may be fewer people newly eligible in California to enroll in this period – meaning that those who can sign up are more susceptible to being influenced by the federal removal of the penalty.”
While plan selections in Covered California have remained steady over the past four years, the number of consumers in federally facilitated marketplace, or FFM, states newly enrolling continues to drop, from 9.6 million in 2016 to 8.4 million in 2019.
In addition, during the past three years that the current federal administration has made policy decisions to dramatically cut back on promoting enrollment, one result has been a substantial decrease in the number of new enrollees signing up for coverage: declining 49 percent from 4 million in 2016 to 2.1 million in 2019.
“When the federal government pulled back on marketing and cut their enrollment period in half, they shut the door on hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Lee said. “The data shows that going into 2019, almost 1.5 million Americans who could have enrolled through FFM states were already priced out of coverage or opted not to enroll.”
Among the other major findings of the Covered California issue brief are:
– Covered California’s drop in new enrollment is higher than the average 15.8 percent drop of the 39 states served by the federally facilitated marketplace this year. The difference is likely explained by the fact that the FFM states have already experienced sharp decreases in new enrollment in each of the past four years, putting their decrease on top of an already diminished pool of healthy consumers opting out of coverage. California has maintained strong new enrollment in each of the prior four years, leaving it more susceptible to drops in new enrollment due to the loss of the penalty and other factors.
– In addition to the impact of the penalty on Covered California’s new enrollment, early analysis also indicates that affordability remains a key obstacle for many, especially those who do not receive subsidies.
– The analysis also found that enrollment by other demographics, including age and income level for those receiving subsidies, did not appear to be substantially different.
While open enrollment is over, consumers can still sign up for health care coverage if they experience a life-changing event, such as losing their health insurance, getting married, having a child or moving.
For more information on special-enrollment rules, visit https://www.coveredca.com/individuals-and-families/getting-covered/special-enrollment/.
Eligible consumers who are interested in signing up can visit Covered California’s Web site where they can get help enrolling, explore their options and find out if they qualify for financial help by using the Shop and Compare Tool.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The new “What’s Covered” app lets people with Original Medicare, caregivers and others quickly see whether Medicare covers a specific medical item or service.
Consumers can now use their mobile device to more easily get accurate, consistent Original Medicare coverage information in the doctor’s office, the hospital, or anywhere else they use their mobile device.
In addition to the “What’s Covered” app, through Blue Button 2.0 the agency is enabling beneficiaries to connect their claims data to applications and tools developed by innovative private-sector companies to help them understand, use, and share their health data.
“eMedicare is one of several initiatives focused on modernizing Medicare and empowering patients with information they need to get the best value from their Medicare coverage,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “President Trump is delivering on his commitment to Medicare by modernizing tools that deliver health information in the most convenient way possible. This new app is the next in a suite of products designed to give consumers more access and control over their Medicare information.”
CMS created the app to meet the needs of the growing population of people with Medicare. The Medicare population is projected to increase almost 50 percent by 2030 – from 54 million beneficiaries in 2015 to more than 80 million beneficiaries in 2030.
As of 2016, about two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries indicate they use the Internet daily or almost daily (65 percent).
Questions about what Medicare covers are some of the most frequent inquiries that CMS receives. There are approximately 15 million page views annually for coverage-related content on Medicare.gov and 1-800 MEDICARE receives over three million coverage-related calls each year.
CMS launched the eMedicare initiative in 2018 to empower beneficiaries with cost and quality information.
Other tools in the eMedicare suite include:
• Enhanced interactive online decision support to help people better understand and evaluate their Medicare coverage options and costs between Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
• A new online service that lets people quickly see how different coverage choices will affect their estimated out-of-pocket costs.
• New price transparency tools that let consumers compare the national average costs of certain procedures between settings, so people can see what they’ll pay for procedures done in a hospital outpatient department versus an ambulatory surgical center.
• A new webchat option in the Medicare Plan Finder.
• New easy-to-use surveys across Medicare.gov so consumers can continue to tell us what they want.
The eMedicare initiative expands and improves on current consumer service options. People with Medicare will continue to have access to paper copies of the Medicare & You handbook and Medicare Summary Notices.
The What’s Covered app is available for free in both Google Play and the Apple App Store. The app is available in Google Play at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.medicare.coverage, and is available in the Apple App Store at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whats-covered/id1444143600?mt=8.
How to resolve AdBlock issue?