Health
Covered California and the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced that from Oct. 1, 2013, to March 31, 2014, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 49,665 consumers in mostly rural Northern California counties enrolled in subsidized and non-subsidized Covered California health insurance plans.
The new total represents a nearly 50 percent increase from the 33,111 enrollments recorded through Feb. 28.
The open-enrollment period for health insurance plans in Covered California’s marketplace ended March 31.
Although open enrollment has ended, consumers who experience a qualifying life event can still enroll in a health insurance plan through Covered California.
Qualifying life events include losing health coverage through a job, getting married or entering into a domestic partnership, having or adopting a child, changing where a person permanently lives or gaining citizenship. For a list of common types of qualifying events, visit www.CoveredCA.com .
The next open-enrollment period will be in the fall of 2014. Also, Californians can enroll in Medi-Cal year-round.
The Northern California counties of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne and Yuba represent about 4 percent of the statewide enrollment.
The local total includes 45,042 consumers eligible for financial subsidies. These counties encompass Covered California pricing region 1.
For the six-month period that ended March 31, 1,395,929 consumers enrolled in plans statewide.
The statewide total increased 58.6 percent from the 880,082 consumers who enrolled by the end of Feb. 28. Covered California reached 1 million consumers enrolled on March 14.
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The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has issued four penalties to three California hospitals along with fines totaling $275,000 after investigations found the facilities’ noncompliance with licensing requirements caused, or was likely to cause, serious injury or death to patients.
The following hospitals received penalties, please click on the link below for specific incident information:
– Alta Bates Summit Medical Center-Alta Bates Campus, Berkeley, Alameda County: The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow established policies and procedures for safe distribution and administration of medication. The penalty is $75,000. This is the hospital’s second administrative penalty.
– Alta Bates Summit Medical Center-Alta Bates Campus, Berkeley, Alameda County: The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow established policies and procedures related to patient evaluation and safety. The penalty is $100,000. This is the hospital’s third administrative penalty.
– Desert Regional Medical Center, Palm Springs, Riverside County: The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow established policies and procedures regarding fall prevention. The penalty is $50,000. This is the hospital’s first administrative penalty.
– Sutter General Hospital, Sacramento, Sacramento County: The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow established policies and procedures regarding fall prevention. The penalty is $50,000. This is the hospital’s first administrative penalty.
Administrative penalties are issued under authority granted by Health and Safety Code section 1280.1. Incidents that occurred prior to 2009 carry a fine of $25,000.
On Jan. 1, 2009, the fines increased for incidents that occurred in 2009 or later. Under this provision, an administrative penalty carries a fine of $50,000 for the first violation, $75,000 for the second, and $100,000 for the third or subsequent violation by the licensee.
When hospitals receive their survey findings, they are required to provide CDPH with a plan of correction to prevent future incidents.
Hospitals can appeal an administrative penalty by requesting a hearing within ten calendar days of notification. If a hearing is requested and the penalty upheld following an appeal, the penalties must be paid.
All hospitals in California are required to be in compliance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations governing general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals.
The hospitals are required to comply with these standards to ensure quality of care.
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