Rate increases continue despite small businesses struggle to provide employee healthcare coverage

 SACRAMENTO - Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced today the Department of Insurance has found the latest rate increase by Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company is excessive and unreasonable. Anthem Blue Cross is increasing rates on its small group health insurance policyholders, while posting a return on equity of 25.2 percent as noted in the company's 2012 financial statements. For some Anthem small business customers, this translates to an alarming 12-month increase of 22.9 percent. The average 12-month increase for the policyholders impacted by this rate filing is 10.5 percent. Anthem's April 1st small group rate increases ultimately impact more than a quarter of a million healthcare consumers.

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Successful Medi-Cal Provider Enrollment for Physician Providers 12:15 - 1:45 p.m.

Physicians must re-enroll in Medi-Cal as one of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This training will cover basic instructions and guidelines on the proper way to complete a Provider Enrollment Application Package. We will discuss the importance of reviewing and understanding program requirements and how to avoid common mistakes when completing enrollment forms. We will also cover specialized physician enrollments, important changes to the program due to ACA implementation, and where to find additional program information and PED contact information.

Los Angeles Times - March 12, 2013

For the sixth consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente ranked highest in customer satisfaction for health insurance among California policyholders, according to ratings firm J.D. Power and Associates.

Parents of prescription overdose victims plead with legislators
Los Angeles Times - March 12, 2013
After hearing emotional testimony from parents whose children died of drug overdoses, lawmakers in Sacramento called Monday for the Medical Board of California to mine a statewide database of prescriptions to help identify doctors who recklessly prescribe narcotics.

Lawmakers, advocates press Medical Board to investigate doctors who over-prescribe painkillers
KPCC - March 12, 2013
State lawmakers took a close look at the Medical Board of California Monday—and whether it’s doing enough to police doctors who freely prescribe painkillers

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With a tradition more than 100 years old, osteopathic physicians are hardly the new doctors in town. But the profession’s recent growth — in both training facilities and number of graduates — could help reverse a looming shortage of primary-care providers that experts say will hit rural communities especially hard.

San Francisco Chronicle - March 13, 2013

Gloria Romaine has advanced, inoperable cancer, but hospice was never a consideration for the 61-year-old San Leandro woman.