Health care is still far too expensive for many Californians. Crucial to any cost containment effort is a detailed understanding of what costs are being reduced, where they are coming from, and who has the potential to capture the savings. This report focuses on the landscape of health care spending and a framework for understanding cost containment approaches in California.
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New & Noteworthy

CHCF Blog

Newsom Budget Proposal Signals Health Care Priorities

January 17, 2020
Xenia Shih Bion
Health Care Costs, Behavioral Health, Medi-Cal
Stories That Caught Our Attention: Five key health care items in the governor's proposed budget tackle important problems, including homelessness, affordability, and behavioral health capacity.
Publication

Commissioning Change: How Four States Use Advisory Boards to Contain Health Spending

January 2020
Glenn Melnick, Susan Maerki
Health Care Costs
Controlling the growth of health spending is central to any state effort to achieve universal coverage and to relieve consumers struggling with out-of-pocket costs. California can learn from four states that have established state commissions to measure, monitor, and set targets to control health care cost increases.
Press Release

California Improvement Network Announces New Partner Organizations

January 17, 2020
Twenty health care organizations have been selected as partners for the California Improvement Network (CIN) in 2020-2021. Collectively, these organizations serve or support more than 25 million patients across the state — more than half the population of California.
CHCF Blog

You’ve Got to Hear This: Funding a New Health Policy Podcast

January 16, 2020
Steven Birenbaum, Jordan Reese
Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care, Maternal Health
If it seems like everyone you know is recommending that you listen to their favorite podcast, you’re not alone.
Collection

Top Publications of 2019

In 2019, our readers were particularly interested in CHCF’s publications about California’s health care workforce shortages, the integration of behavioral and physical health care, and quality in Medi-Cal managed care. Our Health Care Almanac reports, presenting the latest data on topics from health care costs to health disparities, also topped the list. These are CHCF’s top 10 publications from 2019.
Publication

Fact Sheet: Nurse Practitioners and California’s Latino Community

January 2020
Providers, Workforce
Nurse practitioners are a vital part of California’s health care workforce. Today they play a particularly important role providing care to underserved Californians, especially Latino communities.
Publication

Resources for Generalist Palliative Care

January 2020
This guide was developed for palliative care specialists and advocates for palliative care who primarily work within another service line (palliative care champions). It includes resources that support educational and quality improvement projects to integrate palliative care into routine care across a range of service lines and patient populations.
Publication

2020 Edition — Health Care Costs 101

January 2020
Katherine Wilson
Health Care Costs, Payment & Financing
US health spending reached $3.6 trillion in 2018. National health spending grew 4.6% in 2018, a slightly higher rate than the 4.2% growth in 2017. See the data in this quick reference guide.
Publication

Assessing the Effectiveness of CHCF’s Health Journalism Grant Portfolio

January 2020
Aspen Planning and Evaluation Program
For over 20 years, the California Health Care Foundation has funded nonprofit journalism to help strengthen the media’s capacity to cover health policy in California. The goal of this investment: to ensure that audiences have access to timely, relevant information about the most pressing issues related to the health care and policy landscape.
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A Service of the California Health Care Foundation
January 23, 2020

San Francisco Chronicle | 'Hospital Watch' Consuming Thousands of Hours of SF Police Department’s Time
January 23, 2020

Sacramento Bee | Medical Insurers Try to End Price Gouging on Generic Drugs
January 23, 2020

Mercury News | Alameda County Launches New Food Hub Residents With Low Incomes