Hospitals

How California Can Finally Close In on Meaningful Health Price Transparency

Kristof Stremikis

Health Care Costs

For more than a decade, state and federal policymakers have argued for greater health care price transparency. Their efforts received a push in recent weeks.

How to Pay for It: MAT for Hospitalized Patients

Payment & Financing

Expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in hospitals is critical, given how often patients have a secondary diagnosis of opioid use disorder. This paper describes how MAT is reimbursed in acute inpatient settings and addresses three areas for payment.

Committed Physician Recruits Young People to Diversify Health Care Workforce

Heather Stringer

Jocelyn Freeman Garrick, a no-nonsense doctor from Oakland’s Highland Hospital, is on the lookout for youth from families with low incomes who could become future nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, and more.

Lifting the Veil of Secrecy in Health Care Prices

Xenia Shih Bion

Health Care Costs, Coverage Trends

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Economist Uwe Reinhardt famously said the system for determining prices in the US health care system was “chaos behind a veil of secrecy.” That was in 2006, and clearly, the chaos persists today.

Can the Right Technology Reduce Avoidable Emergency Department Visits?

Investing in Innovation

More than 140 million patients visit US emergency departments each year. Health care technology companies hope to reduce that demand by better managing chronic diseases in primary care settings and easing access to treatment for mental health and substance use disorders.

Uncompensated Hospital Care Costs in California, 2013 to 2017

Expanding Health Coverage, Payment & Financing

This page provides the most recent data on uncompensated care costs at California hospitals. Since the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014, the cost of uncompensated care at California hospitals has plummeted from $3.1 billion (in 2013) to $1.3 billion (in 2017).

The Price Isn’t Right

Xenia Shih Bion

Health Care Costs, Coverage Trends

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Health policymakers in Sacramento and Washington, DC, are taking renewed interest in restraining one of the most stubborn challenges facing the nation — surging consumer health costs.

Accelerating Change: Community-Based Palliative Care in Public Hospitals

Monique Parrish

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

This paper describes CHCF's efforts to implement and expand community-based palliative care in one of the places where it's needed most: California's public hospitals.

When Price Transparency Isn’t Enough

January 18, 2019

Xenia Shih Bion

Health Care Costs

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: If knowledge is power, patients across the country got stronger on January 1, when a new national health care transparency policy took effect. But will consumers really benefit?

What to Expect in Health Policy Under a Divided Congress

January 8, 2019

Billy Wynne, Dawn Joyce

Expanding Health Coverage

Democrats have taken control of the US House of Representatives, while the GOP continues its dominion over the Senate. What will this "split Congress" mean for health care?

California Wildfire Worsens Health Care Workforce Shortage

December 14, 2018

Xenia Shih Bion

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Because of severe wildfire damage, the sole hospital and biggest employer in Paradise, California, is unlikely to reopen before 2020 — if ever.

Health Care’s Climate Change

October 18, 2018

Xenia Shih Bion

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: The US health care system ranks seventh among worldwide producers of carbon dioxide, the key cause of global warming, rising sea levels, and many resulting public health issues. Industry leaders are calling for urgent action.

At the Center of San Francisco’s Safety Net, the CEO Leans In

October 4, 2018

Expanding Health Coverage, Behavioral Health, Medi-Cal

Two years into her tenure as CEO of San Francisco's major public hospital, Susan Ehrlich is enchanted with her work and the management technique that won her the job.

October 15, 2018

Health Affairs Forum in Sacramento — Improving Care for Californians

Payment & Financing, Health Care Costs

October 15, 2018

The September 2018 issue of Health Affairs was entitled “California: Leading The Way?” Health Affairs returned to Sacramento for this special event.

The State of Emergency

August 28, 2018

CHCF recently published the latest edition in its wide-ranging Almanac series, "California Emergency Departments: Use Grows as Coverage Expands." Kristof Stremikis, director of CHCF's Market Analysis and Insight team, talks about the important findings.