Last week, and on schedule, the state Department of Health Care Services submitted the proposed model for the next iteration of the hospital fee program to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
This week, California’s congressional representatives returned from their home districts to a gray and gloomy Washington, D.C.
Time is running short.
As Congress deliberates on stopgap measures to fund the government for 2025, the House of Representatives has passed a budget resolution for 2026 calling for $2 trillion in spending cuts, including $880 billion to come from programs overseen by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which — in addition to energy, the environment, and other issues — oversees Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California).
A little more than two weeks ago, the deadline passed for California lawmakers to introduce bills for this year’s legislative session. In all, some 2,350 bills are in play this year — a number in line with historical trends.
The Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) is racing toward imposing even tighter spending growth caps well below the rate of inflation on a handful of California hospitals, which will irreparably harm patient care.
As a federal debate heats up over legislation that could bring historic cuts to Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal), it’s essential that California’s federal representatives hear from hospital leaders about how these cuts would devastate both access to health care and hospitals struggling to deliver vital health services.
With the state Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) barreling toward singling out hospitals for even lower spending growth targets than the statewide goal — and federal legislators debating budget proposals that would decimate Medicaid and Medicare funding — CHA has developed two opportunities for hospitals to prepare for engagement on both of these critical issues.
Late last month, California’s Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) established a statewide hospital sector, an expected vote that now enables the OHCA board to impose stricter spending targets on hospitals as soon as 2026.
A recent presidential executive order related to birthright citizenship (which has been temporarily blocked by a federal court) and a directive to remove a layer of protection for certain locations (including schools, churches, and hospitals) from immigration enforcement have raised many questions about the appropriate response and requirements for hospitals.
