On Tuesday, the state’s Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) Board voted 5-0 to drastically cut how much seven California hospitals can spend to care for patients; this comes on top of below-inflation spending cuts for all hospitals that OHCA had already put in place.
In April 1974, President Richard Nixon signed Presidential Proclamation 4288, creating National Volunteer Week. Every year since then, each president has issued a new proclamation commemorating this celebration of those who give freely of their time to help others.
A report released earlier this week by the well-respected and nonpartisan RAND Corp. underscores an alarming fact that hospital leaders have been saying for years: The viability of hospital-based emergency care is at risk after facing epidemics, a pandemic, increased patient acuity and complexity, and unsustainable declines in payment.
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.
