What’s happening: CHA’s board has approved three advocacy priorities for California hospitals in 2026: Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA), Securing Hospitals, and Ballot Initiatives. New and updated advocacy materials for two of these priority issues are available on CHA’s website.
What’s happening: The Department of Health Care Access and Information is hosting a complimentary webinar from 1:30 to 3 p.m. (PT) on Jan. 14 that will focus on fostering a Collaborative Inspection Approach to Hospital Construction.
What’s happening: On Dec. 26, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) uploaded three new hospital-directed payment encounter files, available via the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) site. The SFTP site is not intended for long-term storage, so files will be deleted Feb. 5.
What’s happening: Governor Gavin Newsom will release his proposed budget for 2026-27 tomorrow, kicking off the state budget process and legislative budget hearings that will continue until the budget is finalized this summer.
What’s happening: On Dec. 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the much-anticipated Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) award announcements. While all 50 states were awarded RHTP funds, California earned an award of $233.6 million in the first year, the third-highest dollar amount award of any state.
What’s happening: DataSuite has issued two hospital-specific analyses of calendar year (CY) 2026 final rules on the outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) and Medicare home health. The OPPS analysis is intended to show providers how Medicare outpatient fee-for-service payments will change from CY 2025 to 2026. The home health analysis is intended to show home health agencies how Medicare fee-for-service payments may change from CY 2025 to CY 2026.
What’s happening: Last week, CHA submitted a letter to the California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) Center for Health Care Quality to recommend several changes to the draft regulations on acute psychiatric hospital staffing, which are proposed to take effect on Jan. 31.
What’s happening: On Dec. 29, 2025, the U.S. District Court of Maine blocked implementation of the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 340B Rebate Model Pilot Program from going into effect nationwide on January 1, 2026, pending further orders from the court.
What’s happening: The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) has until March 13 to submit a revised 2025 Hospital Quality Assurance Fee Program application to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), following questions CMS raised about the program’s size.
Federal lawmakers are back in Washington, D.C., this week with just over three weeks left to finish funding the government before current spending laws run out on Jan. 30.