July 11, 2019
DHCS Posts PPL 19-015, Notification of Change to Physician Prescription Policy
On July 10, 2019, DHCS posted Policy and Procedure Letter (PPL) 19-015 stating that for services dated July 1, 2019, and forward, treatment authorizations (orders/prescriptions) signed by Physician Assistants (“PA”) or Nurse Practitioners (“NP”) are eligible. This means, for example, that the specialized procedure orders that in the past met the criteria but were signed by a PA or NP...
July 9, 2019
Medi-Cal Enrollment Among Immigrant Kids Stalls, Then Falls. Is Fear To Blame?—California Healthline
"The number of undocumented immigrant children in California’s Medicaid program rose for about a year after the program debuted, then enrollment stagnated and started to decline. In February 2019, 127,845 children were enrolled, down 5% from peak enrollment in April 2017"
Read full California Healthline article here.
July 3, 2019
DHCS Releases Report with Final Results of SMAA Deferral & Backcasting Process
On June 28, 2019, DHCS sent out their final report on the results of the SMAA program deferral and backcasting process; results long-awaited by impacted California school districts.
The distributed SMAA Report on Results of Backcasting of Deferred Claims includes an executive summary of the final results of this multi-year process, a history of the deferral, and a detailed table showing the...
July 3, 2019
Pending CMS Guidance on Medicaid Block Grants: Executive Overreach Strikes Again—Center for Children and Families
It has been reported that CMS is developing guidance to encourage states to pursue a new “block grant” or “per capita” cap on federal Medicaid funding through Section 1115 waiver requests. And sure enough, this “Dear State Medicaid Director” letter has appeared on the Office of Management and Budget’s website signaling that it is under review by the White House.
For a...
July 2, 2019
California pays down their student loans, doctors agree to treat poorer patients—CALmatters
California this week said it will help repay the student loans of 247 selected doctors in exchange for their promise that at least 30 percent of their caseload will be people enrolled in Medi-Cal.
See full CALmatters article here.
June 28, 2019
Governor Newsom Has Signed His First State Budget. See What’s In There—California Healthline
Below is the summary by California Healthline in their Daily Edition, of the newly signed California State Budget. See the full article in the Los Angeles Times here.
The $214.8-billion budget Gov. Gavin Newsom signed, which is the largest in state history, will cut costs for some Californians and raise taxes on others through a sweeping set of new policies ranging from ending sales taxes on...
June 28, 2019
DHCS Extends Deadline for FY 2017/18 Q3 SMAA Invoice Submissions
On Tuesday, June 25, 2019, DHCS sent an email to their SMAA mailing list issuing a 30-day extension for the FY 2017/18 Q3 invoices submissions for the SMAA program.
The new submission due date is July 31, 2019.
Click here to subscribe to DHCS SMAA mailing list.
June 26, 2019
Proposal to Change Poverty Calculations Could Cause 30,000 to Lose Public Benefits in California—California Health Report
A Trump administration proposal to change one of the measurements to determine the federal poverty level, a move that could force tens of thousands of state residents to lose their public benefits of the next decade, has California advocacy groups on high alert.
The proposal is to switch the calculations for the federal poverty level from the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers to the...
June 25, 2019
U.S. Department of Education Releases Final “Supplement, Not Supplant” Guidance for School Districts
On June 20, 2019, the U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos released final non-regulatory guidance to support school districts’ compliance with the requirement that federal funds supplement, and do not supplant, state and local funds. "Schools need to spend resources on what's best for students, not what's least likely to come up in an audit," said Secretary DeVos. The release of this final...
June 17, 2019
June Medi-Cal Bulletin for LEAs Posted
The June 2019 Medi-Cal Bulletin for LEAs has been published to the DHCS website. There was no LEA Billing program-specific information of note in this month's Bulletin.
Click here to read the current or past Bulletins.