health care

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Want a Riverside Med School? Legislature Says (Commands?) Do It Yourself

Byuclafaculty

There has been ongoing agitation from UC-Riverside and UC for the state to put up money for a med school.  As bits and pieces about the state budget leak out, it appears that the legislature has not provided extra money but instead has told UC to take it out of its general allocation.  Apparently, the legislature doesn’t view this matter as a suggestion; more of a command. From the Riverside Press-Enterprise:The Legislature’s budget conference committee late Monday altered the funding mix for a school of medicine at UC Riverside, eliminating a $15 million augmentation but directing the UC system to…

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UCLA History: Santa Monica Hospital – now a part of UCLA – back in the day

Byuclafaculty

Santa Monica Hospital in 1941:LA Public Library collection Previous posts on this blog have dealt with the current strike at UC hospitals including UCLA.  News coverage tends to focus on Westwood. But UCLA also operates Santa Monica Hospital which it acquired a few years ago. The two-day strike is also occurring at the Santa Monica location.  (The photo above from 1941 shows a building – seen from 16th Street – that has since been replaced.) Coverage on the strike can be found at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc-strike-20130522,0,3925126.story Meanwhile, the conservative FlashReport news aggregation website was so interested in the UC strike story that…

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UC (& UCLA) hospital 2-day strike to go ahead this morning with court-orded exceptions

Byuclafaculty

A Sacramento judge Monday refused to stop a strike today by thousands of employees at…  UC hospitals – but ordered a limited number of critical care employees to stay on the job.  The union for nearly 13,000 workers, including nursing assistants, pharmacists, medical technicians, operating room scrubs and other health care workers, was to begin a two-day strike at 4 a.m. today (Tuesday, May 21). The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees announced the walkout of workers at the UC Davis Health System and University of California hospitals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Irvine. The…

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Something that didn’t happen

Byuclafaculty

Our prior post noted that the LA Times today carries a story about a deal that did occur – albeit not to the benefit of UCLA.  The Times also carries a story about a deal that did not happen, a possible purchase by UCLA of St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica:http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-st-johns-hospital-20130517,0,3436718.story An earlier post on this blog about this deal that didn’t happen (when it was still a possibility) is at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/03/hospital-takeover.html UPDATE: See also:http://bhcourier.com/open-letter-communities-santa-monica-west-los-angeles-2/2013/05/17

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Possible Two-Day UC Hospital Strike Next Week

Byuclafaculty

From the LA Times today: Facing a possible two-day strike next week by patient care and technical workers, the five large University of California medical centers are starting to cancel elective surgeries that had been scheduled as soon as Monday, officials said. Emergency care will not be shut and patients already in the five hospitals across the state will continue to receive care. But many elective procedures will delayed until after the potential strike, set for Tuesday and Wednesday… At UCLA’s hospitals in Westwood and Santa Monica, …administrators are planning to hire 600 replacement workers through agencies and are preparing…

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Possible strike at UC hospitals (including UCLA)

Byuclafaculty

2008 strike at UCLA hospital From the State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee: The University of California said today that it will ask a judge to keep hospital workers from striking later this month. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 says its members will walk off the job at the university system’s five hospitals May 21 and May 22. UC officials and the union have been in negotiations since last summer for a new contract covering some 13,000 patient care workers. The contract expired Oct. 1, and the contentious talks deadlocked earlier this year. AFSCME…

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Not Clear on the Concept

Byuclafaculty

You may have seen the LA Times article today which reports that UCLA’s Reagan hospital received a D grade for patient safety, albeit up from F in the prior survey of the Leapfrog Group.  We reported on the F last November: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/11/whatever-happened-to-grade-inflation.html The new report says UCLA’s Santa Monica Hospital, in contrast, received a top grade.  I get nervous about composite rating systems so I went on the Leapfrog website [http://www.leapfroggroup.org/cp] which allows comparisons of hospitals and compared Reagan with Santa Monica.  The two look pretty much the same as the image above shows. [Click on the image to enlarge.] …

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Hearing CalPERS Rate Hike for Long-Term Care Insurance

Byuclafaculty

San Francisco’s Poor House As prior blog posts have noted, although UC is not under CalPERS, UC employees – because they were state employees – were invited to enroll in CalPERS’ long-term care insurance plan.  Such plans ostensibly protect enrollees against potential catastrophic expenses that can be entailed in major health crises.  Those who did enroll now find themselves facing large rate hikes or accepting an alternative less generous plan.  Many who enrolled did so assuming that CalPERS would protect them from such hikes.  Yours truly has encountered a number of folks who now find themselves in this predicament.  CalPERS…

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Cap Removed

Byuclafaculty

Earlier posts on this blog have noted the controversy surrounding the lifetime cap on UC student health insurance.  Most students are healthy and never hit the cap.  But if a major illness occurs, the insurance, which students must have unless they have some other coverage, could run out. The new federal healthcare law generally forbids such caps but UC was able to continue it as a self-insured plan.  It appears, however, that after complaints about the limit, the cap will be removed. (We also noted in a recent post that UC-Berkeley was planning to pull out of the UC-wide plan…

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I’m Outta Here

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post on this blog noted that there were concerns about caps on total payouts under the health insurance plan for students at UC.*  Now, apparently, there are also big premium jumps coming. UC-Berkeley has announced it will pull out of the UC-wide plan and run its own.  From the San Francisco Business Times: Following intense pressure from students, UC Berkeley is pulling the plug on participation in a controversial, deficit-plagued student health plan run by the University of California system, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said Thursday. Birgeneau said the system’s flagship Berkeley campus will jump ship effective Aug. 15, when it…