New California Health Laws

SB 1301 maintains abortion rights in the state even if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade.

AB 1860 requires all California hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape survivors.  If women cannot afford the pills they will be given at no cost.

AB 2197 requires MediCal to cover those HIV positive but without AIDS.  This does not include prescriptions.  

SB 1230 permanently extends the California human cloning ban.

AB 1421 allows friends and relatives to petition courts to order mental health patients into outpatient treatment.

SB 253 provides legal protection for stem cell research.        Top

Ohio Tort Reform

Ohio has passed tort reform again.  This time it has a chance of passage due to a more friendly Supreme Court.  It is the fourth state in the past year to pass some form of tort reform.  The new reforms to be signed by the Governor include a $350,000 cap on non-economic damages, $500,000 cap on non-economic damages on egregious cases of malpractice (whatever that is), an additional $500,000 for a spouse or companion under the egregious case, allow judges to review attorney fees, a strict statute of limitations of 4 years except for minors, if the case is not a good faith suit the defendant gets his attorneys fees paid by the plaintiff, allow collateral source knowledge, pay damages over time such as by an annuity and only hold those responsible for the damage to pay their percentage.  This bill is not ideal but is better than what they had in the past.  The attorneys should be limited in what they can charge with decreasing percentages as the award increases.  The non-economic caps should be stricter.  These can be passed as soon as the courts proclaim the current laws constitutional.          Top  

Physician Payments

As I am sure all know, physician payments under Medicare will go down an additional 4.4% on March 1, 2003.  This decrease will force more physicians to drop out of seeing new Medicare patients.  Representative Bill Thomas a Republican from California has introduced legislation in the US House to cancel the reduction.  The House passed this bill last year but the Democratic controlled Senate did not take up the legislation.  The Senate Finance Chair Grassley a Republican from Iowa wants a broader look at Medicare issues.  This will essentially kill the upcoming decrease due to time constraints.          Top

California Budget

Democratic Governor Davis is in a bind.  He heads a bankrupt state.  He believes he can get out of the mess by increasing sales taxes, increasing the cigarette tax and increasing the tax on the richest Californians from 9% to 11.5%.  He also will get Medicaid payments to physicians and other providers by 5% over the previously announced 10% cut.  This would not apply to hospitals.  If one looks at the policies critically, what are the potential downsides?  In the taxing of personal income, I can see many people heading to buy homes in Nevada for their legal residence.  This is especially true for retirees.  I also can see that Medicaid patients will have no physicians to care for them unless they go the county hospitals, an unfunded mandate.  Governor Davis wants to cut spending but only with those who have no bargaining power and who are for the most part not Democratic voters.  He is not touching the hospital reimbursement due to the fact that they are organized and contribute a significant amount to the coffers.        Top

JCAHO

The Joint Commission has amended its HIPAA Business Associate Agreement.  The original one was slanted against the hospital, the covered entity, and toward the business associate, JCAHO.  After consultations with the AHA, the new six page agreement was formulated.  The AHA cautioned that this agreement may not be suitable for all hospitals and each hospital's counsel should review the agreement for its individual appropriateness.        Top