State highlights: Officials seek public watchdog for health system money

Nov 8 2013

A selection of health policy stories from Virginia, Florida, California and Oregon.

Bloomberg: Obamacare Impact On Virginia Vote Steers Strategy In 2014
Republicans cite their 2.5-point defeat in the Virginia governor's race as proof that Ken Cuccinelli would have reversed his fortunes if he'd hammered earlier and longer on Obamacare, an issue the attorney general said tightened the contest in its final days (Davis and McCormick, 11/7).

Politico: GOP: Virginia Results Boost 2014 Obamacare Attacks 
At a time when not much is going right politically for the Republican Party, one thing certainly is: Obamacare. And the Virginia governor's race this week, party hands say, is the best evidence yet. "Virginia validates Republican hopes that Obamacare will not only be the defining issue but also the most potent issue," said Brock McCleary, a GOP pollster. "What really moved numbers at the end [of the Virginia governor's race] was that Obamacare drove headlines, particularly in the Washington, D.C., media market" (Isenstadt, 11/6).

Miami Herald: Watchdog Wanted For Public Funds To Aid Jackson Health System
One day after Miami-Dade voters approved $830 million in public funds for upgrades and new equipment and facilities for Jackson Health System, local elected officials and leaders of the county's public hospital network vowed Wednesday to keep a campaign promise that the money will be spent as intended and monitored closely by a yet-to-be-established oversight board (Chang, 11/6).

Miami Herald: Miami-Dade Community Health Centers Win Government Grants
More than a dozen Florida community health centers -- including seven in Miami-Dade County -- were awarded $8.3 million in grants Thursday to expand their practices and hire more physicians, nurses, dentists, psychologists and other providers in an effort to increase Americans' access to health care under the Affordable Care Act, federal officials announced (Chang, 11/7).

California Healthline: Seniors Seek Strategic Plan On Aging
The Assembly health committee of the Senior Legislature voted last week during its annual four-day meeting in Sacramento to push a bill to adopt a state strategic plan on aging. The state developed an aging plan in 2009, complete with 28 specific action-item recommendations, but the Legislature never codified it, according to Jim Levy, a senator in the Senior Legislature. … This time around, Levy said, the provision for state money will be withdrawn, and the $4,000 to implement the proposals will either come from federal funds or private donations (Gorn, 11/6).

The Lund Report: Oregon Health Authority Moves To Limit Coverage For Self-Monitoring Diabetics
For years most of the diabetes care community shared a simple mantra: when it comes to blood sugar levels, diabetics should test, test, test. It's not so simple anymore. Now the Health Evidence Review Commission, the body charged with reviewing costs for the Medicaid-funded Oregon Health Plan, wants to reduce the number of diabetes testing strips given to some diabetics from several per day to one per week (Bryan, 11/4).