Featured Stories

STOCKTON – In the seven-plus years since California voters approved the Mental Health Services Act – 2004’s Proposition 63 - San Joaquin County officials have been working with private providers and other public agencies to integrate the act into core mental health services to improve lives.

That effort has paid off big time, according to the 2010-11 Mental Health Services Summary report presented Tuesday [May 8, 2012] to the Board of Supervisors by Behavioral Health Services Director Vic Singh and private consultant Kayce Rane.

WASHINGTON — The government has identified hundreds of hospitals whose Medicare patients are incurring especially high bills, a first step toward using bonuses and penalties to encourage more efficient health care nationwide.

The new Medicare figures show wide variance among hospitals around the country, even ones just a few miles apart. In southern Kansas City, Mo., for example, the average patient admitted to St.

A new report released Tuesday [May 8, 2012] has found a jump in unmet medical needs among American adults over the last decade, especially for those who lack health insurance.

In a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study, researchers at the Urban Institute looked at three health access indicators for adults too young for Medicare. They examined if they had a routine check up or dental visit during the year and also if  they had unmet medical needs because of cost. In nearly every state, researchers found a drop in access to health services between 2000 and 2010.

Hugo Campos doesn’t view himself as a difficult patient. But he senses his doctors’ exasperation with him because of his insistence he be given all the medical information they have about him.

“I want to be empowered, I want to be in charge, I want to know what’s going on,” said the Oakland resident, 45, who has repeatedly asked for the raw data from the defibrillator implanted in his chest to regulate his heart.

Gov. Jerry Brown ordered Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley this week to form a task force to write a 10-year plan for improving Californians’ health and controlling health-care costs.

In an executive order Thursday [May 3, 2012], Brown called for a “Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force” to include representatives of patients, providers and labor unions, among others. The group is to report by Dec. 15 on targets for reducing diabetes, asthma, childhood obesity and other chronic conditions, as well as reducing hospital re-admissions and increasing the number of children who receive vaccines.

The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries, a new Commonwealth Fund study finds – but that doesn’t mean this country’s care is any better.

The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person for health care services in 2009, the study found, confirming that “health care spending in the U.S. dwarfs that found in any other industrialized country.”

Three community health centers in the central San Joaquin Valley have received $10.3 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to build new centers and expand an old one.

Family Healthcare Network in Visalia received $5 million, Darin M. Camarena Health Centers was awarded $4.8 million and United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley received $500,000.

The Valley’s grants are part of more than $122 million in government funding given to California health centers to increase their capacity to serve new patients.

Grants from the Affordable Care Act will help build and expand health centers, create jobs, and expand access to an additional 860,000 patients nationwide

Today, May 1, 2012, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced $122,254,949 in grants awarded to community health centers in California due to the new health care law – the Affordable Care Act.  Grantees estimate these awards will help them serve approximately 166,504 new patients. A full list of California grantees can be found below.

“President Obama’s health care law is making community health centers in California stronger,” said Secretary Sebelius. “For many Americans, community health centers are the major source of care that ranges from prevention to treatment of chronic diseases. This investment will expand our ability to provide high-quality care to millions of people while supporting good paying jobs in communities across the country.”

Roughly three million poor and disabled Californians had their coverage for dental services cut three years ago, and community dental clinics have struggled to cover preventative services ever since.

“It was not something we wanted to do,” says Robert Isman, a consultant with the Dental Program for California Department of Health Services. “We knew that there would be repercussions and there have been.