January 2022
Important health care bills being tracked by CAFP (no CAFP position has been taken):
- AB 1400 (Kalra) Guaranteed Health Care for All (universal single-payer);
- ACA 11 (Kalra) Taxes to fund single-payer health care coverage and cost control, by an excise tax, payroll taxes, and a State Personal Income CalCare Tax at specified rates. (This is a proposed constitutional amendment requiring 2/3 vote in both houses and submission to voter approval.)
- AB 1636 (Weber) (CMA-sponsored): Reforms physician licensing for registered sex offenders (related to recent news coverage).
- HR 78 (Bauer-Kahan) and SR 63 (Skinner): Resolution urging the President & Congress to support abortion rights and access to comprehensive reproductive health care.
20% of Governor Newsom’s proposed 2022-23 budget is health-related, including:
- COVID-19 testing, vaccination, frontline workers, and correcting misinformation;
- Insulin affordability;
- Medi-Cal expansion to all income-eligible adults aged 26-49;
- Reproductive Health;
- Adding HPV vaccine as a covered benefit;
- Prevention and treatment of depression;
- Support for the Substance Use Disorder (SUD) workforce;
- Distribution of naloxone to homeless-service providers;
- Medi-Cal provider training for Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) screenings;
- Mobile Medi-Cal response services for mental health and substance use crises;
- Medi-Cal payment reform.
CAFP is working with Governor Newsom on more permanent non-general-fund support to financially sustain the Song Brown Program for primary care residency programs.
CAFP’s 2022 All Member Advocacy Meeting (AMAM) and Lobby Day will be March 12-14 in Sacramento. Resolutions from CAFP members help to guide CAFP’s policy-making process. (Information & Registration at https://www.familydocs.org/events/amam/.)
The Congress passed the bipartisan Protecting Medicare and American Farmers From Sequester Cuts Act (S 610), postponing 8.7% January Medicare payment cuts. CMS’s 2022 Medicare fee schedule conversion factor per RVU is $34.6062, slightly less than the 2021 conversion factor, but with other changes, family physicians will see no change in allowed charges in the first quarter of 2022. CMS is starting to correct the payment distortions between primary and specialty care based on outdated “wage data”.
AAFP’s advocacy for value-based health care models continues with Health Care Value Week Jan 24-28, hosted by health industry stakeholders on advancing value-based care.MICRA repeal will be on the November ballot, promoted by trial attorneys.
