Hear About Issues of Importance to Hospitals at Annual HASD&IC Meeting
HASD&IC’s Annual Meeting, which will be held virtually Nov. 15-18, is fast approaching. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to register now.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: On Oct. 19, the Board of Supervisors passed a motion to increase shelters and safe parking lots with wrap-around services for those experiencing homelessness in the East County. The board took the following actions:
MANAGED CARE PLAN RFP UPDATE: The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) has adjusted the release date of the Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan Request for Proposal (RFP) to Feb. 2, 2022. Although the RFP was scheduled to be released at the end of this year, the change will not affect the implementation date of Jan. 1, 2024. Additional time is needed to address stakeholder comments received during the comment period for the draft RFP. Updates to the RFP schedule will be posted on the DHCS website. HASD&IC will continue to engage with County of San Diego officials on the process. The Imperial County Board of Supervisors has approved the adoption of a single-managed care plan model through an 1115 Waiver.
SDHDC COVID-19 AFTER ACTION REPORT: The San Diego Healthcare Disaster Coalition (SDHDC), in coordination with Constant Associates, a health care preparedness consulting firm, is creating COVID-19 After Action Report (AAR) templates for hospitals and other health care facilities on their responses to date. The idea is to help the SDHDC facilities and partners collect lessons learned, identify facility-specific and coalition-wide key strengths and areas for improvement, and complete their own facility-specific AAR.
CHA REQUEST FOR WORKFORCE RELIEF: CHA has sent letters to the Health and Human Services Secretary and California’s Attorney General. The letter to Dr. Mark Ghaly asks for direct and immediate relief from the California Department of Public Health to mitigate the workforce challenges you’re facing during this surge. The letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta asks that his office use its resources and expertise to promptly investigate concerns around skyrocketing prices charged by staffing agencies and act accordingly on their findings. In addition, CHA is sharing these FAQs for hospitals that cannot meet the state’s nurse-to-patient staffing ratio requirements.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: HASD&IC President & CEO Dimitrios Alexiou joined health care leaders from UCSD, Scripps Health, and Sharp HealthCare at the Aug. 31 meeting to provide testimony (starts at 3:22) in support of the proposal to declare health misinformation a public health crisis. After more than 15 hours of debate and more than 250 public speakers who spoke in opposition, the board voted 3-2 to approve the measure. Board Chair Nathan Fletcher said the action makes San Diego County the first in the nation to call medical misinformation a public health crisis. This meeting came on the heels of the Aug. 17 Board of Supervisors meeting in which the board was met with public outcry when hundreds protested the COVID-19 guidelines released by the county and health officials. More than 100 speakers addressed the supervisors during public comment to express their opposition to recommendations that call for people to wear masks indoors and for businesses to require employee vaccinations or regular COVID-19 testing.