• The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell announced on Dec. 16 that California will receive up to $3,000,000 to design health care payment and service delivery models that will improve health care quality and lower costs, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More than $655 million in Affordable Care Act funding will be distributed to 28 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia. The funding is dedicated to design and test health care payment and service delivery models that will improve health care quality and lower costs. “We are committed to partnering with California to advance the goals we all share: better care, smarter spending, and, ultimately, healthier people,” Burwell said in the release. “We’re seeing states do some very innovative things when it comes to improving the ways we deliver care, pay providers, and distribute information. These funds will support states in integrating and coordinating the many elements of health care—including Medicaid, Medicare, Public health, and private health care delivery systems—to the benefit of patients, businesses, and taxpayers alike.” The funds will be supporting initiatives such as improving primary care, providing technical assistance and data to health care providers, and strengthening the health care workforce through educational programs and training. For more information about the awards, please visit http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/State-Innovations.
• Following a hearing in San Francisco, Leonda Kruger—a 38-year-old Los Angeles native—was unanimously confirmed to the California Supreme Court on Dec. 22, becoming the first African-American justice to serve on the bench in almost a decade, the Sacramento Bee reported. Kruger’s nomination is the third of Gov. Jerry Brown’s first term, and it drew some objections because of her longtime residence out of the state and a lack of prior experience on the bench. But the three-member confirmation panel praised Kruger, an attorney with the Obama administration, for her intelligence and professional accomplishments, according to the Bee. “Over the course of my career, I’ve had the great good fortune to have a series of jobs that’s given me exposure to a wide variety of subject matters,” Kruger told the Bee. “Coming to this court, I would be coming to serve with a group of individuals who collectively have an enormous wealth of experience trying and adjudicating cases under California law.” Kruger is replacing Associate Justice Joyce Kennard, who retired earlier this year.
This article appears in Jan 1-8, 2015.
