North Bay Business Journal

SACRAMENTO — Covered California, the state’s online health exchange established under the Affordable Care Act, today announced that 13 commercial health plans will take part in its individual marketplace, while introducing premiums that vary from region to region.

SANTA ROSA — Some 640 union nurses at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital said they would go on strike for a fourth time in less than a year, as the St. Joseph Health-owned hospital and the local union continue tense negotiations over unresolved labor issues.

The Staff Nurses’ Association, an independent union based in Santa Rosa, issued a statement saying the strike, planned for Thursday, May 23 at 5 a.m. and ending May 25 at 5a.m., is in response to “onerous, sub-market proposals” from Memorial. The union has been in negotiations with the 278-bed hospital since last August.

PETALUMA — The American arm of Danish ambulance giant Falck, one of the largest ambulance companies in the world, has acquired Petaluma-based Verihealth Inc., an ambulance and medical transport company founded in 2000.

A Sonoma County-based nonprofit and several others with ties in the North Bay are among 48 organizations across the state to share in $37 million in outreach and education grants from Covered California, the state’s online health exchange developed under health care reform.

Petaluma-based Redwood Community Health Coalition received $830,000. Catholic Charities of California, which has a presence in Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties, received $859,000. California Rural Indian Health Board, which has a presence in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, was given $300,000. The California NAACP, which has locations in Sonoma and Solono counties, received $600,000 and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Solano County received $100,00.

NOVATO — The Marin Community Foundation today said it will distribute to local health clinics $2 million in new grants from the Sutter Health Access to Care Fund.

CLOVERDALE — Alexander Valley Regional Medical Center recently filed for designation as a federally qualified health center, a move that, if approved, would allow Sonoma County’s only certified rural health clinic to receive significantly better reimbursement rates and more operating revenue.

As the Affordable Care Act looms large on the minds of health care providers, lawmakers and providers are increasingly calling for less stringent limitations on non-physicians in order to meet demand spurred by the forthcoming influx of new patients.

Employers large and small are bracing for the full implementation of health care reform, but smaller businesses with at least 50 employees are especially anxious when it comes to a key question: do they provide benefits for full-time workers or pay a fine for each full-time worker not covered?
The employment sector could stand to benefit, particularly staffing agencies already adept at providing leaner workforces for employers in a number of industries, employment experts said.

Health plans and providers in the North Bay overall received high marks in a state survey from the state Office of the Patient Advocate.

GREENBRAE — Marin General hospital, the county’s largest provider of acute-care services, has undergone rapid change in the past three years, having shifted away from Sutter Health to an independent district. But perhaps its biggest and most important challenge still lay ahead, as the 235-bed facility seeks to entirely rebuild itself in order to meet state compliance with seismic safety measures.

SONOMA — California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, in Sonoma for a speaking engagement, continued to apply public pressure on Blue Shield of California and other large insurers for recent rate hikes, saying the increases will negatively impact individuals and small businesses disproportionally and that the increases aren’t in tune with national medical inflation rates.

Kaiser Permanente has earned accreditation for its Santa Rosa Medical Center Family Residency Program, which was developed to attract and retain more physicians to the region in lieu of national shortages.

SANTA ROSA — Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Advanced Surgery Institute, LLC, entered a joint venture on operations of a central Santa Rosa ambulatory surgery center, where 19 local surgeons from a wide range of medical specialties have performed outpatient procedures since its opening in 2010, it was announced today.

SANTA ROSA — Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Advanced Surgery Institute, LLC, have entered into a joint venture on operations of a central Santa Rosa ambulatory surgery center, giving Memorial further reach beyond hospital walls as health care providers seek to expand outpatient services.

NOVATO — Novato Community Hospital today announced it is one of seven California providers to partner with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid on bundled payments, an initiative under the Affordable Care Act that seeks to lower health care costs while improving quality.

In its first month since getting state approval for expansion last fall, Sacramento-based HMO Western Health Advantage said it has enrolled some 750 persons into new employer health plans across Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties.

NOVATO — The Meritage Medical Network today was approved as an accountable care organization under a Medicare initiative stemming from the new health care law.

With full implementation of the health care law on everyone’s mind, from providers to insurers to employers, federally qualified health centers have long been viewed as a critical piece of expanding access, many of them anticipating an influx of new patients and thus an increase in services.

But while the Affordable Care Act will add significant funding for the nonprofit health sector, such health centers are rapidly evolving on their own, in part to address changes in health care but also in response to increasing demand, according to North Bay health center executives.

PETALUMA — Redwood Community Health Coalition recently took part in a pilot project testing a mobile health application that enrolls patients in public assistance programs, a potentially pivotal development for the public health sector. The accelerating convergence of mobile technology and health care will likely open new avenues of access to underserved populations, which could in turn help states with implementing key pieces of health care reform, officials said.

Narrow networks are coming to the North Bay.

Blue Shield of California will launch its SaveNet HMO in Marin and Sonoma counties in 2013, forming a narrow network around Novato-based Meritage Medical Network and Sonoma County Primary Care.