California
Health Benefits Review Program
(CHBRP)
Center for Health and Public Policy Studies is involved in the California Health Benefits Review Program (CHBRP).
Established in 2002 to implement the provisions of Assembly Bill 1996 (California Health and Safety Code Section 127660 et seq.), CHBRP responds to requests from the State Legislature to provide independent analysis of the medical, financial, and public health impacts of proposed health insurance benefit mandates.
The grant is run by the University of California’s Office of the President, which works with a task force of faculty from several campuses of the University of California (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco), three private universities: Loma Linda University, University of Southern California, and Stanford University, as well as actuarial consultants.
A National Advisory Council, made up of experts from outside the state of California and designed to provide balanced representation among groups with an interest in health insurance benefit mandates, reviews draft studies to assure their quality before they are transmitted to the Legislature. Each report summarizes sound scientific evidence relevant to the proposed mandate but does not make recommendations, deferring policy decision-making to the Legislature. To find out more about the California Health Benefits Review Program click here.
In 2006, CHPPS carried out a project in collaboration with the Center for Health Improvement. Click on the link below to access the results of the study.
2006 Survey: What Consumers Want to Know About Their HMOs,
Policy Brief, September 2006
In 1997-1998, CHPPS in collaboration with the California Center for Health Improvement developed a survey brief based on the findings of the Governor's
Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force.
Click here to view the 1998 Survey Brief (PDF, 103 K)
Report for the Governor's Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force,
January 1998, Volume 1 (2.5 MB, PDF) can be found HERE.
Report for the Governor's Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force,
January 1998, Volume 2 (6.5 MB, PDF) can be found HERE.
Report for the Governor's Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force,
January 1998, Volume 3 (4.7 MB, PDF) can be found HERE.
The survey instrument
in MS Word format can be found
HERE.
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In 2002-2006, CHPPS was commissioned to update The Kaiser Family Foundation State Health Facts On-Line database with the most current data available. CHPPS is focusing on four sections of the existing database, which include: Health Status, Medicare, Health Costs and Budgets, and Providers and Service Use, as well as working with the Kaiser Family Foundation to develop indicators and measures for six new research areas: Mental Health, Nursing Homes/Home and Community Based Care, Prescription Drugs, Minority Health, Providers, and Women's Health.
Professor Helen A. Halpin, Ph.D.
Director of the Center for Health and Public Policy Studies,
has done some research on the 2004 Presidential Candidates' Positions on Health Care Issues.
Click here to download the document that outlines the Candidates' positions (Word, 160K).
The California Health Policy Roundtables, funded by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in 1999-2005, were education and discussion forums held in the State Capitol, Sacramento, for legislators, legislative staff, and key stakeholders. The Roundtables brought together state and national experts with representatives of diverse perspectives in California to explore health policy issues under consideration by the Legislature. The Roundtables provided a wealth of information to enhance the policy debate and an opportunity for the key parties to discuss the issues in an open forum.
Issue briefs of past Roundtables are available for download from the Publications page.
The
last Roundtable "The Future of Medi-Cal: Challenges at the Federal,
State, and County Level. Can We Preserve Access in an Era of Rising
Health Costs and Declining Revenues?" was held on
May 13, 2003 at the State Capitol.
Click here to find out more about the May 2003 Roundtable.
Click here to download the Issue Brief for May 2003 Roundtable.
In 2000-2004, CHPPS developed a chartbook comparing trends in California and the US on selected health care market indicators. This project was funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation and modeled after the foundation's previous chartbook on national health care market data published in August 1998 and entitled "Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Marketplace." The California health care market is evolving at a rapid pace, and many of the problems with the health care system are felt first and strongest here. The chartbook highlights the emerging trends in California's unique health care market and documents the similarities and differences between California and the US.
Download the Chartbook 2000 here (PDF, 628 K)
In August 2004, the chartbook was updated to reflect the newest trends in California's unique health care market and document the similarities and differences between California and the US.