District Hospital Leadership Forum

would increase health costs by $6 billion and lead to reduced services or even shut down vital health care services altogether. As CA emerges from the pandemic, we should invest in our health care safety net, not increase costs that will decimate services.

Today, Sherreta Lane, Senior Vice President Finance Policy testified before a joint hearing of the Assembly Health Committee & Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 providing comments on behalf of the District Hospital Leadership Forum regarding the expansion of QIP.

District hospitals want to thank Dr. Wood and Dr. Arambula for the invitation to present. Our members look forward to continuing to serve their diverse communities via this program.

The District Hospital Leadership Forum would like to congratulate Jacey Cooper as the new State Medical Director and Chief Deputy Director for Health Care Programs at the Department of Health Care Services. We look forward to working in collaboration with you.

The newly elected California legislature was sworn into office yesterday, Monday, December 7th. The 80 members of the Assembly took their oath at the Golden One Arena in Sacramento, to allow for social distancing measures while the Senators were sworn in on the Senate floor at the Capitol.

Both Senator Toni Atkins and Assemblymember Anthony Rendon were re-elected to lead each house. In separate interviews, they outlined their priorities.

Speaker Anthony Rendon
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Advancing environmental justice in “all communities”
• Increasing economic equality
• Expanding internet access to more Californians

Pro-Tem Senator Toni Atkins
• COVID-related economic relief/recovery
• Housing, production, eviction, prevention, affordability
• Expanding broadband
• Wildfire and emergency preparedness

On the first day of office, members are allowed to introduce bills, and approximately 164 bills were introduced in addition to other measures (ACA, ACR, SCA & HR’s – HR 4 declares January 2021 Positive Parenting Awareness Month).

Common subject matters of bills include:
• COVID relief
• Peace Officers
• Broadband
• Medi-Cal
• Employment Development Department
• Environment
• Education
• Housing

Some bills on Medi-Cal expansion and pandemic best practices at facilities (SNFs) and we expect to see a bill introduced regarding single-payers.

In addition, there are always a few outlier bills, see the link below for more information.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/advance/advance.xhtml

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For the past three days, the PRIME annual education program has convened via zoom.

This morning, awards were presented that I wanted to share:

The Resilience Award (recognizes DMPH PRIME entities that met at least 90% of their targets at DY 15 year-end):

Mammoth Hospital
Washington Hospital

The PRIME 5-year Achieve Award (PRIME entities that earned the highest percentage of their own allocated funds over the 5-year program):

San Bernardino Mountains Community Hospital

The PRIME TLC (learning collaborative) MVP Awards (for commitment to learning collaborative activities):

Leigh Burns, Marin Health
Kristen Rees, Jerrold Phelps
Sabrina Valade, Washington Hospital
Nikki Wegener, El Centro

Congratulations to the award winners and all DMPHs for the excellent work being done in this program. 👏👏👏

California has implemented Medi-Nurse to assist Californians identify resources related to COVID-19 and/or in applying for Medi-Cal or other programs.

Uninsured? Think you might have COVID-19? Need medical advice? Medi-Nurse is available at 1-877-409-9052.

We recently learned the sad news of the death of C. Duane Dauner as a result of an automobile accident. DHLF staff, Steve Clark and Sherreta Lane and our state legislative advocate, Connie Delgado, all worked directly for Duane during our respective tenures with the California Hospital Association and his leadership, as you know, was beyond compare. He challenged us, taught us and guided us and I know I speak on behalf of the others in saying that we all truly enjoyed every minute we worked for him and use the lessons learned from him every day. And as you know, his support was absolutely instrumental in the early days of the formation of the DHLF.

I know you are as sad as we are, but he was a tremendous advocate for all hospitals and his legacy will be remembered forever. We will miss you, Duane; rest in peace.