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Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California Assembly Advances Bill to Expose Patients to Doctor Substance Abuse, Says Consumer Watchdog
SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A bill that will put patients at risk from doctors who continue practicing while abusing drugs or alcohol passed off the floor of the California State Assembly yesterday and moves on to the Senate. AB 408 by Assemblymember Berman and sponsored by the Medical Board of California, would create a secret drug and alcohol "diversion program" where the Board would send doctors who have substance abuse problems, instead of taking disciplinary action. AB 408 does not require disclosure to Medical Board enforcement staff, or consequences, for a doctor in the program that fails a drug test, skips a drug test, or otherwise violates the program. This silence about relapse by doctors who are actively treating patients is not limited to doctors who choose treatment voluntarily, as proponents claim. It applies to doctors sent to the program by the Board who would otherwise have faced discipline, including those found using substances at work, said Consumer Watchdog. "With AB 408 Assemblymembers and the Medical Board prioritize doctors' interests over keeping their patients safe. The bill would eliminate the Medical Board's responsibility to investigate and act if it refers a doctor to treatment and that doctor fails a drug test. That means patients will be harmed by doctors who relapse, just as they were in the last program that was shut down for putting patients at risk," said Consumer Watchdog executive director Carmen Balber. The Medical Board's prior diversion program was abolished after failing five state audits because doctors who entered the program could relapse with no consequences and patients were harmed. To prevent this from happening again, the Legislature passed oversight rules called the "Uniform Standards" and applied them to doctors in diversion programs. AB 408 exempts doctors from the law, eliminating oversight and accountability from the program. Consumer Watchdog has urged preserving those patient protections. Tina Minasian, an advocate for patient rights in California, suffers lifelong injuries inflicted by a substance-abusing surgeon who was a participant in the former confidential physician diversion program. She played a pivotal role in advocating for the closure of the prior failed Diversion Program, and enacting the Uniform Standards so any future program would better protect patients. "I can't believe that eighteen years later I have to take on this fight again on behalf of all Californians," stated Minasian. "We gained too many protections in the past fifteen years to give them up. I lost everything when I was harmed and cannot allow another Californian to endure what I did." The bill would allow doctors to seek treatment to avoid discipline even if they were impaired on the job. For example: A San Francisco doctor suspected of stealing drugs from her hospital was recently arrested after she was found passed out in an operating room shortly after she was scheduled to participate in a toddler's surgery. Under AB 408 the Board could send that doctor into diversion instead of the disciplinary investigation, treatment oversight and consequences for relapse that are all mandatory under current law. The bill does not require reporting of a positive drug test to the Board, so the doctor could continue treating patients while keeping diversion program violations secret and place patients in harm's way. Read Consumer Watchdog's opposition letters on AB 408 here and here. The History of the Medical Board and Physician Diversion The former confidential physician diversion program was subjected to a critical sunset review in 2007 after five failed audits by the state and a critical report from an Enforcement Monitor revealed significant failures in drug testing and oversight. In response, patients stepped forward to share their harrowing stories of harm and loss due to the negligence of doctors in the program. The Medical Board of California recognized the severity of these revelations and terminated the program in 2008. That same year, a pivotal hearing on the diversion program was convened at the state Capitol. The chair of the joint committee announced SB 1441, legislation designed to establish Uniform Standards for Substance-Abusing Health Care Professionals in California. Passed into law in 2008, SB 1441 was a vital step toward rectifying the failures of the previous diversion program. It empowered the Medical Board with essential tools to monitor substance-abusing licensees and enforce meaningful consequences for offending physicians, prioritizing the protection of patients and fostering a culture of accountability among healthcare providers. In 2016, SB 1177 was enacted, which allowed the Medical Board of California to recreate a new physician diversion program that adhered to the Uniform Standards. AB 408 discards those consumer protections and reconfigures any future program in the image of the failed diversion program. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Consumer Watchdog Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
California Approves 17 Percent Rate Increase for State Farm
State Farm will be allowed to temporarily charge an extra 17 percent for homeowners' insurance policies in California, after the state gave the company permission, in the wake of the catastrophic fires. The insurer will be allowed to charge the higher rate at least until a hearing later this year, the state announced on Tuesday. The insurance giant already received a 20 percent rate increase last year, a move that a consumer watchdog group, as well as homeowners struggling to be paid after their homes were destroyed in January in the Los Angeles fires, criticized as unfair and unfounded. State Farm requested the emergency rate increase in February, the month after fires ripped through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods of Los Angeles, razing over 16,000 homes and structures. The company — which insures one out of every five homes in California or roughly 1 million homeowner customers — had requested even more: a nearly 22 percent rate increase on homeowners' policies, citing a 'dire situation.' California, like other states hit by natural disasters, has faced threats from major insurers: Raise rates, or we leave the state, said Carmen Balber, the executive director of Consumer Watchdog, which led the effort to oppose the rate increase in hearings this spring. 'The commissioner has shown a tendency to roll over in the face of insurer threats to leave,' Ms. Balber said. The increase 'adds insult to injury' at a time when many homeowners insured by State Farm have reported delays or attempts by State Farm to lowball claims following the fires earlier this year, she added. In a statement, Ricardo Lara, the state's insurance commissioner, presented the rate increase as a difficult compromise for consumers. 'Let me be clear: We are in a statewide insurance crisis affecting millions of Californians,' he said. 'Taking this on requires tough decisions.' An administrative judge inside the California Department of Insurance approved the interim rate increase, following a hearing in April in which lawyers for Consumer Watchdog repeatedly asked State Farm to open its books and show why it needed such a large infusion of cash. According to Ms. Balber, the insurer refused to provide paperwork corroborating the insurer's dire financial straits. Meanwhile, the consumer group's own actuaries prepared a simulation of the State Farm General Insurance Company's earnings from premiums and projected losses from recent wildfires. The actuaries concluded both that State Farm had exaggerated the financial strain and that the rate increase was not justified, Ms. Balber said. The interim rates go into effect on June 1. There is a chance that the rates can be challenged again at a hearing this fall, when the question of whether or not State Farm's California offshoot is financially healthy will be addressed, Ms. Balber said. According to California's insurance commissioner, this later hearing will be when State Farm will be required 'to justify its financial condition and detail its recovery plan.' The administrative law judge found that State Farm 'is experiencing extraordinary financial distress, coupled with surplus depletion that threatens ongoing business operations,' according to Mr. Lara's statement. In a statement published on its website, State Farm said that the insurer remains 'deeply concerned about the financial position of State Farm General' — the insurer's California subsidiary — 'as it is difficult to match price to risk in California.' The statement further pointed to the S&P Global Rating's decision on Tuesday to downgrade the California State Farm subsidiary from an 'AA' to an 'A+' rating, a move attributed in part to 'a significant deterioration' in the company's capital position over the last five years. During the recent hearing in California and in the process that ensued, State Farm was forced to make some concessions — lowering the rate hike to 17 percent, from nearly 22 percent, as well as requiring State Farm's parent company to provide an infusion of $400 million in cash to its California affiliate. For years, advocates for policyholders have argued that the way in which insurers have organized themselves — with major national companies like State Farm having both a national company and a California subsidiary — protects the insurer but not the customer. The higher rate comes after survivors of the Eaton fire in the working-class community of Altadena organized, first on a WhatsApp group dedicated to pickleball and later on Discord, a platform better known for gaming. There they found each other and collected hundreds of firsthand accounts of homeowners insured with State Farm in California, who were struggling to get paid even when their homes had been leveled, said Joy Chen, a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles and the leader of the group, now known as the Eaton Fire Survivors Network. 'The ability to approve rate hikes is one of the few enforcement powers that the commissioner has,' she said. 'When you approve a rate hike without even examining whether a company is actually providing the service that they're being paid to provide, then it green lights systemic abuse,' she added. 'And it sends a message to every Californian who pays insurance premiums that you can pay, decade after decade, but if disaster strikes, your insurer may not be there — and your government may turn a blind eye.' In an emailed statement in response to questions regarding the claims of California wildfire victims who say they have been unfairly denied or lowballed by State Farm, a spokesman for the insurer added that the company was facing the largest fire event ever recorded in California. 'We actively work with each of our customers to resolve their claim,' the spokesman, Sevag A. Sarkissian, wrote. If State Farm's rate increase stands, other insurers are likely to follow suit.
Malaysian Reserve
23-04-2025
- Health
- Malaysian Reserve
Assembly Committee Votes to Expose Patients to Doctor Substance Abuse; Advances Bill to Overturn Law Requiring Medical Board Act When Doctors Fail Drug Test, Says Consumer Watchdog
SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — AB 408 by Assemblymember Berman to create a secret Medical Board program that will place patients at risk of harm at the hands of doctors abusing drugs or alcohol passed out of the Assembly Business & Professions Committee yesterday. The bill, AB 408 (Berman), would recreate a failed Medical Board 'diversion' program that allowed doctors under investigation by the Board because of substance abuse to evade discipline by entering the program. That program was shut down for putting patients at risk after failing five state audits and two reports by a Legislatively-appointed Enforcement Monitor. Consumer Watchdog testified in opposition to the bill in Sacramento on Tuesday. 'The bill would eliminate a basic patient safety responsibility of the Medical Board: that the Board investigate and act if it refers a doctor to treatment and that doctor fails a drug test,' testified Consumer Watchdog executive director Carmen Balber at the Tuesday hearing. The Legislature and the Board addressed the failures of the past diversion program by shutting that program down, and putting in place standards for monitoring doctors in diversion, a report to Medical Board enforcement staff, and consequences if a doctor referred to a diversion program fails a drug test or other program requirements. AB 408 does away with those protections. 'While keeping a failed drug test secret may be good for the doctor, it isn't good for patients being treated by that doctor,' said Balber. 'This isn't about doctors who voluntarily seek treatment; it would keep information secret about doctors who are already a clear and present danger to patients. If the board knows of a doctor's substance abuse, sends them to treatment, and then they fail a drug test, that fact can't be kept secret from the Board.' Read Consumer Watchdog's letter of opposition to AB 408. Tina Minasian, an advocate for patient rights in California, suffers lifelong injuries inflicted by a substance-abusing surgeon who was a participant in the former confidential physician diversion program. Tina, along with other harmed patients, played a pivotal role in advocating for the closure of the prior failed Diversion Program. 'I can't believe that eighteen years later I have to take on this fight again on behalf of all Californians,' stated Minasian. 'We gained too many protections in the past fifteen years to give them up. I lost everything when I was harmed and cannot allow another Californian to endure what I did.' The History of the Medical Board and Physician Diversion The former confidential physician diversion program was subjected to a critical sunset review in 2007 after five failed audits by the state and a critical report from an Enforcement Monitor revealed significant failures in drug testing and oversight. In response, patients bravely stepped forward to share their harrowing stories of harm and loss due to the negligence of substance-abusing physicians. The Medical Board of California recognized the severity of these revelations and terminated the program in 2008. That same year, a pivotal hearing on the diversion program was convened at the state Capitol. Following, the chair of the joint committee announced the authorship of SB 1441, legislation designed to establish Uniform Standards for Substance-Abusing Health Care Professionals in California. Passed into law in 2008, SB 1441 was a vital step toward rectifying the failures of the previous diversion program. It empowered the Medical Board with essential tools to monitor substance-abusing licensees and enforce meaningful consequences for offending physicians, prioritizing the protection of patients and fostering a culture of accountability among healthcare providers. In 2016, SB 1177 was enacted, which allowed the Medical Board of California to recreate a new physician diversion program that adhered to the Uniform Standards. AB 408 discards those consumer protections and reconfigures any future program in the image of the failed diversion program.
USA Today
12-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Critical California insurer calls for $1 billion infusion to cover LA wildfire claims
Recovery efforts in Southern California are underway after deadly wildfires last month. But the state's last-resort property insurance provider needs a $1 billion infusion from private insurance companies to help pay millions in claims after the devastating blazes, officials said this week. The California Department of Insurance said Tuesday they will allow the FAIR Plan, designed for Californians who can't get coverage on the private market, to collect $1 billion from private insurers doing business in California to help pay victims. The request comes more than a month after the now-contained Eaton and Palisades wildfires killed at least 29 people, burned more than 37,000 acres and destroyed nearly 17,000 structures. As the blazes remain under investigation, they are the second and third most destructive wildfires in California history, according to Cal Fire. The FAIR Plan has already paid more than $700 million to policyholders. About 5,000 claims have been made from those two fires alone, state officials reported last week. "Wildfire survivors can't cash 'what ifs' to pay for food and rent, but they can cash FAIR Plan checks," California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a statement. Still, experts have warned any wildfire-related assessments would likely drive up insurance costs for home and property owners across California, with insurers likely opting to either drop policies or decline new ones. And the call for $1 billion in additional funds has critics in the state. Advocacy group Consumer Watchdog is contemplating filing a lawsuit alleging consumers in California may ultimately have to cover the additional funding for the FAIR Plan. Consumer Watchdog's Executive Director Carmen Balber described Lara's request as a "bailout." "The FAIR Plan is in trouble because insurance companies dumped too many homeowners. That's why insurers are on the hook for FAIR Plan losses," Balber said in a statement, arguing private companies shouldn't meet payments for the plan by charging California residents more. How does this California plan work? What's its role in the LA area wildfires? The FAIR Plan, a not-for-profit catastrophe insurer, consists of a pool of companies required by law to provide insurance to property owners who can't find affordable, private rates. The FAIR Plan typically has higher premiums and limited coverage. It's user base has spiked in recent years, with FAIR now reporting more than 451,000 policies, about double the total in 2020, according to the insurer's website. And, the value of properties insured by the FAIR Plan also totaled more than $458 billion as of September, up from $153 billion in 2020, FAIR's site said. Almost $6 billion worth of property is in Pacific Palisades, where the Palisades fire ripped through. 'What America should look like':Loss in the Altadena fires, and a hard road to recovery While touring the massive damage from last month's wildfires, California Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters, "My dad's house is under the FAIR Plan, the state's plan. Very expensive and it's not great coverage." The latest ask also likely won't be the only funding request for the important plan, said Char Miller, an environmental analysis professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. "I think the additional $1 billion in funds is the first of many of such needs and it testifies to the extraordinary powers of these fires to consume land and budgets," Miller said. "The FAIR Plan estimates losses of $4 billion and I think that's too low as the costs will definitely continue to expand over the next two years or so." Miller added while the $1 billion in proposed money focuses on property damage due to wildfires, the region will still have to contend with possible mudslides with rain expected later this week. Any damage could lead to victims facing additional losses and filing more insurance claims, Miller said. The latest call is also the first time the Fair Plan has sought approval for additional funds in more than three decades, Lara said. The last time was after the Kinneloa Fire in Altadena and the Old Topanga Fire in Malibu and Topanga in 1993. The additional funds approved then are equivalent to $563 million today, the state said. The insurance commissioner added some of those same areas were also affected by this year's wildfires. "The fact that we are once again facing this issue 30 years after wildfires devastated these same communities highlights the need for change," said Lara, who is again pushing state legislation for the FAIR Plan to access credit lines and catastrophe bonds to help pay claims in worst-case scenarios. "Thirty years of stagnant regulations have placed more people at risk," Lara said. "I urge the Legislature to act quickly and send it to the Governor's desk."
