QUINCY, Calif. — When Taletha Washburn and the staff at Plumas Charter School first heard that California wanted to help schools treat more kids struggling with mental health, it felt like a well-timed remedy for a rural community where families struggle to find care.
Getting the program funding up and running, however, has proved difficult.
Employees spent two years “spinning our wheels,” attending state-led webinars, filling out countless forms, and researching electronic health record systems to prepare, said Washburn, the school’s executive director. When they reached out for assistance, she said, they waited months for a state response.
The school received its first reimbursement check in April. Washburn said the school has been reimbursed $8,000 and has at least $12,000 in outstanding claims. For a program Washburn had thought could be a game changer in her small rural town, it’s been a disappointing bust.
Plumas Charter is among roughly 1,000 public schools, community colleges, and universities that participate in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first-in-the-nation initiative requiring that health insurance companies reimburse them for on-campus behavioral healthcare. California schools have been adding counselors, therapists, and psychiatrists to provide services where young people spend most of their time, making mental health treatment more accessible to kids whose families might have spent months waiting to see private therapists.
Five years after the program’s launch, Washburn and other California school officials say they have encountered a rollout fraught with inadequate guidance from the state, an incomplete billing infrastructure, a lack of standardized forms, and persistent delays signing up and getting paid. More than half of California’s school systems and colleges don’t participate in the billing program. Of those that do, fewer than one-fifth had filed claims as of June 1, according to the latest state data. Read the full story.
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With the start of the new fiscal year in California on Wednesday, dozens of laws take effect, including a zoning overhaul to boost denser housing development near transit, requirements for an all-gender bathroom in every school and streamlined rules for food labeling. (Bloom, 7/1)
A new California law gives more flexibility to keep defendants in jail rather than releasing them to community-based mental health treatment programs. (Duara, 6/29)
The court did not bar California and 22 other states from allowing transgender athletes to take part in their chosen sports programs, as their laws provide. (Egelko, 6/30)
“Blue states with boys on girls’ podiums … you’re next,” Kristen Waggoner, the president of the Alliance Defending Freedom, posted on social media soon after the court ruled on Tuesday. (Harmon, 6/30)
Kaiser Permanente must pay millions to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center over the years of underpayments for out-of-network emergency medical care, according to a Tuesday final judgment ending a battle of appeals between the two. (Muoio, 6/24)
The case involving $5.5 million in alleged fraudulent Medicare reimbursements was part of a nationwide crackdown on health care fraud that federal authorities announced Tuesday. (Riggins, 6/23)
The first human case of West Nile virus in Long Beach and current mosquito-carrying activity in the San Gabriel Valley has been reported this month. (Garcia, 6/30)
The weeklong Lineage warehouse fire coincided with a surge in hospital visits from Angelenos concerned about throat pain and breathing problems, The Times has learned. (Smith, 6/30)
A ex-employee accused berry company Driscoll's of retaliation after he disclosed the company was selling fruit that potentially violated the law. (Huey, 6/26)
California may ban single-use vapes, or e-cigarettes, over concerns about the disposal of lithium batteries. They've caused fires at recycling centers. (La, 6/26)
Two government agencies, the National Institutes of Health and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, have awarded grants totaling $16 million. (Sisson, 6/23)
“I think that innovation is still really in the domain of human beings right now,” Jennifer Doudna, said. “I’m not seeing chatbots coming up with a brand new idea.” (Inampudi and Chang, 6/24)
Gov. Newsom and California lawmakers agree to $900 million for local homeless services in the new budget, reversing last year's funding freeze. (Stringer, 6/29)
The embattled Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority sued the Trump administration on Monday to stop it from depriving the region of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, saying the effort is unwarranted and violates federal laws. (Sahniser, 6/29)
Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers approved a $351.7 billion state budget Monday — the last one Newsom will sign as governor — that increases some business and health care taxes and bolsters the state’s reserve funds. (Bollag, 6/29)
Several teens overdosed in an L.A. County juvenile hall last year after a teen passed around a water jug spiked with drugs, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit. (Queally, 6/30)
Daveigh Chase, an actress known for voicing the character of Lilo in the hit animated film “Lilo & Stitch,” died in Los Angeles this month of AIDS, the county’s Department of Medical Examiner said on Monday. (Stevens, 6/29)
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