State Highlights: Support For Calif. Rate Regulation Grows; Minn. Employee Wellness Lawsuit

Los Angeles Times: Hoover Poll Shows Support For Health Insurance Rate Regulation
Proposition 45, a ballot measure that would regulate health insurance rates, is ahead, according to a new Internet poll by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The survey of self-reported, registered voters who said they planned to vote in the Nov. 4 election, had Proposition 45 leading with 41.6% of those queried and opposed by 29.9%. Undecideds were 28.5%. The poll was taken between Oct. 3 and Oct. 17 and had a margin of error of 3.65%. (Lifsher, 10/28)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Government Sues Honeywell Over Employee Wellness Program
A lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to complaints from two Minnesota employees sets up a potential court case over how far employers can go to shift health costs and influence worker behavior. (Depass, 10/28)

Topeka Capital-Journal: Former Executive Alleges Misconduct By Kansas Medicaid Contractor
A former insurance company executive involved in Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit alleging retaliation by management for objecting to potentially unethical or illegal maneuvers to improve company revenue, documents said Tuesday. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Overland Park resident Jacqueline Leary named as defendants Centene Corp., Centene subsidiary Sunflower State Health Plan in Kansas and two executives of the corporate entities. (Carpenter, 10/28)

The Associated Press: Lawsuit Alleges Problems With Medicaid In Kansas
A former executive with a private company managing part of the Kansas Medicaid program has alleged in a federal lawsuit that she was wrongly fired for protesting potentially improper cost-saving measures. Jacqueline Leary filed the suit this week. Leary was fired in January from her position as vice president for the Sunflower State Health Plan, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Centene Corp. The lawsuit contends that in 2013, the Sunflower State Health Plan stopped assigning some Medicaid participants to doctors who worked for health care providers who were paid a higher-than-standard rate for their services. The state's $3 billion-a-year Medicaid program provides health coverage for the needy and disabled. (10/28)

Kaiser Health News: Soda Makers Battle Proposed Taxes In Berkeley, San Francisco
Again and again in the United States, anti-obesity crusaders have been stymied wherever they’ve tried to impose new laws on soda sales: in New York, ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to limit soda size was tossed out by the state’s highest court, proposed taxes in the northern California cities of El Monte and Richmond were voted down and the Washington, D.C. city council failed to pass an excise tax on soda. (Varney, 10/29)

Stateline: 'Social Impact Bonds' Tap Private Money For Public Health
South Carolina is turning to an unusual source to finance a new program intended to reduce the state’s high rate of premature births: private investors. If the program succeeds in slicing that rate among Medicaid beneficiaries and reduces state spending as a result, South Carolina will repay the principal plus a healthy, yet-to-be determined rate of return. If the program doesn’t meet expectations, the state will owe the investors less or even nothing at all. The state sees the plan as a way to launch a promising health program without having to bear the costs for years to come, if ever. (Ollove, 10/29)

Health News Florida: Most Florida Plans Shine In Star Ratings
Just a handful of Florida Medicare Advantage plans offered for 2015 received below average scores in a federal quality rating system, a breakdown of data by Avalere Health shows. Not a single one of the 125 plans offered by 24 different insurers earned the poorest rating for 2015, according to the data released this month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Shedden, 10/28)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. City Workers Rally Over Bank Deals As Bargaining Continues
Currently, L.A.’s civilian workers can choose health plans that don’t require them to pay anything toward the premium cost. If employees had to chip in 10% -- as city lawmakers assumed in their budget for this year -- the added annual expense for family coverage could exceed $1,690, according to the Coalition of L.A. City Unions. But those at the Tuesday march and rally mostly argued that city lawmakers needed to recoup taxpayer revenue from Wall Street banks to restore city services and create jobs. Union officials say their bargaining is deeply tied to those concerns. (Reyes and Karlamangla, 10/28)

Boston Globe: Partners Chief Met A Trail Of Resistance
Speaking to investors early this year, Partners HealthCare chief executive Gary L. Gottlieb said his organization’s hospitals and doctors were creating a “new medical model” in a bid to “control our own destiny.” But within months, parts of the plan started to fray. (Weisman and McCluskey, 10/29)