John Baackes Discussed Future of California Health Care
State of Reform, an organization focused on bridging the gap between health care and the policy that governs it, held its 2024 Southern California Health Policy Conference in Pasadena yesterday. The keynote address was delivered by John Baackes, CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly operated health plan in the country. Baackes discussed the work that the health plan is doing to improve health policy in the region, as well as provided overall outlook for the future of health care in California.
Among the topics Baackes discussed was the challenges facing Medi-Cal, including the persistently low reimbursement rates for providers. He discussed how this presents a staffing problem, and that’s one of the reasons why L.A. Care launched its Elevating the Safety Net initiative in 2018. The initiative uses scholarships to train future physicians who have expressed a desire to work in underserved communities, grants to recruit new physicians into the safety net, and loan repayments to retain physicians in the safety net. Baackes spoke about L.A. Care serving as an advocate for its members and providers and explained that as a public plan, not beholden to shareholders, the health plan is able to keep rates affordable when it competes against commercial plans in California’s Affordable Care Act exchange.
The day-long conference also included a number of panel sessions where experts from across the healthcare industry discussed important issues facing the Southern California region. Among the topics discussed were progress on CalAIM, growth of the Southern California healthcare workforce, innovations in care coordination, and the maternal health crisis in California.