A small department continues to grow...and enforce...where does the fine money go and are the fines having a positive effect for better healthcare BD
The Department of Managed Health Care collected record fines of $4.8 million from the industry in 2007, but the department only budgets for a 5 percent reserve. If high fines are collected, and the department's budget reserve swells, the department lowers other fees that it collects from the industry to bring its reserve back under 5 percent.
The department is supported primarily by an annual assessment on each HMO. That fee is determined in part by other sources of income for the department, including money from fines. So, in effect, the more money the department collects in fines, the lower the annual assessments. Critics of the system contend the money is simply being returned to the same insurance providers who are being punished by the department."If we're still seeing violations of this magnitude, obviously not," Padilla said referring to the million-dollar levy. "For all the attention the record fines have been receiving, when you hold that up against the record profits from the industry, you have to ask yourself, ‘Is this enough?' Clearly, they are not the deterrent we thought they'd be."
Capitol Weekly: The Newspaper of California State Government and Politics
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