California Health Insurance Reform Can Help You Fight The Flu
As we approach a new flu season, you may have noticed TV commercials reminding you to get vaccinated
. As of September 23, 2010, health insurance in California has a new mandate regarding preventive measures, including vaccinations. Like all other states, California health insurance plans must provide flu vaccinations and other recommended preventive services without charging you co-insurance amounts or making you meet a deductible before such preventive services are covered.Any new health insurance in California issued after September 23, 2010 must reflect this improvement, but the change may not be reflected in older plans until the plans renew. That means changes might not go into effect until many plans' annual renewal date of January 1, 2011.
What's Unique About California Law And Influenza?
Have you ever wondered whether flu vaccinations are required among hospital staff? With their close contact to patients, hospital workers could transmit influenza to patients with compromised immune function. For 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that all health care workers receive vaccinations against the flu.
By state law, acute care hospitals in California are required to provide free flu shots to employees, but hospital workers are not required to be vaccinated. Hospitals are further required to report how many of their employees have been vaccinated and how many declined. California may be the only state to publish such reports.
Since 2006, California's Department of Public Health has been legally required to publish such information, but it still hasn't made that available for the 2008-2009 flu season. Studies indicate that flu outbreaks in hospitals are reduced where most employees have been vaccinated.
How Have California Hospitals Stepped Up Staff Vaccinations?
During the 2008-2009 flu season, hospitals in the Sacramento area reported vaccination of from 44 to 71 percent of their staff. More employees were believed to have received flu shots the next year when faced with the new H1N1 strain.
Hospitals in the UC Davis health system succeeded in increasing employee vaccination rates from less than half of their staff (at 46 percent) during the 2007-2008 flu season up to 71 percent during the 2008-2009 season. For the H1N1 season, as many as 83 percent of their staff were vaccinated against the standard influenza and 81 percent received shots against the H1N1 virus.
Of the Kaiser Permanente hospitals, two out of three increased vaccination rates among their staff during the 2009-10 flu season. Sixty-one percent of Kaiser Roseville's employees were vaccinated, and 59 percent of Kaiser's Morse Avenue hospital staff received flu shots.
Conversely, vaccinations among the staff at Kaiser south fell from the previous year's 67 percent down just one percent to 66 percent.
Around Sacramento, the Sutter hospitals reported that 77 percent of their workers were vaccinated during the 2009-2010 flu seasons. What would it take to get all hospital staff vaccinated?
What Can You Do To Prevent Catching The Flu?
With health care reform, even if you have to buy a high-deductible California health insurance plan to make the premiums affordable, you can still get recommended preventive services, such as flu vaccinations, with no extra co-pay charges and the cost will be covered regardless of your deductible.
Besides flu vaccinations, there are a few common-sense precautions that can help keep you healthy during the coming flu season. Washing your hands frequently really does help prevent becoming infected. Hand washing may not kill germs, but it definitely can wash them away from you. Antibacterial soap may not be any more effective than regular soap, but the way you wash really makes a difference.
You don't need hot water, but warm water is recommended to get your hands clean. Vigorously wash your hands and soap for 20 seconds. After washing, turn off the water with a paper towel so you don't re-contaminate your hands, and thoroughly dry them. Wet hands are much more likely to carry germs than dry hands.
What about hand sanitizers? Research performed by the CDC indicates that hand sanitizers are at least as effective as washing your hands unless your hands are visibly dirty. To be effective, though, the alcohol content of a sanitizer must be at least 60 percent.
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