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Seizing on the massive expansion in Medicaid, Blue Shield of California has agreed to acquire Care1st, a Monterey Park-based health plan with more than 500,000 patients. Until now, insurance giant Blue Shield hasn't participated in Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for low-income people. As a result, it has missed out on the program's growth to 11.3 million Californians as part of the federal health law expansion. (Terhune, 12/8)

Gov. Terry Branstad suggested Monday that the state should consider consolidating services among its six institutions for people with mental illnesses or disabilities. "The facilities are obsolete, and it's extremely expensive" to use them the way the state now does, he said. His comments came in a brief interview after a budget presentation by the Department of Human Services. The department runs four mental health institutes, which are at Cherokee, Clarinda, Independence and Mount Pleasant, and two resource centers for people with mental disabilities, which are at Glenwood and Woodward. (Leys, 12/8)

Virginia’s legislative watchdog agency won’t be asked to conduct a sweeping study of the state Medicaid program after all. Instead, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission agreed Monday to leave the issue to both houses of the General Assembly to define specific areas of the $8 billion federal-state program to study. (Martz, 12/8)

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jenny Gold reports: "New York lawyer Brett Stark, who has worked with dozens of unaccompanied Central American children who crossed into the United States in the past year, says getting the courts to grant these kids asylum is extremely difficult. So he often turns to a special advocate — a doctor. Such medical-legal partnerships have cropped up in New York and California, where thousands of unaccompanied minors have settled with their families or friends who were already in the U.S." (Gold, 12/9)

Two years ago, Horizon NJ Health cut reimbursements to home health providers by 10 percent, leaving those agencies fuming -- and alleging that the cuts would affect their ability to attract and retain workers to what were already low-wage positions. In fact, the home health agencies say Horizon wouldn’t meet with them to discuss the reductions. That’s one reason why they’re supporting a bill that would require Medicaid managed-care organizations (MCOs) -- large insurers like Horizon that oversee long-term care for Medicaid recipients -- to discuss cuts at least three months before implementing them. It’s the second attempt at a legislative solution to the problem, after Gov. Chris Christie vetoed an earlier bill that would have required state approval for reimbursement cuts. (Kitchenman, 12/8)

Primary care providers on Jan. 1 will have their Medi-Cal reimbursement rates lowered -- twice on the same day. A two-year Medicaid federal rate increase for primary care providers is due to expire on the first day of 2015. On the same day the California Department of Health Care Services plans to implement its state-ordered 10% reduction in reimbursement rates for fee-for-service Medi-Cal primary care providers. (Gorn, 12/8)