About: Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher
Samuel “Sammy” Chang is a Health Policy Researcher for The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition. He currently writes the monthly California Legislative Beat on the Source Blog. Prior to joining The Source, he served as the Student Caucus Chair for the Executive Oversight Board for the University of California, Student Health Insurance Plan and worked as a legal intern for the California Department of Managed Health Care’s Office of Legal Services. At UC Hastings, he received a CALI Award for Academic Excellence for his work on the Public Policy and Law Workgroup. He additionally contributed to the California Senate Committee on Business, Professions, and Economic Development background paper on pharmacy benefit managers. Sammy has been recognized by the American Bar Association and the UC Hastings Board of Directors for his vision and dedicated leadership and has testified in front of the California Assembly Judiciary Committee and the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Education. Sammy is a recent graduate of UC Hastings College of the Law with a concentration in law and health sciences and holds a B.S. degree in Biochemistry/Cell Biology from UC San Diego.Election 2018: Bay Area Localities Push Boundaries of Preemption with Initiative to Cap Healthcare Prices
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher October 30, 2018
This coming election, Palo Alto and Livermore voters will decide whether to cap health care pricing to 115% of direct patient care and quality improvement costs. Officially known as the Accountable and Affordable Health Care Initiative, and colloquially as Measure F for Palo Alto and Measure U for Livermore, these local initiatives face opposition from opponents who assert that federal and state laws preempt and invalidate the measures. On its face, this could have spelled the end to these measures. Preemption is a tried and true way to overturn local …
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Two Takeaways from Health Affairs’ “Improving Care for Californians” Forum
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher October 26, 2018
On October 15, 2018, Health Affairs hosted a forum in Sacramento called “Improving Care for Californians.” Two unifying themes emerged from the three panels. First, there is a growing tension between integration and consolidation in health care. Some panelists presented data that demonstrated that integrated health delivery networks often provide better and more integrated care, but that when healthcare delivery markets become highly concentrated, prices tend to increase. Second, the panelists discussed substantial improvements in healthcare in California, but all agreed that substantial work remains to be done to improve …
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AB 315: Mandating PBM Registration and Disclosures – An Important Step to Increasing Drug Price Transparency and Competition
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher September 25, 2018
AB 315, considered to be a complementary bill to SB 17, which mandated prescription drug pricing transparency, is an important bill that would ensure more transparency of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) by regulating PBMs and gathering data on how PBMs impact the dispensing of certain prescription drugs. The intent of the bill is to allow consumers to purchase drugs at the lowest price by allowing purchasers, like health plans, to keep PBMs accountable for the savings PBMs promised. However, this bill almost didn’t come to be. AB 315 was sent …
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Bills in the Other House: How 2018 California Healthcare Bills Have Evolved
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher August 22, 2018
The last two editions of The Source’s California Legislative Beat introduced some possibly transformative healthcare bills. However, many of those bills had passed only one house of the legislature at the time of writing. For a bill to become law, it must first be approved by both houses. Since passing the Assembly, some of those bills have gone through additional committees and are steadily progressing to a vote by the Senate. When a bill proceeds to the other house, it can (and have been known to) radically change. A bill …
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California Legislative Beat: Transformative Healthcare Bills of 2018 (Pt. 2)
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher July 23, 2018
Year two of California’s 2017-2018 legislative session continues to be an active one with the introduction of new innovative healthcare bills. As lawmakers work diligently, this month’s California Legislative Beat continues to look at some 2018 bills that can potentially change the California healthcare landscape. AB 2499: This bill would increase the medical loss ratio (MLR) by 5%, from 85% to 90% for a health plan or health insurer in the large group market, and from 80% to 85% for a health plan or health insurer in the individual market. …
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California Legislative Beat: Transformative Healthcare Bills of 2018 (Pt. 1)
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher June 21, 2018
Year two of California’s 2017-2018 legislative session has been an active one. As lawmakers work diligently, The Source will take a brief look at some 2018 bills that can potentially change the California healthcare landscape. SB 1021: This bill removes the sunset provision for AB 339 (2015), which was enacted to cap cost sharing for a covered outpatient prescription drug at $250/$500 per 30-day supply.[1] Furthermore, the bill codifies the regulation that “prohibits an enrollee or insured from being charged more than the retail price for a prescription drug …
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California Legislative Beat: Noteworthy 2017 Bills Still Pending That Should be Passed
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher May 24, 2018
As year two of the California legislative session goes into full swing, a couple of bills introduced in 2017 are still active and waiting to be passed. This month’s post will look at four active 2017 bills that should be considered for passage. SB 199: This bill authorizes the creation of an advisory committee to research and develop recommendations on the creation of a database to be titled California Health Care Cost, Quality, and Equity Atlas. This bill is the first step to creating a statewide database that would collect …
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California Proposes Legislation to Establish An All-Payer Claims Database – 5 Questions and Answers to Understand AB 2502
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher April 19, 2018
What is AB 2502 About?To better understand healthcare costs and promote price transparency, AB 2502 proposes the establishment of an all-payer claims database (APCD) in California. In general, all-payer claims databases collect health insurance claims from all payers, which inform policymakers on how to better control healthcare costs. The bill’s intent is to understand “how to reduce health care costs while improving quality and reducing disparities”, and to encourage “health care service plans, health insurers, and providers to develop innovative approaches, services, and programs that may have the potential to deliver health …
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California Legislature Turns Focus on High Drug Pricing
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher March 21, 2018
Last month, we reviewed how the California Assembly is trying to understand cost drivers of healthcare overall. As California has the highest retail drug spending with prescription drug expenditures outpacing overall healthcare spending, high drug pricing has become a specific concern for the Legislature.[1] For the past few years, the Legislature has used bills[2] (like SB 17 (2017)), resolutions (like SJR 29 (2015)), and informational hearings to better understand and control high drug pricing. For example, the Assembly Health Committee (“Committee”) began a series of hearings to understand prescription drug …
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Special California Assembly Hearings Provide Insights and Solutions to Increasing Healthcare Costs
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher February 20, 2018
After the public outcry following last year’s tabling of SB 562 (Lara), which would have created a single-payer program in California, a special California Assembly committee was formed. The Assembly Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage began hearings in late October 2017 and adjourned on February 7th, 2018. While much of the hearings was a crash course on health insurance, some of them addressed high healthcare prices. This month, we will summarize two of the hearings that focused on understanding the origins of high healthcare pricing …
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