We are catching up with the Regents and their two off-cycle meetings last week, one being the Health Services Committee on June 15th. (We will post about the other off-cycle meeting at a later time.)
The meeting began with an announcement that the meeting would be the last hybrid session. From now on, all members must attend in-person and those who testify must also attend in-person. However, public comments will continue in both in-person and by-phone formats. (There may be exceptions to these rules.)
The public comments dealt with the "affiliations" issue, i.e., Catholic and other religious hospitals that don't provide certain services such as abortions.
Some of the highlights of the various agenda items:
- Uncompensated care - which is characterized as a community benefit - was said to be 10% of revenues. It was said that this percentage put UC at the 75th percentile among comparable institutions. There were some questions about the calculation and the identity of those systems that were higher than 10%.
- There was discussion about "long COVID" (long-lasting after-effects of COVID) including among children. The mechanisms by which long COVID occurs are not understood. A common symptom is fatigue.
- There was an overview of UCLA Health's strategic planning. It was said that the power plant at UCLA poses a capacity limit on expansion at the Westwood campus. There is a plan for building an off-campus mental health facility. Telehealth is now much more in use since COVID.
- There will be a full report on the "affiliations" issue at the August meeting.
- There is concern about a capacity limit on the ability to handle out-of-state abortion patients after the Supreme Court issues its expected decision voiding Roe v. Wade.
As always, we preserve the recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents - for no particular reason - delete them after one year. You can see the Health Services meeting at:
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