Watch the Regents Health Services Committee of Oct. 11, 2023

We are catching up with the Regents who met in an off-cycle meeting of the Health Services Committee on October 11th. They met in the morning for a public session with public comments, then went into closed session, and that resumed in public in the afternoon. Public comments included nurse training, gun violence and gun divestment, optometrists' labor relations issues, doctor licensing, student health care in Merced, and care in cases of sexual assault. After hearing public comments, the committee went into closed session. You can hear the open session at:

https://ia804509.us.archive.org/27/items/health-services-committee-afternoon/Health%20Services%20Committee%20Morning.mp4.

In the afternoon session, there was an executive pay approval. Then Regent Pérez made an announcement about issues related to negotiations with Anthem Blue Cross and UC for health coverage. He said that notices had been received by subscribers that those using UC facilities might be discontinued. Pérez said that this is an issue at the legislature and if some accord is not reached soon, he would be creating some kind of committee involving the legislature to push an accord. Since this matter was not on the agenda, there was no discussion.

The discussion then turned to services at UC for sexual assault victims. It was said there was a shortage of forensic nurses who are needed in such cases. Typically, students are provided transportation to various specialized clinics. However, students would prefer the services be on campus.

There was then a report on arrangements with religious affiliates which have restrictions on such services as abortion.

Finally, there was a discussion of interim licensing of residents at medical campuses. It appears that problem related to these licenses was largely addressed by involving the legislature. But there appear to be some residual issues related to leaves. The Regents were not sure they fully understood the residual problem and neither did yours truly.

You can see the afternoon meeting at:

https://ia804509.us.archive.org/27/items/health-services-committee-afternoon/Health%20Services%20Committee%20Afternoon.mp4.

The overall page for this meeting - which also includes the new athletics committee that will be reviewed in a later post - can be found at:

https://archive.org/details/health-services-committee-afternoon.