The Health meeting began with public comments, all dealing with the Israel-Gaza War. There was also a very brief disruption during one of the subsequent topics, probably related to the war. EVP Rubin reviewed the year's developments in UC Health and then a discussion of what UC was doing in local community health. Regent Makarechian noted some confusion in data presented concerning the share of UC expenditures in uncompensated care.
Of most interest to UCLA was the presentation on UCLA's establishment of a Medicare Advantage plan for the LA County market which will launch on January 1. The plan is already advertising and taking in subscribers. This plan should NOT be confused be confused with the Medicare Advantage plan that UC offers to its own retirees. It was said that three fourths of patients at UC generally are connected with government-operated programs. About half of such patients are said to be Medicare. Forty percent of all patients at UCLA are said to be Medicare.
While UCLA currently services patients from other Medicare Advantage plans, it got permission from the Regents to start its own plan in LA County from the Regents two years ago. It was said that 60-65% of Medicare-eligible patients in the County are already in some Medicare Advantage plan.
Makarechian asked about the financial sustainability of the new UCLA plan. It was said that UCLA would need to attract 15,000 to 16,000 clients to its plan at a minimum to be sustainable. But it is shooting for a significantly higher intake.
The question was raised as to whether the basic license that UCLA obtained to set up its plan could cover other campuses with med centers if they were to choose to set up similar Medicare Advantage plans and it was said that the license would cover such potential plans.
It seems likely that the other campuses will be watching UCLA's experience.
The recent expansions of the UCLA via purchases of hospitals and other facilities - and the fact that there is a large network of urgent care centers and practices around the County under the UCLA brand may reflect the Medicare Advantage venture. In order to create a Medicare Advantage plan in a county, applicants have to show that they have facilities close to areas where there are significant concentrations of Medicare-eligible populations.
The Health Services Committee concluded with a presentation on UC-Davis' veterinary hospital. It was noted that some treatments on animals translate into new forms of treatment for people.
At the Investments Committee, there was a relatively brief presentation without the usual slides by UC CIO Bachhar. At the moment, his office is dealing with a portfolio of $188 billion of which $104 billion is the pension plan. He said the outlook for the US economy is bright. And he tended to avoid questions about the effect of the election, notably about the earlier UC divestment from fossil fuels, an industry which the incoming Trump administration is likely to favor.
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We are happy to report that the Internet Archive is getting back to normal. While there are still hiccups remaining from the cyber attack, we were able to upload the various Regents sessions for November since - as blog readers will know - it is unclear how long the Regents will retain their recordings.
You can find both the Health Services and the Investments recordings at:
https://archive.org/details/regents-health-services-committee-11-12-2024.
The Health Services recording is at:
(The material on the UCLA Medicare Advantage plan is at 1:12.17 to 1:49.40.)
The Investments recording is at:
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