Harbor Currents: NEWS April 11, 2013

Traffic Fatality
LONG BEACH  – An elderly man was killed while crossing the street at an uncontrolled intersection, April 9, near Redondo Avenue and 11^th Street in Long Beach, officials said.
A vehicle driving southbound at about 10 a.m. struck the Long Beach pedestrian, who has yet to be identified. The driver, an 89-year-old Huntington Beach resident, stopped and rendered aid while a witness called for help.
The pedestrian died at a local hospital at about 3 p.m. The driver was released with no charges pending.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call (562) 570-7355.
 
CTA Re-Elects Vogel
LOS ANGELES  – On April 7, Dean E. Vogel was re-elected to serve second two-year term as president of the 325,000- member California Teachers Association.
“I’m so honored to be serving as CTA president for a second term,” said Vogel. “As a long-time officer, board member and an educator, I am intimately aware of the challenges educators and their students face every day.”
Also re-elected was CTA Vice President Eric C. Heins.

Plans To Protect Patients Pass Initial Exam
SACRAMENTO – On April 10, two measures that would separately help protect consumers of health care from unexpected costs and misleading health coverage passed their initial Senate policy reviews.
Here’s what the bills would do:
SB 266: Supported by several consumer-health groups and advocates, plus the American Association of Retired People, this bill would prohibit any provider group or health clinic from misleadingly telling patients they are in the patient’s insurance network if it is not true or if not all the doctors in the group are actually in the network. Also, hospitals would have to acknowledge and inform the patient that the individual providers could be out of a patient’s network.
SB 353: Supported by nearly two dozen health and minority-interest groups, this bill would ensure that Californians have appropriate and accurate information they will need to enroll in health care coverage by strengthening consumer protections, closing gaps in current state laws, and requiring fair and accurate marketing materials.  Specifically, this bill would give the Department of Insurance the authority to review and approve marketing materials. Also, this bill seeks to ensure limited English proficient and immigrant communities have the information they need to enroll in health care that best meets their needs by requiring health plans that advertise in non-English languages to provide certain written documents in those languages.
Both measures now face review of their fiscal impact by the Senate Appropriations Committee. No date has yet been set.
Details: www.senate.ca.gov/lieu