The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West announced it will drop its push for two California ballot initiatives to cap hospital prices and executive compensation under a new deal with hospitals to create an organizing “code of conduct.”
Dave Regan, the labor group's president, and C. Duane Dauner, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, unveiled the deal, which includes a jointly funded $100 million campaign to boost Medicaid reimbursement and promote reforms to the program. If unsuccessful, the state's hospitals and the union agreed to pursue a Medicaid ballot initiative in 2016, Regan said.
The deal includes facilities that operate a majority of the state's hospital beds. The hospital association declined to name the facilities that signed the agreement, which will end Dec. 31, 2017.