GOVERNOR DAVIS  WITH DANIEL ZINGALE

ADDITIONAL INFOMRATION ABOUT DANIEL ZINGALE AND THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF MANAGED HEALTH CARE

Public policy and advocacy leader Daniel Zingale was named director designee of the California Department of Managed Health Care in January 2000.

The Department was created by Governor Gray Davis and the state legislature in response to the urgent need for a dynamic new approach to the state's regulation of managed health care.

For nearly twenty years, Zingale has been at the forefront of public policy innovation in preventive health care, national AIDS policy, Medicaid reform, mental health parity as well as human rights and California financial solvency issues.

A New Approach to the War On AIDS

From 1997 to 1999, Zingale served as executive director of Washington, D.C.-based AIDS Action, called the nation's "most powerful AIDS lobby" by The San Francisco Chronicle and ABC News and "among the nation's most powerful advocacy groups" by The New York Times.

Zingale helped redefine the debate around AIDS issues, winning significant legislative victories toward common sense national AIDS policies. The Los Angeles Times said he was "credited by many with building [AIDS Action] into a formidable organization."

In conjunction with leading public opinion researcher Celinda Lake, Zingale launched the organization's groundbreaking communications project, Talking About AIDS So America Listens, which was designed to fight complacency around a continuing national AIDS crisis

This ambitious project included sifting down with and hearing the concerns of ordinary Americans from Milwaukee to Atlanta, commissioning national polls and publishing an innovative communications handbook for Washington decision-makers, the media and those fighting AIDS on the frontlines.

Zingale's work led to significant gains for consumers of health care. Under his leadership, AIDS Action won new federal investments in HIV prevention, a $200 million Clinton Administration initiative for the war on global AIDS as well as enactment of the first stage of AIDS Action's Reinventing Medicaid plan, designed to modernize the program to better meet the needs of low-income people with HIV and other serious illnesses.

Zingale's emphasis on prevention and access to care issues came at a time when HIV infection was on the rise in communities of color. He worked closely with the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses to ensure that national AIDS policies met the needs of those at risk for and infected with HIV.

Zingale's success in bringing unprecedented levels of diversity to the AIDS Action's governing board was covered in a front page story in The New York Times.

Ensuring Basic Human Rights

Zingale's work at AIDS Action was preceded by three years of service as public policy director of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest lesbian and gay civil and human rights organization.

At HRC, Zingale developed a groundbreaking legislative strategy, which resulted in an anti-discrimination bill coming within one vote of passage in the U.S. Senate - the first time either chamber of Congress had ever voted on a gay civil rights bill.

Zingale also succeeded in bringing the lesbian and gay civil rights movement into the nation's larger civil rights community, forging first-time partnerships with leaders such as Coretta Scott King and Kweisi Mfume as well as with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Winning Bi-Partisan Support for Mental Health Parity

Serving as managing director of governrnent relations for the American Psychological Association from 1991 to 1993, Zingale set a new model for mental health coverage under managed health care plans and within Congressional health reform proposals.

Pioneering the concept of mental health parity in national health care, Zingale helped win inclusion of mental health coverage in competing Republican and Democratic health care reform bills before Congress.

Zingale also helped to negotiate broad mental health benefits under Delta Airlines and Bell South managed care benefit plans.

Ensuring Financial Integrity for California

From 1987 to 1991, Zingale, who was born and raised in Sacramento, California, was a deputy controller and chief of staff to then-controller Gray Davis.

Among his accomplishments, Zingale helped develop and implement an innovative financial management program, debt for nature, in which the state forgave debt to certain property holders in exchange for lands in northern California that were then convened into park space.

Zingale is 39 years old and lives in Sacramento with his partner, Chuck Supple, and their five-year-old son.

About the Department

The California Department of Managed Health Care, a first-in-the-nation consumer rights project, was launched on July 1,2000 to help Californians resolve problems with their HMO as well as ensure a better, more solvent and stable managed health care system.

The Department's innovative HMO Help Center, which The San Francisco Chronicle concluded to have been"... proven effective in resolving consumer questions and complaints," is the centerpiece of the Department as the place Californians go when they can't resolve a problem with their HMO.

The Help Center works with our team of enforcers, our patient advocate, our HMO and health care provider liaison as well as our leadership team to root out systemic problems before harm is done to a patient.

And when HMOs violate the law, we take effective action. Already, the Department's leadership has been responsible for delivering more than $1.5 million in fines against state HMOs. In some cases, we've taken control of HMOs to ensure quality for their patients.

Just as important, we're working as a control tower over the HMO industry, working for better accountability of patient premium dollars and improved financial stability of HMOs and medical groups. We're also working to return the industry back to its roots of better preventive health care so that Californians are healthier and precious resources are preserved for those who are ill.

The HMO Help Center

When Californians in HMOs get sick and need to see a doctor, they don't want to fill out endless forms, sit on hold, and they don't want excuses. They want the care to which they're entitled. The Department's HMO Help Center is here to help. Never again should a consumer reach a dead end at their HMO.

Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and to Californians speaking dozens of languages, our team of consumer rights experts, health care professionals and customer service representatives are ready to resolve consumer problems.

*    The Help Center's highly trained team of customer service representatives guide consumers through their HMO's own complaint process, as that should be the quickest and most effective way to resolve problems. When consumers can't resolve a problem with their HMO, we are ready to help them, and try to do so on the same day if possible and in no more than 30 days.

*   The Help Center's team of health care professionals, under the guidance of the Department's medical advisor, help resolve questions relating to medical issues. On disputes about medical necessity or theappropriateness experimental treatments, we ask doctors outside the consumer's HMO to make the final decision.

*   When a consumer has an HMO problem that raises questions about whether their  rights were violated, the Help Center's consumer rights experts go into action, research California's HMO patient protection laws and make sure those laws are adhered to.

A Better Managed Health Care System

As a control tower over the industry, the people at the Department work for aggressive prevention, high quality health care, improved consumer education and empowerment as well as HMO and doctor group solvency and accountability.

Among the Department's efforts for a healthier managed health care system:

*    Ensure HMO accountability through enforcing prevention and quality of care laws;

*    Develop and launch public education and awareness efforts;

*    Provide an annual report card on quality of care of the state's HMOs;

*    Ensure accountability for consumer premium dollars and co-payments throughout the HMO system;

*    And work to bring managed health care back to its roots of better preventive care that saves lives and preserves precious health dollars for those who become ill.

No Papeleo!

The Department's efforts to end "papeleo," a Spanish term meaning burdensome and unnecessary paperwork and red tape, are the centerpiece of a strategy for common sense and efficient consumer services.

We are implementing paperless filing systems, launching three-way conference calls between the consumer, their HMO, the Help Center to quickly resolve problems and we are using the latest technology and proven customer service techniques in the best ways possible. Our goal is to make every Californian's experience with our Department as satisfying as possible.

The California Department of Managed Health Care is already delivering on its first and top priority: putting patients first. The Department's Consumer Resources and Support Center is launching the HMO Help hotline so California consumers have the best possible resources when they can 't resolve a problem with their HMO:

*    HMO HELP 24/7/365 - A first-ever state 24/7/365 toll-free HMO Help hotline. Whenever Californians can't resolve a problem with their HMO - Christmas Day, lunch hour, New Years Eve, 4:30 Sunday morning - they now have a place to go for help.

*    NEW CONSUMER TOOLS - A first-ever searchable database of HMO complaint phone lines available on-line and through the HMO Help hotline. The former managed health care regulator reported that nearly 50% of its consumer calls were to request the phone number for their health plan. Making this information more accessible frees consumer service representatives to resolve other problems.

*    EASY-TO-REMEMBER - A first-ever HMO Help hotline phone number and web address - 888-HMO-2219 and www.hmohelp.ca.gov - that are easy to remember.

*    GETTING ONLINE - A first-ever state Web site (www.hmohelp.ca.gov) devoted not only to improving managed health care but also the health of Californians. The Web site includes prevention and other health information so that consumers can stay healthy.

*   GETTING OUT THE WORD - A first-ever HMO Help logo and outreach plan will ensure that providers, consumers and health plans throughout the state know how to contact the Department's consumer Web site and hotline when they can't resolve a problem with their health plan. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that nearly 90% of Americans couldn't name their state HMO regulatory agency.

*   EARLY Intervention - A first-ever toll-free physician phone line (877-525-1295) so the Department's office of plan-provider relations is informed early to systemic problems that affect consumers.

*   ENDING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER - A multi-lingual operator service on the HMO Help hotline. Consumers speaking in almost 150 languages have a place to go for help. Whether a Californian speaks Spanish or Cantonese, language won't be a barrier to ensuring that they can resolve a problem with their HMO.