HEALTH

Managed Care Company Sanctioned: Citing its “repeated failure” to comply with state licensing requirements, regulators have suspended a Long Beach-based managed care company that provides health services for Medi-Cal patients from all marketing and enrollment activities for 90 days. Tower Health Services will be barred from enrolling new Medi-Cal recipients or advertising its programs in Los Angeles and other Southern California counties. The California Department of Health Services said it imposed the sanctions after an annual audit concluded that Tower had improperly handled member complaints and requests for disenrollment, failed to notify doctors of their rights to appeal health plan decisions, and other violations. Tower Health executives have contended that there were “discrepancies” in the state report and deny any improper handling of disenrollment requests.