Medical Diagnostics Company To Shut Down Following Medicare’s Decision That Its Product Was Unnecessary For Patients
In 2016 and 2017 alone, the Medicare program and patients collectively spent nearly $52 million on the heart disease test made by Bay Area CardioDx. The company has faced accusations that it sold the test even though it knew it was medically unnecessary.
San Francisco Chronicle:
CardioDx, Maker Of Heart Disease Test, Shutting Down As Medicare Rescinds Coverage
A 16-year-old Bay Area medical diagnostics company is shutting down after the federal government’s Medicare health insurance program — one of the largest purchasers of the company’s flagship product, a blood test for heart disease — rescinded coverage of the test in many states after the test was found to be unnecessary and of little use to patients. But that was not before the company, CardioDx in Redwood City, sold millions of dollars worth of the test over the course of six years until Medicare in November stopped paying for it. (Kunthara and Ho, 1/9)
In other news from across the state —
Sacramento Bee:
Who Are New CalPERS Board Members?
The board that oversees the nation’s largest public pension fund will get at least three new faces in 2019, marking unusual turnover at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Two of the newcomers were decided in recent elections. Gov. Jerry Brown this week created a third vacancy when he removed CalPERS board member Richard Costigan from the pension fund. (Ashton, 1/7)
Modesto Bee:
California Transgender Prisoner Lawsuit Alleges Rape, Abuse
A transgender California prisoner alleges in a new legal complaint that she spent nine months in solitary confinement after reporting that a cellmate had raped her, exacerbating her distress after the attack. The new filing expands on a claim Candice Crowder initially filed in August 2017, when she complained that correctional officers allowed her to be attacked and then did not give her immediate medical attention while she bled from her face, head and neck. (Ashton, 1/8)
KQED:
State Launches Probe Into 100,000-Gallon Marin County Sewage Spill
California water quality regulators are investigating an incident in San Anselmo on Sunday that caused at least 100,000 gallons of raw sewage to spill out of manholes in the city. The spill took place during a rainstorm that overwhelmed a Ross Valley Sanitary District sewer improvement project, sending sewage onto portions of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Broadmoor Avenue and Morningside Drive. (Goldberg, 1/8)