California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of May 30, 2014
East Cliff Family Health Center, Live Oak
The new East Cliff Family Health Center in Live Oak officially opened last week, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports.
The $3.2 million medical center is a sister clinic to the Santa Cruz Women's Health Center and will provide mental health and substance use disorder care (Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 5/23).
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center
On Tuesday, police investigated a "specific and credible threat" against two Kaiser Oakland medical facilities, the Oakland Tribune reports.
According to officials, the health system sent advisories to members and employees alerting them not to come into the facilities until 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The threat was received some time on Monday, and a police official said investigators were working to identify and locate the responsible parties (Harris/Alund, Oakland Tribune, 5/27).
Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center, Los Angeles
The new Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center in southern Los Angeles is set to open June 17, KPCC's "KPCC News" reports.
The center will include 70 specialty clinics focused on pediatric care, orthopedics, neurology, dental care and other areas. It also will include a pharmacy, an urgent care center and several operating rooms (Florido, "KPCC News," KPCC, 5/28).
UC-Davis Health System
UC-Davis Health System has partnered with Orbis International, a not-for-profit group focused on blindness prevention, to offer telehealth services for ophthalmological care, Payers & Providers reports.
Under the agreement, the health system will provide remote consultations to Orbis-affiliated providers in real-time (Payers & Providers, 5/29).
UC-San Diego's Jacobs Medical Center
UC-San Diego has received a $7.5 million gift from philanthropist and long-time supporter Pauline Foster to support the development of a new 108-bed cancer care center at the Jacobs Medical Center, the University Herald reports.
The facility will be called "The Pauline and Stanley Foster Hospital for Cancer Care" and is scheduled to open in 2016 (Adkins, University Herald, 5/22).
University of Southern California's Keck Medical Center, Los Angeles
USC's Keck Medical Center has filed a lawsuit alleging that Kaiser Permanente sent a patient to the hospital for open-heart surgery and then refused to pay the $544,000 bill for services, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In the lawsuit, USC states that Kaiser did not disclose that the patient had already hit a $75,000 annual insurance benefit cap when it requested Keck perform the surgery in October 2013. According to USC, Kaiser physicians could have performed the surgery to cut down on costs.
Kaiser has maintained that USC knew about the insurance limitations (Pfeifer/Terhune, Los Angeles Times, 5/23).
This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.