Health Care Workers Union Seeks To Limit Hospital CEO Pay
The SEIU spearheaded the collection of nearly 650,000 signatures on a petition to cap pay for any hospital employee -- including the CEO -- at $450,000. The California Secretary of State Office has until July 6 to decide if they qualify the question for the November ballot. Also, outlets report on hospital news in Sonoma County and Long Beach.
The Desert Sun:
Should Hospital CEOs Make More Than The US President?
A labor union representing health care workers hopes California voters will agree that hospital executives should never earn more than the president of the United States.
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West wants to get the question on the statewide ballot this November. Separately, the union backed an unsuccessful effort to require California hospitals to publicly disclose the compensation of their best paid employees. (Newkirk 6/6)
The Press Democrat:
Decline In Psychiatric Hospital Beds Concerns Sonoma County Jail Officials
The number of state psychiatric hospital beds continues to decline across the country, a disturbing trend that is being felt at the local level, especially by mentally ill patients in jail, Sonoma County officials said last week. ... The decline in such beds has resulted in local jail inmates with severe mental illness having to wait many months to be transferred to a state facility for intensive mental health treatment. State hospitals are the equivalent of intensive care units in general hospitals. “It takes anywhere from six to eight months to get them into a state hospital bed,” said Michael Kennedy, director of Sonoma County’s mental health department. (Espinoza 6/5)
The Orange County Register:
O.C. Residents Latest To Plead Guilty In $580 Million Hospital Kickback Scheme
Two men and a woman have admitted to being involved in a $580 million healthcare scheme, joining six other defendants in cooperating with authorities investigating illegal kickbacks, according to filings unsealed this week in federal court. ... [They] are the latest healthcare workers and administrators to plead guilty to conspiracy and illegal kickback charges as part of a massive scheme centered around Pacific Hospital in Long Beach. (Emery, 6/3)