Latest California Healthline Stories
Groups Call for Collaborative Ballot Initiative To Increase Tobacco Tax
California Medical Association CEO Jack Lewin and other groups say disease and children’s advocacy organizations and the hospital industry should negotiate a new ballot initiative to increase the tobacco tax for health care funding, rather than introduce competing measures, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Premium Increases Did Not Pay for WellPoint Acquisition, Audit Finds
Increased Blue Cross of California health insurance premiums cannot be attributed to the acquisition in 2004 of WellPoint by Anthem, according to an independent auditor’s report issued Wednesday by the Department of Managed Health Care, the Los Angeles Times reports.
CMS Receives Complaints of ‘Aggressive’ Medicare Drug Benefit Marketing
CMS has received more than 100 complaints of “aggressive” marketing tactics used by some insurance companies and agents to enroll Medicare beneficiaries in the new prescription drug benefit, though such tactics are prohibited under federal rules, according to a CMS official, the New York Times reports.
UCLA Reopens Undergraduate Nursing Program, Expands Master’s Degree Program
University of California-Los Angeles officials recently announced plans to reopen the university’s bachelor’s degree program for nursing next fall after closing it in 1995, the Los Angeles Times reports.
DOD Introduces EHR System To Be Used in Combat Areas, Hospitals
The Department of Defense last week introduced a $1.2 billion electronic health records system known as AHLTA that is being used by about half of the military’s 60,000 medical practitioners nationwide, the Washington Times reports.
Federal Budget Bill Could Cost State $1B in FY 2006
A federal spending reductions bill approved by the House last week for the fiscal year 2006 budget could result in a $500 million to $1 billion funding loss for state programs, including Medi-Cal, according to estimates by the California Budget Project, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Hospitals Acknowledge Taking Homeless Patients to Downtown Los Angeles
Officials at three Los Angeles hospitals last week acknowledged that discharged patients with nowhere to go regularly are placed in taxicabs and dropped off in downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Illinois Law Requires Hospitals To Publicly Report ‘Never Events’
The Chicago Sun-Times on Monday examined an Illinois law scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2008, that will require hospitals and surgery centers in the state to admit publicly if they commit any of 24 types of “never events” — “inexcusable hospital foul-ups that should never occur but happen all too often.”
Bush Signs Appropriations Bill Containing Reimportation Provision
President Bush on Tuesday signed the appropriations bill (HR 2862) for the Commerce, Justice and State departments, which contains a provision regarding the purchase of lower-cost drugs from other nations, the AP/Baltimore Sun reports.
Group Criticizes Catholic Hospitals’ Uninsured Policies
Catholic not-for-profit hospitals are reaping high profits while charging uninsured patients up to seven times as much as those covered by Medicare, according to a report by Consejo de Latinos Unidos, the Denver Post reports.