Latest California Healthline Stories
Senate, House Committees Prepare for Markups of Budget Plans With Medicaid Spending Reductions
The Senate Finance Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday are scheduled to begin marking up fiscal year 2006 budget reconciliation packages that include cuts to federal health programs, CQ Today reports.
HHS OIG Confirms Investigation Into Resignation of Former FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford
HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson has confirmed that his office has launched an investigation into the resignation of former FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford, the AP/Long Island Newsday reports.
Case Draws Criticism of Transparency in Malpractice Arbitration Reporting System
The mother of a woman who died from Ewing’s sarcoma is questioning a state law that allows HMOs to decide which doctors involved in medical malpractice arbitration awards will have their names reported to the California Medical Board, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Newspapers Examine Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Information, Enrollment Issues
Several newspapers recently published articles that addressed the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Proposed Regulations, Legislation Would Ban Use of Children as Interpreters
The Department of Managed Health Care in November will hold public hearings on draft regulations to bar children from serving as interpreters in most medical situations, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports.
Biotech Group Believes Prescription Drug Ballot Measures Will Not Pass
The Biotechnology Industry Organization is “encouraging the industry to maintain a low profile” on competing prescription drug ballot measures on the Nov. 8 special election ballot, and an internal poll found that both measures likely will fail, the San Francisco Business Times reports.
Angelides Voices Opposition To Proposed PacifiCare-UnitedHealth Merger
Proposed payments PacifiCare executives would receive as part of a planned merger of PacifiCare Health Systems and UnitedHealth Group are “just one example of the kind of misguided get-rich-quick mentality that pervades HMO boardrooms, while providing no benefit to shareholders and patients,” Treasurer Phil Angelides (D), a Democratic gubernatorial candidate for 2006, writes in a San Jose Mercury News opinion piece.
Proposition 78 Supporters Outspend Proposition 79; Newspapers Make Recommendations
The campaign in favor of Proposition 78 and against Proposition 79 in the past two weeks has spent $3.8 million on 3,636 television spots, according to an analysis by HealthVote.org, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Nursing Homes Will Receive $900M Over Four Years To Improve Care, Increase Reimbursements
California nursing homes will receive $900 million over the next four years to help improve care and increase reimbursements, with half the money generated by industry fees and the other half from federal Medicaid matching funds, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Specter Will Not Attach Stem Cell Research Measure to Budget Bill
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on Friday said he will not attempt to attach language from a bill (HR 810/S 471) that would expand federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research to the fiscal year 2006 Labor-HHS-Education (HR 3010) appropriations measure, the New York Times reports.