Latest California Healthline Stories
Los Angeles County Audit Raises Questions About Billing Practices at King/Drew Medical Center
About 24 contract physicians at Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center billed Los Angeles County for hundreds of hours this year that could not be explained, “suggesting that fiscal mismanagement and possible fraud persist at the public hospital,” according to an audit sent on Thursday to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Bush Administration Begins National Campaign for Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
In the first four stops of the Bush administration’s national campaign to promote the new Medicare drug benefit, officials encountered “skepticism” from some beneficiaries, the New York Times reports.
Task Force To Recommend Licensing and Monetary Policies for Stem Cell Agency
A California Council for Science and Technology task force is preparing recommendations for how the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine should handle the financial rights to any discoveries resulting from Proposition 71 funds, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Chiron Lowers Flu Vaccine Production Estimate at German Facility
California-based Chiron on Friday announced that production of Begrivac, its German-made flu vaccine, will be “scaled back sharply” — by about eight million doses — because of contamination at the company’s German manufacturing plant, Reuters/New York Times reports.
FDA To Make Decision on Plan B Application by Sept. 1
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Friday in a letter to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said that FDA will make a decision by Sept. 1 about whether to approve Barr Laboratories’ application for nonprescription sales of its emergency contraceptive Plan B, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports.
Transition to Automated CalWIN System in Contra Costa County Could Delay Medi-Cal Benefits
Contra Costa County officials are expecting delays of about six months in issuing some Medi-Cal benefits, providing services and sending out mailings while the county Employment and Human Services Department implements a new automated CalWIN system, the Contra Costa Times reports.
NGA Expected To Approve Set of Medicaid Proposals
The National Governors Association on Monday during its annual meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, is expected to approve a slate of cost-saving proposals for Medicaid, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
Conference Addresses Role of Food Advertisements in Increased Rates of Childhood Obesity
The federal government could take legislative action to regulate advertisements for “junk food” that target children in the event that the food industry does not address the issue, Federal Trade Commission Chair Deborah Platt Majoras warned on Thursday at a Washington, D.C., conference on childhood obesity and food ads, the AP/Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
Bush Requests Almost $2B for VA Health Care Programs for Fiscal Year 2006
President Bush on Thursday asked Congress for $1.98 billion for Department of Veterans Affairs health care programs for fiscal year 2006 to address an expected budget deficit, CongressDaily reports.
JCAHO Issues Warning on Cancer Medication
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations issued a safety alert Thursday warning hospitals of a rare but serious drug mix-up in which a cancer drug that is supposed to be administered intravenously is injected into spinal catheters, causing permanent paralysis or death in most cases, AP/Long Island Newsday reports.