Latest California Healthline Stories
Public-Private Partnership To Help Address Conditions in San Joaquin Valley
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Friday signed an executive order to create a public-private partnership to address problems in the San Joaquin Valley, including inadequate access to health care, the Bakersfield Californian reports.
Veterans Affairs Secretary To Testify on $1B Budget Shortfall
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson and other VA officials on Tuesday will testify before Congress “to explain why the department has just now revealed budget shortfalls of at least $1 billion” in health care funding in the current and next fiscal years, CQ Today reports.
McClellan Details Pay-for-Performance Plans Under Medicare
CMS Administrator Mark McClellan in a letter to two House Republicans “detailed his agency’s plans” to implement a pay-for-performance system for Medicare providers, CQ HealthBeat reports.
Consultants Help States Find Medicaid Loopholes, GAO Study Says
Thirty-four states in 2004 paid consultants on a contingency-fee basis to help the states receive larger Medicaid reimbursements from the federal government, often through “questionable billing practices,” according to a Government Accountability Office study, the New York Times reports.
Los Angeles County Supervisors Considering Outsourcing King/Drew Medical Center
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is discussing the possibility of outsourcing Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center to a private company after two years of attempts to correct problems in patient care and management, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Flu Pandemic Could Kill 500,000, Hospitalize 2M in United States, Report Says
A moderately severe strain of pandemic flu could kill more than 500,000 people in the United States and hospitalize more than 2.3 million, according to a report released on Friday by the Trust for America’s Health, Reuters/Orlando Sentinel reports.
Private health care spending for obesity-related conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, was 10 times higher in 2002 than in 1987, according to a study conducted by the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University in Atlanta and published online Monday in the journal Health Affairs, USA Today reports.
The AP/Las Vegas Sun on Sunday examined how the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will not cover a category of drugs called benzodiazepines, which are also known as benzos and are used to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizures.
Two pharmaceutical companies last week gave more than $12 million to support a ballot initiative addressing prescription drug discounts by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Los Angeles Superior Court To Hear Case Against Discount Card Company Care Entree
Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday was scheduled to hear a lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles family against Care Entree, which markets health care discount cards, seeking to bar the company from doing business in the state, the Los Angeles Times reports.