Latest California Healthline Stories
FDA Committee Opposes Inamed Silicone Breast Implant Application
An FDA advisory committee on Tuesday voted 5-4 to recommend against agency approval of an application submitted by medical device company Inamed to allow the company to sell silicone breast implants to the general population because of concerns about a lack of long-term safety data, the Wall Street Journal reports.
FDA Advisory Committee Begins Three Days of Hearings on Safety of Silicone Breast Implants
An FDA advisory committee on Monday began three days of hearings to determine whether to recommend the removal of a 13-year ban on the sale of silicone breast implants to the general population, the AP/Washington Post reports.
Tulare County Forum Discusses Obesity Rates Among Children in Low-Income Families
Tulare County health officials and residents on Friday gathered to discuss the county’s increasing childhood obesity rates and possible ways to address the problem, the Fresno Bee reports.
Law Allowing Pharmacists in San Francisco To Sell Syringes Without a Prescription Takes Effect
Pharmacists in San Francisco are permitted to sell syringes to adults without a prescription under an ordinance that took effect Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
State Medicaid Officials Deny HHS Allegations of Improper Accounting Practices
Medicaid officials from states identified by HHS as using improper accounting techniques to boost federal funding “defended their practices, saying that in some cases federal officials had explicitly approved the arrangements,” also adding that they have “repeatedly asked the federal government to clarify the rules,” the New York Times reports.
Privacy Advocates Concerned by San Jose Medical Group Computer Theft
The March 28 theft of two computers containing the personal information of 185,000 patients from the San Jose Medical Group has caused “privacy advocates to worry that th[e] case … will make people afraid to get the medical care they need,” the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Abortion Notification Measure Sponsors Say They Have Signatures To Qualify Proposal for Ballot
Sponsors of a measure that would require physicians to notify a parent or guardian 48 hours before they perform an abortion on an unmarried minor maintain that they will have the 598,105 voter signatures required to qualify the proposal for the next statewide ballot, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Wholesale prices for brand-name prescription drugs increased by 7.1% — 2.5 times the general inflation rate of 2.7% — between 2003 and 2004, according to a study released on Tuesday by AARP, USA Today reports.
Memo Indicates That Failure in Patient Care Led to Sixth Death at King/Drew
A patient hooked to a cardiac monitor died last month at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, after nurses failed to notice the patient’s deteriorating vital signs, according to a confidential memo from Los Angeles County health officials released on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Senators To Introduce Bill To Extend Moratorium on Construction of New Specialty Hospitals
Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the committee’s ranking member, in the next few weeks plan to introduce a bill that would extend a moratorium on the construction of new specialty hospitals, according to committee aides, The Hill reports.