Latest California Healthline Stories
Children’s Hospitals Donate to Campaign in Favor of Proposition 61
California’s eight children’s hospitals each have contributed about $600,000 to a campaign in support of Proposition 61, a measure on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot that would provide $750 million to pay for construction, expansion and equipment for children’s hospitals, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Tenet Denied Hearing in Physician-Relocation Agreements Trial
U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz on Friday denied a motion filed by Tenet Healthcare that sought a perjury hearing over alleged lies in testimony from prosecution witnesses in a trial related to physician-relocation agreements used by Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The American Medical Association has adopted a new policy in support of allowing the HHS secretary to negotiate discounts with pharmaceutical manufacturers for the medications that will be covered under the new Medicare drug benefit in 2006, the New York Times reports.
Venture Capitalists Among Largest Donors to Campaign in Favor of Measure To Fund Stem Cell Research
Venture capitalists to date have raised about half of the total $19 million collected for the campaign in favor of Proposition 71, a bond measure on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot to fund stem cell research, prompting criticism that investors are “lining up to profit” from the taxpayer-funded bond measure, the Los Angeles Times reports.
New York Times Looks at Reimportation of Prescription Drugs
The New York Times on Saturday examined the debate over legalizing prescription drug reimportation from foreign nations and the related idea of imposing medication price controls in the United States.
California Performance Review Committee Reduces Savings Estimate
Initial savings assessments for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) state bureaucracy reform plan based on the California Performance Review have been reduced from the $32 billion estimated in August to $15 billion, and key administration officials are “said to be divided over whether to push [the plan’s] politically unpopular proposals,” the Orange County Register reports.
Medicare Disease Management Programs Might Not Reduce Costs, Congressional Budget Office Says
There is “insufficient evidence” to back up assertions from some lawmakers and other health experts that disease management programs would reduce Medicare spending, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released Wednesday, CongressDaily reports.
Opponents of Measure To Fund Stem Cell Research Cite Financial, Rather Than Ethical Reasons
The campaign against a bond measure on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot to fund stem cell research has “largely turned away from the ethical matters that have dominated” the national debate on the issue and is now largely based on financial arguments, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Schwarzenegger Ballot Mailer Does Not Include His Position on Stem Cell Measure
A 12-page mailer urging about five million state voters to “follow … the lead of” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on the “most important” measures on the statewide Nov. 2 ballot “notably” does not take a position on a bond measure to fund stem cell research, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Ballot Measure To Fund Hospital Affecting Board Election for Palomar Pomerado Health District
The San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday examined how Proposition BB, a $496 million district bond measure that would fund construction of a new Palomar Medical Center, is “overshadow[ing]” the Palomar Pomerado Health district board election.