Latest California Healthline Stories
Hospital Group Endorses Tax Measure To Fund Doctors Medical Center
The East Bay section of the Hospital Council has endorsed a measure for the June 8 ballot that would assess single-family homeowners a $52-per-year tax to help fund Doctors Medical Center San Pablo, the Contra Costa Times reports.
El Cajon Hires Consulting Firm To Analyze Emergency Services Spending
The El Cajon City Council voted 4-0 to hire consulting firm Health Analytics to study how the city can reduce emergency medical services costs after the city spent almost $600,000 last year to cover unexpected costs related to transporting people to hospitals, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Legalization of Prescription Drug Reimportation Would Not Reduce U.S. Spending, CBO Brief Finds
Allowing the reimportation of lower-cost, U.S.-made prescription drugs from other nations “would have little impact” on drug spending in the United States, according to an issue brief released Thursday by the Congressional Budget Office, CongressDaily reports.
CDC Issues Recommendations on First-Line Treatment of Gonorrhea Among Men Who Have Sex With Men
The class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones should no longer be used as a first-line treatment for the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea among men who have sex with men, according to revised recommendations published in the April 30 issue of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Department of Insurance Holds Workers’ Compensation Hearing
Preliminary savings for employers from the new workers’ compensation reform law (SB 899) “could be substantial,” but “lawsuits and bureaucratic tinkering could delay the full savings until 2007,” witnesses at a Department of Insurance hearing testified Thursday, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Cases of Common Food-Borne Illnesses on Decrease, CDC Report Finds
Although 76 million people in the United States contract a food-borne or diarrheal illness each year, cases of the most common illnesses have declined, according to surveillance data CDC released Thursday, USA Today reports.
CMS Administrator Mark McClellan on Wednesday urged Medicare beneficiaries to wait to sign up for the prescription drug discount card program to see if drug prices offered through the program fall in the coming weeks, USA Today reports.
Oakland-based HMO Kaiser Permanente on Monday sent letters to 1,331 patients who had undergone gastroenterology procedures — endoscopy, colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy — at its South Sacramento facility between Jan. 19 and April 15, to notify them that their physicians may have used “contaminated instruments” and that the patients should be tested for hepatitis within two weeks, the Sacramento Bee reports.
More Than 200 House Members Ask President Bush To Expand Stem Cell Research Funds
A bipartisan group of 206 members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday sent a letter to President Bush asking him to change his policy restricting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, the Washington Post reports.
Orange County Proposes Preliminary Budget Including Cuts To Health Care Programs
In the next fiscal year, Orange County will eliminate about $50 million in funding to programs that provide health care and other services to the elderly, poor and “troubled youths,” according to a county budget analysis released Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reports.