Latest California Healthline Stories
The Los Angeles City Council should approve a proposal that “combin[es] the purchasing power of individual consumers, small businesses, hospitals, employees and others” to negotiate discounts on prescription drugs, City Council member Antonio Villaraigosa and Jerry Flanagan, health care director for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, write in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece.
Lawmakers React To EEOC Rule on Employer Health Benefits for Older Retirees
Lawmakers have begun to react to a “politically sensitive” ruling by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to allow employers to reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they become eligible for Medicare coverage at age 65, CQ Today reports.
Frommer Urges Voters To Reject Ballot Initiative To Repeal Employer-Mandated Insurance Law
Assembly member Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) on Friday urged voters to reject an initiative on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot to repeal a measure (SB 2) that will require some employers to provide health insurance to workers or pay into a state fund to provide such coverage, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
Medco Health Solutions Settles State, Federal Lawsuits
Medco Health Solutions, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit manager, agreed on Monday to pay $29.3 million to settle charges in a lawsuit filed by attorneys general in 20 states that the company switched patients’ medicines and did not pass on the savings, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Alameda County Medical Center Board of Supervisors Votes To Cut Almost 350 Jobs
The Alameda County Medical Center Board of Trustees on Monday approved a proposal recommended by a team of consultants to eliminate the equivalent of almost 350 full-time staff positions to address “its struggle with a projected $73 million deficit,” the Contra Costa Times reports.
Efforts to legalize the reimportation of lower-cost, U.S.-made medications from other nations “gained a second wind” last week with the introduction of a bipartisan Senate bill (S 2328) that would allow the practice, but the legislation “isn’t going anywhere” until Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) allow a vote, according to a Los Angeles Times editorial.
The overall incidence of cancer among employees of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Livermore community members has not been higher than normal, “with the curious exception of melanoma,” a skin cancer, according to a report by the Department of Health Services and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released Friday, the Oakland Tribune reports.
President Bush Promotes Proposal To Establish National Electronic Medical Records System
President Bush on Monday at a meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges in Minnesota promoted a proposal to establish a nationwide electronic medical records system over the next 10 years and create a national health information technology office within HHS to lead the effort, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The San Diego County Medical Society Foundation has partnered with Virginia-based SureScripts to recruit physicians to prescribe drugs using software that would automatically transfer the information to a pharmacy, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Democrats Criticize Refusal of HHS To Release Cost Estimates for New Medicare Law
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Democratic colleagues on the House Government Reform Committee on Monday sent HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson a letter, saying that the Bush administration is “obstructing” a congressional investigation into the cost estimates for the new Medicare law, the CongressDaily reports.