Latest California Healthline Stories
Pasadena Firm Offers To Manage Santa Paula Memorial Hospital
Pasadena-based Kare Healthcare has approached leaders of Santa Paula Memorial Hospital — a 49-bed facility that operated the only emergency department between the cities of Santa Clarita and Ventura — about managing the facility if it reopens, the Los Angeles Times reports.
New Medicare Law Addresses Long-Term Finances, McClellan Writes
The new Medicare law includes government accounting changes, such as a modification that requires an annual assessment of the program’s long-term liability, CMS Administrator Mark McClellan writes in a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal.
House Should Move on Genetic Testing Discrimination Ban Legislation, Editorial States
The House should move on a version of a bill (S 1053) that would ban discrimination against individuals by employers and insurers based on their genetic information, according to a Washington Post editorial.
Hawaii, Maryland Might Join Multistate Prescription Drug Purchasing Pool
Hawaii has already applied and Maryland is expected to apply for membership to a multistate pool for purchasing prescription drugs recently approved by the federal government, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Kern County Medical Fund Administrators Meet Following Criticism From State Lawmaker
Administrators of a Kern County fund to offset the costs of treating the uninsured on Friday will meet with doctors and hospitals to discuss how they would like the fund to be administered, following criticism from Sen. Dean Florez (D-Bakersfield) and others, the Bakersfield Californian reports.
HHS Approves Plan by Five States To Form Prescription Drug Purchasing Pool
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson on Thursday approved a plan by five states to form a purchasing pool and “seek deeper discounts on prescription drugs for more than 900,000 Medicaid recipients,” the New York Times reports.
Los Robles Regional Medical Center To Receive Extra Federal Funding Under New Medicare Law
Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks will receive up to $1.5 million in additional funding through Medicare because of a one-time provision included in the new Medicare law, the Ventura County Star reports.
Certain Antidepressants Unsafe, Ineffective for Children, Study Finds
The antidepressants Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa and Effexor are unsafe and ineffective for most children and “especially dangerous” for children with suicidal tendencies, according to a British study published on Thursday in the Lancet, the Washington Post reports.
WellPoint Health Networks’ First-Quarter Profits Increase 53%
Officials for Thousand Oaks-based WellPoint Health Networks on Wednesday reported that the company’s first-quarter profits increased 53% to $295.2 million, or $1.85 per share, from $193.1 million, or $1.29 per share, a year earlier, Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times reports.
Adult Film Health Group Gives Los Angeles County Health Department Actors’ Medical Records
In response to a request from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation on Thursday turned over medical records of 51 adult film actors who may have been exposed to HIV, as well as the records of the two actors who recently tested HIV-positive, the AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.