Latest California Healthline Stories
Sacramento Bee Investigates Effects of Job Cuts on Health Services
Last year’s elimination of about 9,300 state jobs by former Gov. Gray Davis (D) has resulted in “less scrutiny of unscrupulous businesses, food-processing plants and nursing homes” and “wide-ranging” effects on the Department of Health Services, according to documents obtained by the Sacramento Bee.
FDA Approves Aventis’ Ketek, First in New Class of Antibiotics
FDA on Thursday approved Ketek, an Aventis drug that is the first in a new class of antibiotics called ketolides, offering an alternative for doctors in fighting drug-resistant strains of pneumonia, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports.
Small Businesses To Lobby Senate on AHPs Bill
The National Federation of Independent Business and 160 other organizations on Thursday began a campaign for the passage of a bill (S 545) that would allow small businesses to band together across state lines to form association health plans, the Washington Times reports.
Adverse Effects of Dietary Supplements Should Be Reported, Panel Says
A federal advisory board from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council on Thursday released a report recommending changes in dietary supplement regulation and defining the limits of FDA’s authority to take supplements off the market, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Type 1 Diabetes Not Linked to Childhood Immunizations
The development of Type 1 diabetes is not linked with childhood immunization, according to a study published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports.
Bush Administration Officials Testify Regarding Foster’s Medicare Claims
Bush administration officials on Thursday told members of the House Ways and Means Committee “they had acted legally” in ordering CMS chief actuary Richard Foster to withhold from Congress his analysis that the Medicare legislation would exceed its target spending goal, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Indian Workers Threaten To Expose Confidential U.S. Medical Files
Workers in Bangalore, India, employed by Heartland Information Services, an Ohio medical transcription firm that handles patient records for several California hospitals, in October threatened to expose confidential information unless they received money from the company, San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Lazarus writes in his column.
Preliminary Injunction Granted To Allow Antiabortion Protesters To Display Signs in Riverside
Riverside, Calif., officials cannot confiscate signs displayed by antiabortion protesters on the sidewalk outside the Family Planning Associates clinic, as a result of a preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin, the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
Santa Paula Memorial Hospital May Have To Liquidate Assets To Pay Debt
Santa Paula Memorial Hospital might have to liquidate assets to pay its debts because negotiations between the hospital board and Ventura County have been unproductive, hospital administrator Gene Kaberline said Tuesday at a bankruptcy hearing at the U.S. Trustee’s Office in Santa Barbara, the Ventura County Star reports.
SEIU Will Seek Extended Health Benefits, Better Working Conditions for Health Workers
The Service Employees International Union held a forum Thursday in Sacramento to discuss contract negotiations and SEIU’s anticipated demands for control of staffing decisions and an “unprecedented level of benefits,” mostly related to work conditions, the Sacramento Bee reports.