Latest California Healthline Stories
House Ways and Means Committee Hearing To Focus on Medicare Law Cost Estimate Discrepancies
During Wednesday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the Medicare legislation, Democrats are planning to “zero in” on higher Medicare payments to private health plans, called for under the law and detailed in documents provided Friday to Congress by CMS chief actuary Richard Foster, CongressDaily reports.
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley (D) has certified for the November statewide ballot a referendum to repeal a law (SB 2) that will require some employers to provide health insurance to employees or pay into a state fund to provide such coverage, referendum supporters announced Monday, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Assembly Member Introduces Bill To Rate Prescription Drugs According to Cost Effectiveness
Assembly member Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) last month introduced a bill (AB 2326) that would require the Department of Managed Health Care to create a report card to rate prescription drugs based on their cost effectiveness, the Oakland Tribune reports.
Consumer Advocates Testify Before Task Force on Reimportation of Prescription Drugs
The federal government could ensure the safety of prescription drugs imported to the United States from other nations by “inspecting foreign production plans, licensing wholesale importers and tracking shipments from factory to pharmacy,” consumer advocates testified on Friday at the first of six “listening sessions” held by the Task Force on Drug Importation as part of a study on the safety of the practice, the New York Times reports.
‘Ethics Pool’ for Investigation of Bribery for Medicare Vote Established
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday each formally announced 10 lawmakers who will become part of an “ethics pool” from which the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct can select to establish an investigative subcommittee to examine allegations that unnamed Republican lawmakers last November “improperly pressured” Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) to vote in favor of the Medicare legislation.
Changes at King/Drew Medical Center Sufficient To Maintain Medicare Funding, CMS Says
CMS said Friday that it would not revoke Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center’s certification to participate in Medicare because it found that the hospital “submitted adequate plans for correcting widespread flaws in the way it administers drugs to patients,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Mental Health Initiative Gathers Enough Signatures for November Ballot, Supporters Say
Assembly member Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and others on Friday announced that they have collected and submitted 643,950 voter signatures — 270,134 more than needed — to qualify for the Nov. 2 ballot an initiative that would raise the tax on state residents who earn more than $1 million annually to create “the most extensive mental health system in state history,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
Chapman, Western Universities End Merger Talks
Chapman University in Orange and Western University of Health Services in Pomona have ended plans for a merger because of disagreements over issues such as the proposed name and governing structure of the new institution, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Votes To Continue Medical Subsidy for County Retirees
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors last week voted 3-2 to maintain a monthly medical subsidy for more than 5,800 retired county workers, giving the retirees a “free pass” through the board’s process of considering funding reductions to offset a $49 million county budget deficit, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Sacramento Bee Looks at Effects of Proposed Funding Cuts to In-Home Care Services Program
In the first in an occasional series on funding cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) in his fiscal year 2004-2005 state budget, the Sacramento Bee on Monday looked at a proposal that would reduce by one-third funding for In-Home Supportive Services, which uses federal, state and county money to subsidize salaries of home-care workers for low-income residents who would otherwise need to live in nursing homes.