Latest California Healthline Stories
State Unlikely To Intervene in Tenet Hospital Sales, Attorney General Says
State officials are unlikely to intervene in the sale of Tenet Healthcare hospitals in Southern California, and the Legislature is not expected to enact laws limiting ownership of area hospitals, Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) said at a Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Commission hearing on Thursday, the Pasadena Star-News reports.
Two Scientists Say President’s Council on Bioethics Skews Research for Political Reasons
A member and a former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics charge that Chair Dr. Leon Kass has “skewed scientific facts in service of a political and ideological cause,” according to a critique published online Friday in the journal PLoS Biology, the Boston Globe reports.
San Francisco General Hospital and Planned Parenthood Golden Gate clinics do not have to provide the U.S. Department of Justice access to the medical records of women who have undergone abortions at the facilities, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled Friday, citing patient privacy rights, the Los Angeles Times reports.
New York Times Examines Bush Administration Position on Medical Privacy
The New York Times on Saturday examined the Bush administration’s “new, more limited view” of medical privacy rights, as it attempts to force some hospitals and clinics to turn over records pertaining to abortions to defend a law (S 3) banning so-called “partial-birth” abortions.
Health Access California, a coalition of social service organizations, on Thursday said that it would oppose Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) “plans to cut millions of dollars from health care programs that serve children and the elderly,” the AP/Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
Chicago Tribune Examines Medicare Prescription Drug Cards
The Chicago Tribune on Monday looked at the potential effect of Medicare prescription drug discount cards, which will be introduced by private insurers, HMOs, drug companies and others this June.
Belshe Announces Working Groups To Address Medi-Cal Redesign Proposal
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kim Belshe on Thursday announced the creation of five working groups to “inform California’s Medi-Cal redesign proposal” and to provide state officials with “input, ideas and suggestions” from legislators, beneficiaries, local government officials, providers, health plans and “others directly affected by the redesign of this critical program,” according to a letter posted on a newly created Medi-Cal redesign Web site.
Medical Centers Explore Possible Merger of Open-Heart Surgery Programs
John Muir and Mt. Diablo medical centers are exploring the possibility of consolidating their open-heart surgery programs, the Contra Costa Times reports.
HHS Secretary Thompson Announces New National Science Advisory Board on Bioterrorism Research
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson on Thursday announced the creation of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, a committee of experts that will set guidelines to try to prevent government-funded scientific research from producing potential weapons for bioterrorists, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Man Admits to Sale of Body Parts Willed for Research at University of California-San Francisco
Ernest Nelson, an alleged middleman in the sale of body parts from cadavers willed to University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine, on Sunday said that he visited the medical school two times per week over a six-year period to dismember a total of 800 corpses and sell the parts to large medical research companies “with full knowledge of UCLA officials,” the Los Angeles Times reports.