Latest California Healthline Stories
Assembly, Senate Committees Hold Workers’ Compensation Hearings
As expected, the Assembly Insurance Committee and the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on Wednesday held separate hearings on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) proposals to reduce employers’ workers’ compensation costs, the Sacramento Bee reports.
South Korean Researchers Extract Stem Cells From Cloned Human Embryo
South Korean researchers have extracted stem cells from a cloned human embryo that was grown to the blastocyst stage, according to a study to be presented on Thursday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and published on Friday in the journal Science, USA Today reports.
U.S. Infant Mortality Rate Rises for First Time Since 1958, CDC Report Finds
The infant mortality rate in the United States rose for the first time in more than 40 years between 2001 and 2002, according to a report released on Wednesday by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, the Washington Times reports.
The California Healthcare Association on Wednesday presented to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) voluntary guidelines for CHA members that would ease hospitals’ collection policies and offer financial aid to low-income uninsured patients, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Nurses File Suit Against Duarte Facility After Unit Closures Prompted Layoffs
Seventeen nurses who worked at Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte last week filed a lawsuit against the facility, saying they were laid off without notice when the maternity unit, emergency department and acute-care facility closed last month, the Pasadena Star-News reports.
IOM Report Recommends Reduced Sodium Consumption
An Institute of Medicine nutritional report released Wednesday said that the federal government should reduce the recommended daily allowance of sodium to 1,500 milligrams, a 40% decrease from the current RDA of 2,400 milligrams, the AP/Wall Street Journal reports.
Growth Rate of Health Care Spending To Decrease in 2003, CMS Study Finds
U.S. health spending is projected to continue increasing in 2003, but the growth rate is expected to decrease for the first time in six years, according to a report by CMS, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Group of Senators Discuss Plans To Introduce New Prescription Drug Reimportation Bill
A “powerful” group of senators have begun to discuss plans to introduce a “scaled-back” bill that would allow the reimportation of lower-cost, U.S.-manufactured prescription drugs from Canada, The Hill reports.
Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. John Kerry Wins Primaries in Virginia, Tennessee
Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Tuesday won “commanding victories” in the Tennessee and Virginia Democratic primaries, “solidifying his position as perhaps the unstoppable front-runner for the Democratic nomination and dealing a serious blow to his two Southern rivals,” retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark (D) from Arkansas and Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), the New York Times reports.
An increase in syphilis cases in San Francisco among men who have sex with men has not resulted in an increase in HIV infections, according to a CDC report presented Tuesday at the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.