Latest California Healthline Stories
Federal Judge Allows San Francisco To Join Challenge to Federal ‘Partial-Birth’ Abortion Ban
U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton on Wednesday allowed the city of San Francisco to join abortion-rights supporters in a lawsuit challenging a federal law that would ban so-called “partial-birth” abortion, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The federal government has paid $8.1 million to two individuals for their role in accusing Tenet Healthcare’s Redding Medical Center of performing unnecessary heart surgeries, the New York Times reports.
New Treatment for Cardiac Arrest Patients More Effective in Some Cases, Study Finds
People with asystole cardiac arrest are three times more likely to survive if they are given a hormone called vasopressin than if they receive epinephrine, a synthetic adrenaline that has been the standard emergency treatment for cardiac arrest for about 100 years, according to a study in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, the New York Times reports.
Los Angeles County Supervisors Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Zev Yaroslavsky on Tuesday engaged in “a heated debate” over whether to invite University of California-Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine Dean Gerald Levey to discuss the possibility of UCLA assuming responsibility for physician training at of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Workers’ Compensation Reform Unlikely by March 1, Democratic Leaders Say
Democratic leaders on Wednesday said that legislation to reform the state workers’ compensation system is “unlikely to pass” before the March 1 deadline set by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) in his State of the State address Tuesday, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in for-profit health plans had about the same usage rate of high-cost procedures as beneficiaries enrolled in not-for-profit plans, a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine found, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Alameda County Medical Center Announces Outside Panel Will Help Cut Costs
A group of consultants as early as this week will begin working with Alameda County Medical Center to help the health network reduce its estimated $71 million budget deficit, network interim CEO Efton Hall told the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday, the Contra Costa Times reports.
The Fair Political Practices Commission on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court against Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (D) for exceeding campaign donation limits, mischaracterizing 16 contributions, failing to report $3.8 million in gubernatorial campaign funds and violating campaign spending laws during his gubernatorial bid and campaign against Proposition 54, the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Riverside County Board of Supervisors Accepts Funds for Syphilis Program
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to accept $103,000 from the Department of Health Services to fund syphilis prevention efforts that include a media campaign and increased testing, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
Large companies that provide health benefits to retired employees likely will “post big earnings gains” in 2003 or 2004 as a result of a provision in the new Medicare law (HR 1) that provides subsidies to companies with retiree prescription drug coverage to encourage them to retain such coverage, the Wall Street Journal reports.