Latest California Healthline Stories
Five Major Candidates Address Health-Related Issues in Gubernatorial Recall Debate
The five major candidates in the gubernatorial recall election Wednesday participated in a “boisterous debate” over health care, the state budget and questions about other issues, the budget and other issues, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
New Bush Administration Rule To Create ‘Feeding Assistant’ Positions in Nursing Homes
A new HHS rule will allow nursing homes to hire low-wage or part-time workers who have completed an eight-hour training course to help feed patients, a task that currently can be performed only by licensed nurses, certified nurse’s aides or other health care professionals, the New York Times reports.
Administrator at Tenet-Owned Alvarado Medical Center Arrested
An associate administrator at San Diego-based Alvarado Hospital Medical Center was arrested on Tuesday as part of a federal investigation into alleged illegal payments to physicians by a subsidiary of Tenet Healthcare that owns the hospital, the AP/New York Times reports.
Davis Signs Number of Health-Related Bills
Gov. Gray Davis (D) recently has signed a number of health-related bills.
CMS Will Continue To Accept Noncompliant Claims After HIPAA Deadline
CMS officials on Tuesday said that the agency will continue to accept and process health care claims that do not meet the requirements of a new electronic system mandated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act after the rule’s Oct. 16 compliance deadline, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
BlueCross of California and Kaiser Permanente will stop offering their Medicare+Choice plans beginning Jan. 1, 2004, to more than 7,500 Medicare beneficiaries in Ventura and Santa Clara counties, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Court Rules Recall Election, Vote on Proposition 54 Will Proceed Oct. 7
An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco Tuesday unanimously ruled that the recall election and the vote on Proposition 54 will be held on Oct. 7, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Schwarzenegger Addresses Workers’ Compensation in Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece
California’s worker’s compensation system “needs an overhaul,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
CalPERS Reports Improved HMO Patient Satisfaction Ratings
HMOs’ satisfaction and effectiveness of care ratings from CalPERS members improved this year, according to results from an annual CalPERS survey announced last week, Modern Physician reports.
California Begins Offering Tobacco Bonds With State-Guaranteed Return
After a delay of several months, California this week began offering tobacco bonds with a return guaranteed by payments from the national tobacco settlement, the San Francisco Chronicle.