Latest California Healthline Stories
Tobacco Executive Responds to Surgeon General’s Proposal To Ban Tobacco
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona’s statement earlier this month that he would support banning all tobacco products did not “win him any measurable praise” from antismoking lobbyists or government officials because both groups are “‘addicted’ to tobacco revenue,” Tommy Payne, executive vice president for external relations for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece.
House Ways and Means Committee Approves Medicare Reform Bill
The House Ways and Means Committee yesterday voted 25-15 to approve a $413 billion, 10-year bill (HR 2473) that would attempt to increase the participation of private plans in Medicare and offer all beneficiaries a drug benefit, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Advocacy Groups Sue To Stop Closure of Two Alameda County Clinics
As expected, the Oakland-based Disability Rights Advocates and Bay Area Legal Aid yesterday filed a lawsuit to stop the scheduled June 30 closure of two Alameda County health clinics that serve about 25,000 people, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
CDC Asks Stop AIDS Project To Discontinue Some HIV-Prevention Programs
The CDC in a letter sent Friday to the San Francisco-based Stop AIDS Project said that some of the group’s HIV prevention workshops violate a Public Health Service Act ban on encouraging sexual activity and asked the group to discontinue the workshops, four months after an agency review found that the workshops were acceptable, USA Today reports.
Health Care IT Company McKesson Files Suit Against Connecticut Insurer
San Francisco-based health care information technology firm McKesson is seeking more than $1.1 million in damages for an alleged breach of contract by Trumbull, Conn.-based Oxford Health Plans, the Connecticut Post reports.
Criticisms Mount as Medicare Reform Proposal Moves to Senate Floor
The Medicare reform proposal that the Senate Finance Committee approved Thursday and the Senate is scheduled to debate today “has a long way to go” before it passes and “could change significantly” before it reaches President Bush because of concerns from members of Congress, health policy experts and advocacy groups, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Many Senators Own Stock in Health Care Companies, Washington Post Reports
With Congress engaged in “intense debate” over health care costs and other issues, many senators or their spouses owned stock in companies associated with health care in 2002, according to financial disclosure statements released Friday, the Washington Post reports.
Tenet To Eliminate 300 Jobs, Merge 56 Offices To Streamline Billing Operations
Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare will eliminate 300 jobs from its current 3,200-member billing and collection staff and consolidate 56 billing offices into eight regional offices and one Medicare-only office, the AP/Fresno Bee reports.
New York Times Examines Preferred Drug Lists in Medicaid Programs
The New York Times today looks at the increasing number of states that are adopting preferred drug lists for Medicaid patients, one of “several steps states have taken in recent years to try to control Medicaid costs.”
Arrests of 30,000 Caregivers Cause Backlog for Social Services Department
About 30,000 of the 738,000 workers who care for children, seniors and people with disabilities at state-licensed facilities have been arrested for various offenses since January — about double the number of arrest reports that the Department of Social Services received last year — causing a backlog of arrest reports to be investigated, the Los Angeles Times reports.