Latest California Healthline Stories
Kaiser Permanente To Announce $1.8 Billion Plan To Put Patient Medical Records Online
Kaiser Permanente, the country’s largest not-for-profit HMO, today will announce plans to automate its system of patient medical records — a move that could “set a new standard for American medicine,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Demand for Mental Health Care in State May Not Be Met in 2010, Study Finds
Demand for mental health care in California could rise by as much as 30% in this decade, and there may not be enough mental health professionals to fill the need, according to a study released Monday by the California Workforce Initiative of the University of California-San Francisco Center for the Health Professions.
San Francisco Chronicle Opinion Pieces Examine High Breast Cancer Rate in Marin County
Two opinion pieces in the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday discussed the high rate of breast cancer in Marin County and related issues.
KQED’s “California Report” yesterday profiled the Welcome Back: International Health Worker Assistance Center, a program in San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles that trains immigrant health care professionals for jobs in the U.S. health care system.
Scully To Announce Medicare Outlier Payment Revisions As Early As Today
CMS Administrator Tom Scully as early as today is expected to announce plans to revise the way Medicare administers hospital outlier payments, which reimburse for unusually costly care, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Nearly 20% of Patients Experience Adverse Events After Hospital Stay, Study Finds
Almost 20% of patients experience “inadequate care” and “outright medical mistakes” in the days following a discharge from a hospital, according to a study published in today’s Annals of Internal Medicine.
California Hospitals Discharge Many Newborns in Low-Income Families Early, Study Finds
Hospitals in California discharge many newborns in low-income families earlier than the recommended two days, despite a state law that requires health insurers to cover the cost, according to a study published in the February issue of Pediatrics, the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Many Physicians ‘Slow’ To Adopt Standard Care-Management Practices, Study Finds
Many physicians are “slow” to adopt standard care-management practices, “reflecting a large gap between medical knowledge and clinical practice,” a problem that many researchers and large health care purchasers consider a “critical factor in both cost and quality woes infecting the health care system,” according to a study published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) on Monday introduced a bill (SB 112) that would shift the responsibility of an organ donor registry from the state to a not-for-profit organization, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Reaction to Bush Administration’s Medicaid Proposal ‘Noncommittal to Hostile’
The Medicaid reform proposal announced last week by the Bush administration has received “noncommittal to hostile” reaction, the Hartford Courant reports.