Latest California Healthline Stories
Judge Reduces Smoker’s Punitive Damage Award from Philip Morris to $28M
A Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles yesterday “slashed” a punitive damage verdict against Philip Morris from $28 billion to $28 million in a lawsuit filed by a California smoker diagnosed with lung cancer after she smoked the company’s cigarettes for decades, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Service Workers at Stanford, Lucile Salter Packard Hospitals To Vote on New Contract
Hospital workers at Stanford University and Lucile Salter Packard hospitals today will vote on a new contract agreement, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
CalPERS To Investigate GlaxoSmithKline Price Policies for HIV Treatment
In response to requests from AIDS advocates who say that the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline charges consumers 32 times the cost of manufacturing its antiretroviral drug Retrovir, CalPERS officials said they would investigate the company’s pricing policies, according to an AIDS Healthcare Foundation press release.
FDA Eases Food Label Health Claim Guidelines
The FDA yesterday announced it would allow manufacturers to note certain health claims on food product labels before they are scientifically proven, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Rural Health Care Advocates in California Praise HHS J-1 Visa Waiver Rule
Rural health care advocates in California yesterday praised new HHS rules that will allow the agency to request waivers of return-home requirements for foreign physicians who trained in the United States under J-1 Visas, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Genetic ‘Signature’ in Breast Cancer Tumors May Predict Disease Progression, Chance of Survival
Researchers have detected a “genetic signature” in breast tumors that appears to be a “powerful predictor” of whether the cancer will metastasize and be fatal or whether the cancer can be cured “easily” with surgery, the New York Times reports.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to table until March consideration of a ballot measure proposed by Sheriff Lee Baca that would increase the county sales tax by a half cent to provide additional funds for emergency care and public safety, the Los Angeles Times reports.
HCA Agrees To Pay Justice Department $631M To Settle Civil Claims
Officials at HCA, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, yesterday said that the company has reached an agreement with the Justice Department to pay $631 million to settle civil claims over alleged Medicare fraud, although attorneys for the eight former HCA employees who prompted the federal investigation may challenge the settlement, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A group of 14 Democratic lawmakers yesterday sent a letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson accusing the Bush administration of “playing politics” by eliminating “key information” on condom use in a new fact sheet recently posted on the CDC Web site, the Los Angeles Times reports.
California Consumer Group Sues Kaiser Permanente Over Arbitration Process
The advocacy group California Consumers Health Care Council on Dec. 3 sued Kaiser Permanente in Superior Court in San Francisco, alleging the HMO’s mandatory arbitration system is “unfair” and illegal, the Contra Costa Times reports.