Latest California Healthline Stories
Tenet Hospitals Overcharge for Prescription Drugs, CNA Study Says
Tenet Healthcare-owned hospitals charge approximately eight times the actual costs of prescription drugs, nearly twice what other hospitals nationwide charge, according to a study commissioned by the California Nurses Association, the New York Times reports.
Forbes.com Profiles EHealthInsurance.com
Forbes.com on Thursday profiled eHealthInsurance.com, a Web site that provides consumers with information on individual health insurance policies and allows them to enroll online.
President Bush Expected To Issue Smallpox Vaccination Decision in December
President Bush will likely make a “long-anticipated” decision on many of the details of a national smallpox vaccination plan in the weeks after Thanksgiving but will “most likely put off deciding the most sensitive question of whether the vaccine will be made available to all Americans,” the Washington Post reports.
Raley’s Unionized Pharmacists Reject Contract Proposal in Second Vote, May Plan To Strike
Unionized pharmacists at the Raley’s supermarket chain yesterday voted against the company’s contract proposal, the second time in two months that the pharmacists refused to endorse an agreement between the company and their union, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Philip Morris ‘Secretly’ Conducted Studies on Effects of Cigarette Smoking, Witness Testifies
The tobacco industry “secretly” conducted studies in Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s that linked cigarette smoking to cancer and later destroyed documents to eliminate a “paper trail,” a former Philip Morris executive testified last week in Sacramento Superior Court, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Women, Minority Enrollment Increasing at Medical Schools, Philadelphia Inquirer Reports
The Philadelphia Inquirer today reports on the increasing number of women and minorities at medical schools.
DHS Halts Medi-Cal Payments to Two Redding Doctors Accused of Performing ‘Unnecessary Operations’
The Department of Health Services on Friday halted Medi-Cal payments to two doctors currently being investigated by the FBI for allegedly performing “unnecessary operations,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
Mixon Named General Counsel for CalPERS
The Board of Administrators for CalPERS last week named Peter Mixon general counsel for the health system, a position that he has held on an interim basis for the past three months, the Sacramento Bee reports.
New York Times Looks at Growing Ranks of Uninsured Among the Middle Class
The New York Times today examines the “changing portrait” of U.S. residents who lack health insurance, a problem traditionally associated with the poor and unemployed that now is “spreading up the income ladder and deep into the ranks of those with full-time jobs.”
Lawmakers Will Consider Solutions to State’s Health Care Crisis Next Legislative Session
The San Francisco Chronicle today examines possible solutions to the state’s health care crisis, which the paper says could become a “true emergency” because of the “lack of medical insurance for California’s working poor.”