Latest California Healthline Stories
President Bush, hoping to reduce illegal drug use in the United States by 25% over the next five years, yesterday unveiled a new plan to “reorient federal drug policy toward treatment rather than enforcement,” the Washington Post reports.
Wall Street Journal Examines Prescription Drug Cost ‘Battle’ at Veterans Affairs Department
The Wall Street Journal today examines how the Department of Veterans Affairs has become “a unique testing ground of government and industry interplay” in the “battle” over rising prescription drug prices.
AIDS Activists Freed After Judge Reduces Bail
San Francisco AIDS activists Michael Petrelis and David Pasquarelli were released from jail last week on a reduced bond and are now free until their trial on numerous harassment charges begins, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Democrats Offer Provision in Trade Bill to Help Some Unemployed Workers Purchase Health Insurance
Senate Democrats have included a provision to help unemployed workers “displaced by trade” purchase health insurance in a trade adjustment assistance bill (S 1209) — “raising the possibility of a nasty dustup” over whether the trade bill should provide such health benefits, CongressDaily/AM reports.
Santa Clara Dentists To Provide Free Cleanings, Check-ups to Children on Valentine’s Day
Fifty Santa Clara County dentists will mark Valentine’s Day by offering free basic exams and cleanings tomorrow to about 500 low-income children as part of “Dentists with a Heart” day, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Broad Coalition of Groups Launches $10 Million Campaign to Address ‘Crisis’ of the Uninsured
As expected, a broad coalition of employers, unions, insurers, providers and consumer advocates kicked off a $10 million campaign yesterday to ease the national “crisis” of the uninsured, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Satcher Discusses Tenure as Surgeon General, Offers Advice for the Future as Four-Year Term Ends
Today is Surgeon General David Satcher’s last day as the nation’s top doctor, ending a four-year term in which he “walked a fine a line between science and politics,” the AP/Baltimore Sun reports.
Problems for Sacramento Physicians Group Grow After Radiologists Cancel Contract
One of the Sacramento area’s largest radiology companies has canceled its contract with the Golden State Physicians Medical Group, an independent practice association, further complicating the group’s “struggle for business survival,” the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
UnitedHealth Group, AARP File Suit Against AdvancePCS for Diverting Patients from Rival PBM
Minnesota-based insurer UnitedHealth Group and the AARP have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minnesota against pharmacy benefit manager AdvancePCS, accusing the company of “illicitly diverting” patients from an AARP pharmacy discount plan administered by UnitedHealth and “putting them at risk for potentially dangerous drug interactions,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
New York Times Examines ‘Bitter and Unusually Public’ Debate Over Mammograms
The New York Times yesterday examined the “bitter and unusually public” debate over the effectiveness of mammography at reducing breast cancer deaths, long considered “an article of medical faith.”