Latest California Healthline Stories
Silicon Valley Foundation Selects Partner for Proposed Children’s Hospital
The Silicon Valley Children’s Hospital Foundation, which plans to build a 50-bed children’s facility in San Jose in the next two years, has selected Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital as a partner, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
New Government Study Finds 35% of U.S. Internet Users Search for Health Information Online
About 35% of U.S. Internet users — 40% of women and 30% of men — visited the Web last September to search for health information, a new report released Tuesday by the Department of Commerce found.
Group Files Lawsuit Against Tenet Alleging Hospital Chain Inflates Prices for Uninsured Latinos
Santa Barbara-based Tenet Health Care Corp. was sued yesterday for allegedly “severely overcharg[ing]” uninsured Latino patients for medical care and then writing off their unpaid bills as charity care for reimbursements by the state and federal governments, the Washington Post reports.
Percentage of Teenage Births Decline in California, Premature Births Increase, National Study Finds
Access to prenatal care has improved in California, while the percentage of teenagers in the state giving birth declined between 1990 and 1999, according to a new report released Tuesday by Child Trends, an independent research center “dedicated to improving the lives of children and families,” and the Kids Count program of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Bakersfield Californian Editorial Urges State to Expand Nursing Programs at Universities
California must “greatly” expand four-year and six-year nursing programs at colleges and universities — an issue that two nursing measures announced last month by Gov. Gray Davis (D) do not address — to alleviate the state’s “acute” nurse shortage, according to a Bakersfield Californian editorial.
Pelosi Sworn in as House Minority Whip, Vows to Highlight Women’s Health Issues in Congress
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has vowed to move reproductive health issues such as family planning funding and abortion rights into the “legislative limelight,” was officially sworn in as House Minority Whip yesterday, becoming the
“highest-ranking woman ever elected to federal office,” Women’s ENews reports.
Rival Economic Stimulus Bills Die in Senate Procedural Votes
As expected, the Senate yesterday defeated rival economic stimulus bills — which both included health provisions — in two procedural votes that “virtually ensure” that Congress will not pass such legislation this year, the Washington Post reports.
Palomar Pomerado Health System Challenges Nurses’ Signature Campaign for Unionization
Palomar Pomerado Health system officials will not “honor the results” of a signature campaign by nurses to gain union representation, according to a memo distributed recently to nurses, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Lawmakers Question Thompson About Budget’s Lack of Funding to Increase Medicare Provider Payments
“[S]keptical” members of the House Ways and Means Committee expressed concerns to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson at a hearing yesterday about the lack of funding in President Bush’s fiscal year 2003 budget to increase payments to Medicare providers, CongressDaily/AM reports.
Democrats Should Link Medicare’s Long-Term Fiscal Health to Bush’s Tax Cut, New Republic Editor Says
If Democrats want to make a politically sustainable argument for rolling back the 11-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut passed by Congress and signed by President Bush last year, they should link the tax cut’s resulting decrease in federal revenues to the long-term fiscal health of Medicare, New Republic assistant editor Noam Scheiber writes in the magazine’s current issue.