Latest California Healthline Stories
Sunkist Grower Inc.’s Self-Insured Plan To File Bankruptcy
Sunkist Growers Inc.’s self-insured health plan, SGP Benefit Plan Inc., has “folded” due to “spiraling” health costs and “poor management,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Rx Discount Card Programs Offer Small Savings, GAO Study Finds
Pharmacy discount cards on average save patients less than 10% on the retail price of prescription drugs “commonly taken” by seniors, according to a new General Accounting Office study.
Preliminary CDC Data Detects Rise in U.S. AIDS Cases
Preliminary data from the CDC show that U.S. AIDS cases rose by 8% in 2001 after seven years of “steady decline,” Knight-Ridder/Albany Times Union reports.
FDA Institutes Changes to End Drug Label Confusion
The FDA has ordered pharmaceutical companies to make some “eye-catching changes” to drug labels to help address confusion over “look-alike or sound-alike” treatment names, which have become a “major source” of medication errors, the AP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Critics Question ‘Unusually High’ Death Rate Among Inmates in Ventura County Jails
The Ventura County Board of Supervisors this month may sign a new $22.9 million, four-year contract with the California Forensic Medical Group, which has provided health and psychiatric care for inmates in the county jail system since 1987, but some critics have questioned the “unusually high rate of inmate deaths” under the care of the company, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Florida Can Continue Medicaid Formulary, Judge Rules
A federal judge ruled Friday that Florida may continue requiring pharmaceutical companies wanting to be listed in the state’s preferred Medicaid drug list to offer the state rebates, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Davis Scraps Plan to Cut $25 Million from State’s Trauma Care Centers
Gov. Gray Davis (D) will announce today that he is withdrawing his proposal to cut $25 million from the state’s 44 trauma care centers, a plan that had received “little support” from lawmakers, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Some Bay Area Hospitals Add Ethnic Dishes to Menus To Appeal to Multicultural Patient Population
A number of Bay Area hospitals have started offering “multicultural hospital cuisine” in an effort to be more “sensitive” to local ethnic groups, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Santa Clara County Children’s Health Initiative Enters Partnership with Sun Microsystems Employees
The Santa Clara County Children’s Health Initiative, a program developed to provide health coverage to the county’s estimated 70,000 uninsured children, has entered a fund-raising partnership with employees at Sun Microsystems, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
A new computer system for Massachusetts’ online prescription-filling program for Medicaid beneficiaries “virtually collapsed during its first days of operation” in December, “snarling” authorization for medication and “angering” pharmacists, AP/CNN.com reports.