Latest California Healthline Stories
House GOP May Take Stimulus Compromise to Floor
House GOP leaders say they may take a new, “scaled-back” economic stimulus bill that includes provisions to extend unemployment benefits and help unemployed workers purchase health insurance to the House floor “if talks fail to produce a House-Senate compromise,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Frist, Edwards Discuss 2002 Health Care Agenda
In the current issue of Roll Call, Sens. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) write about the congressional health care agenda for 2002.
Almost Four in Five Students Fail to Meet State’s Minimum Fitness Standards
Almost 80% of California’s fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders failed to meet the state’s minimum fitness standards in testing last spring, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Zingale in Kaiser Permanente Contempt Case
A federal judge in Los Angeles yesterday denied Kaiser Permanente’s request to have Department of Managed Health Care Director Daniel Zingale placed in contempt of court over a “record-setting” $1.1 million fine against the state’s largest HMO, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Canadian Doctors Warned About Online Prescribing
Canadian physicians who dispense prescriptions to American patients over the Internet may soon face disciplinary action at home, Canada’s National Post reports.
Bishop Jaime Soto of St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Santa Ana, Calif., officiated a special Mass on Sunday dedicated to Latinos who have died from or are living with HIV/AIDS, as part of an educational campaign to reduce HIV transmission rates in Orange County’s Hispanic community, the Orange County Register reports.
Lobbyists Push Interests on Bioterrorism Funding Bills
Lobbyists for hospitals, drugmakers and biotechnology companies are “swarming around the Capitol” in an effort to attach a variety of provisions to bioterrorism funding bills, the New York Times reports.
U.K. National Health Service Hires Microsoft to Create Electronic Patient Records
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service has hired Microsoft to help create electronic patient records for each person treated by the agency, BBC News reports.
Contract Dispute Between Health Plan of the Redwoods and St. Joseph Health Foundation Ends
After six months of talks, contract negotiations between the Health Plan of the Redwoods and doctors from the Sonoma County-based St. Joseph Health Foundation, have ended successfully, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports.
VA Study Finds Link to Between Gulf War Service and Lou Gehrig’s Disease
In the federal government’s first acknowledgement of a link between illness and service during the Persian Gulf War, military officials yesterday announced study results showing that veterans of the conflict are nearly two times more likely than other soldiers to developamyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the fatal neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, the New York Times reports.