Latest California Healthline Stories
Kaiser Permanente and The California Endowment have joined labor groups in a $3 million project to help “displaced hotel and airport workers in Los Angeles” maintain health coverage and avoid evictions, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Pharmacy Discount Card Programs Only Offer Seniors ‘Modest Assist’
Pharmacy discount card programs offered by GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Novartis AG will only provide a “modest assist” for seniors, Francesca Lunzer Kritz writes in a Washington Post consumer news report.
A California coalition of consumer groups last week released a report that found that its legal assistance programs have made a “dramatic impact” in helping low-income individuals solve “previously intractable” problems related to government health programs and managed care.
Madera Community Hospital’s Medi-Cal contract is set to expire Nov. 26 after negotiations between the hospital and state officials failed to produce a reimbursement plan suitable to both parties, hospital administrators announced Friday, the Fresno Bee reports.
Richman Proposes Anti-Bioterrorism Bill to Expand State Powers in Public Health Emergencies
Assembly member Keith Richman (R-Sun Valley), the only physician in the state Legislature, plans to introduce an anti-bioterrorism bill that would allow forced quarantine and seizure of hospitals and pharmacies in the event of a public health emergency, the Sacramento Bee reports.
DHS Committee Issues Guidelines Seeking to Reduce Medication Errors in Hospitals
The California Department of Health Services has issued guidelines designed to help hospitals statewide substantially reduce or eliminate medication errors, Reuters Health/NewsRounds reports.
The Federal Trade Commission yesterday warned approximately 40 Web sites to stop “touting alternative treatments for anthrax or get off the Internet,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
AMA Names Head of Supplement Group as Chief Executive
The American Medical Association yesterday named Dr. Michael Maves, the current president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, as its new executive vice president and chief executive officer, the Washington Post reports.
CMS Preparing to Issue New Regulations for Rx Drug Plan
CMS plans to issue “broad new regulations” in about 10 days on the Bush administration’s plan to issue prescription discount cards to Medicare beneficiaries, CMS Administrator Thomas Scully said yesterday at a congressional briefing sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform.
AMA Looks to Revive Collective Bargaining Legislation
Hoping to “revive” legislation that would give physicians the right to bargain collectively with HMOs, the American Medical Association released a study yesterday showing that several insurance markets nationwide are so “highly concentrated” that competition is “imped[ed],” allowing insurers to dictate contract terms, CongressDaily reports.