Latest California Healthline Stories
California Unprepared to Handle Bioterrorism, Public Health Experts Say
California’s health system is too overburdened, understaffed and underfunded to deal with a biological attack, public health officials told the Assembly Committee on Health yesterday at a public hearing at the University of California-Berkeley, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
University of Montana ‘Accidentally’ Posts Children’s Psychological Records Online
In one of the “most glaring” violations of privacy over the Internet, 400 pages of detailed psychological records of 62 children and teenagers were “accidentally” posted on the University of Montana’s Web site last week, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Majority of California ERs Posted Losses in 2000, More ‘Closures Expected,’ Report Says
Hospital emergency rooms in California lost $325 million in 2000, $8 million more than in the previous year, according to a study released yesterday by the California Medical Association, the Contra Costa Times reports.
HIV Primary Care Specialists Struggle to Stay in Business
As many people with HIV are living longer due to antiretroviral drugs, a “growing number” of primary care physicians who specialize in HIV treatment are being forced to close their practices due to increased costs and low reimbursement rates from insurance companies that do not classify HIV treatment as a specialty, the New York Times reports.
No New Anthrax Leads; Nguyen Still ‘Focus’
Kathy Nguyen, the 61-year-old Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital employee who died last week from inhalation anthrax, remains the “focus” of the national anthrax investigation, as officials hypothesize that her “habits or relationships may take them somewhere other than the routes of three anthrax-tainted letters mailed from Trenton, N.J.,” the New York Times reports.
N.C. Company Offering Cipro Prescriptions Online Stops Taking Orders from State Residents
VirtualMedicalGroup.com, one of the nation’s largest online vendors of the anthrax treatment Cipro, stopped accepting orders from North Carolina residents last week as the state’s medical board continued its investigation into Internet drug sales to patients who have not been examined by a physician, the Charlotte Observer reports.
Mail-Order Rx Drug Companies Question Plan to Irradiate Mail
Mail-order prescription drug companies are raising concerns that the U.S. Postal Service’s proposal to irradiate the mail to eliminate the threat of anthrax exposure could pose “dangers” to medication shipments, CongressDaily reports.
Hospitals Slow to Comply With Needlestick Safety Law
Many U.S. hospitals have been slow to comply with the federal Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, which unanimously passed both houses of Congress last year and was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Faith-Based Group’s Survey Finds 79% of Orange County Residents Lack Health Coverage
According to an “unscientific” survey of Orange County residents, 79% of respondents do not have health insurance, and 62% have “at least one” uninsured child, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Wyden Urges Bush to Uphold Oregon Assisted Suicide Law
After hearing “rumors” that the Bush administration may overturn Oregon’s landmark physician-assisted suicide law, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote a letter to President Bush to “urge” him not to “alter” the law, CongressDaily reports.