Latest California Healthline Stories
DMHC Releases ‘Abbreviated’ Medical Group Financial Information
Only 44% of the more than 200 medical groups in California met all of the state’s requirements for fiscal solvency in the first quarter of this year, according to financial information released yesterday by the Department of Managed Health Care, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
‘Isolated’ Anthrax Case Diagnosed in Florida
A 63-year-old Florida man was diagnosed yesterday with a pulmonary form of anthrax, which could be used as a biological weapon, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.
Sun Healthcare Group Agrees to Improve Patient Care at Nursing Homes
Sun Healthcare Group Inc., California’s largest nursing home chain, will make court-ordered improvements to its facilities in order to settle criminal and civil allegations of elder abuse brought by Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D), the Sacramento Bee reports.
Bush Seeks $3 Billion in Grants to Help Unemployed
President Bush yesterday called on Congress to approve $3 billion in “emergency grants” to states to assist workers who were laid off following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, including providing health insurance subsidies, CongressDaily reports.
House Panel Passes Contractor, Medicare Audit Reform Bill
The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health unaminously approved a bill yesterday that would reform the process by which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services hires contractors to process and pay Medicare claims and would make it easier for providers to “appeal audits of their Medicare payments,” CongressDaily reports.
House Committee Votes to Renew Pediatric Exclusivity Law
The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee yesterday voted 24-5 to pass a bill (HR 2887) that renews a law giving pharmaceutical companies an extra six months of patent protections for drugs tested on children, CongressDaily/AM reports.
House Committee Members Urge Colleagues to Implement HIPAA Regulations Without Delay
Delaying the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act administrative simplification compliance deadline would cause Medicare, Medicaid and private payers to “needlessly continue to pay for the inefficiencies inherent in the current Byzantine [health care] system,” according to several members of the House Ways and Means Committee.
WHO Report Urges Greater Attention to Mental Health
Twenty-five percent of the world’s population will suffer from mental health or brain disorders during their lifetime, but few will seek or receive treatment, according to a World Health Organization report released yesterday, the AP/Dallas Morning News reports.
Blue Shield of California to Drop Medicare+Choice Plan in Several Counties
Blue Shield of California this week announced plans to drop its Medicare+Choice plan, 65 Plus, in five counties — Kern, San Diego, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Ventura — and Riverside County’s Coachella Valley and Los Angeles County’s Antelope Valley next year, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
Claiming that new security measures at San Francisco General Hospital are “scar[ing] away” patients, public health activists staged a protest Wednesday, the San Jose Mercury News reports.