Latest California Healthline Stories
Bill Extending Seismic Retrofitting Deadlines Is ‘Best Hope’ for Avoiding Hospital Closure
A Senate bill (SB 842) that would extend the deadline by which hospitals must comply with state-mandated seismic safety standards is California’s “best hope” of keeping hospitals open while ensuring that construction to meet the requirements is completed, a Los Angeles Times editorial states.
Hepatitis-Like Virus Extends HIV Patients’ Lives
Two independent studies appearing in today’s New England Journal of Medicine show that people with HIV who are co-infected with GB virus C (GBV-C) — a virus related to hepatitis C but not known to have any clinical manifestations — have significantly lower mortality rates than those infected with HIV alone.
Los Angeles Times Examines Break Up of WattsHealth Foundation
The Los Angeles Times last weekend reported on the WattsHealth Foundation, which the Department of Managed Health Care seized control of last month when the foundation’s HMO, UHP Healthcare, “fell more than $20 million in debt.”
A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly HCFA) plan to reduce the “upper-payment limit” for Medicaid could cost California hospitals $250 million a year — $125 million of which would affect Los Angeles County and could force closures of hospitals and clinics there, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Thompson Says Most Stem Cell Research Lines Too Immature
Testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson “acknowledged” that nearly two-thirds of the 64 embryonic stem cell lines eligible for federally funded research are not sufficiently developed to begin experimentation, but added that the approximately two dozen stem cell lines that are mature “are sufficient to conduct extensive basic research,” the Washington Post reports.
DOJ Official Says Tobacco Case to Continue
A senior official in charge of the Justice Department’s civil suit against the tobacco industry said yesterday that “no one in the Bush administration” pressured him to pursue a settlement and that he plans to seeks a funding increase for his litigation team, the New York Times reports.
CalPERS ‘HMO Scramble’ May Signal ‘Tremendous Turbulence’ in California’s Managed Care System
The California Public Employees Retirement System faces the “biggest HMO scramble in recent memory,” forcing about 150,000 of the system’s 1.2 million enrollees to switch health plans for 2002, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Dorgan Suggests Limiting Drug Reimportation Law to Canada
Even though the Clinton and Bush administrations both have delayed legislation enacted last fall that would allow pharmacists and wholesalers to reimport FDA-approved drugs from foreign countries, several senators continue to pursue the issue and are weighing whether to limit the law to allow reimportation only from Canada, the AP/Baltimore Sun reports.
CMA Files Suit to Delay Public Disclosure of Medical Groups’ Financial Records
The California Medical Association has filed suit to prevent the Department of Managed Health Care from publicly releasing “detailed information” on doctor groups’ finances, saying that such information could give health plans “too much power” in contract negotiations, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Kaiser Permanente Officials Say They Have Worked to Improve Patient Access to Physicians
Less than a week after the Los Angeles Times reported that Kaiser Permanente was limiting patient access to doctors, officials for Kaiser said they have “worked to remove any barriers and have made it easier for patients to see their physicians quickly,” the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reports.