Latest California Healthline Stories
Reduced Surplus Estimates Endanger Reserve Fund for Uninsured
Reduced federal budget estimates released last month by the Congressional Budget Office and the White House Office of Management and Budget may put at risk a provision in the fiscal year 2002 budget to reduce the number of uninsured, CongressDaily/AM reports.
Proposition 36 Applies to Defendants Charged Before July 1, Orange County Judges Rule
The Orange County Superior Court Appellate Department ruled on Aug. 15 that defendants charged with drug possession before Proposition 36 took effect July 1 are eligible for treatment under the initiative, the Orange County Register reports.
Congress Likely to Approve Mental Health Parity Measure
Congress is “likely” to pass a mental health parity bill that would prohibit insurers from placing lower dollar limits on mental health coverage than on other care, potentially broadening a 1996 law set to expire at the end of September, NPR’s “Morning Edition” reports.
Pharmacists Lobby States to Step Up PBM Regulation
Pharmacist groups have begun lobbying states to increase regulation of pharmacy benefit management firms, whose role in drug delivery has increased significantly in recent years as health plans and states have looked to rein in costs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Drug-resistant strains of HIV will infect 42% of HIV-positive individuals in San Francisco by 2005, according to a mathematical model developed and applied by researchers at the University of California-San Francisco and the University of California-Los Angeles, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
New York Times Reports on Use of Computers to Aid End-of-Life Care Decisions
Internet companies, health care providers, hospitals and communities are using computers to help patients and families make decisions about end-of-life care, the New York Times reports.
Lawmakers Call for ‘Equal Footing’ Between Medicare+Choice, FFS
Calling the current “pricing structure” of Medicare+Choice an “abysmal failure,” the House Ways and Means Committee’s “two top health leaders” said last week that they will introduce legislation this fall to “immediately move” the program to a “level playing field with the [Medicare] fee-for-service plan,” CongressDaily/AM reports.
Los Angeles Times Editorial Endorses Bill to Reduce Uninsured
An “audacious” bill (AB 32) backed by Assembly member Keith Richman (R-Northridge) and Sen. Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont) would cut California’s uninsured population by half and should be signed by Gov. Gray Davis (D) if it reaches his desk, a Los Angeles Times editorial states.
Kuehl to Hold Informal Hearing on Nurse Staffing Levels
State Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), sponsor of the law that requires minimum nurse staffing levels in hospitals, has scheduled an “informal” hearing on the issue “in conjunction” with a California Nurses Association event, the Oakland Tribune reports.
Conventions Look at African-American Health Disparities
Addressing the convention of the National Baptist Convention USA, a “prominent black denomination,” Surgeon General David Satcher last night spoke about the health of African Americans, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports.