Latest California Healthline Stories
Early Returns on Prop. 36 Show Some Defendants Serve Prison Time Despite New Law
“Early evidence” from county courts reveals that some drug offenders are “walking a precarious line” between receiving the treatment mandated under Proposition 36 or prison time, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Kaiser Permanente’s Second-Quarter Net Income Drops 11%
Kaiser Permanente, the largest not-for-profit HMO in the United States, posted an 11% net income loss in the second quarter, down from $157 million one year ago to $140 million, due to “higher costs hitting managed care and other health insurers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Bill Would Allow Medicaid Family Planning Expansion
Sens. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) and Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) yesterday introduced legislation — called the Family Planning State Empowerment Act of 2001 — that would allow states to expand family planning services to women under Medicaid without needing a federal waiver.
House Approves Patients’ Rights Bill That Would Have ‘Mixed Impact’ on State Law
After a “long, tumultuous debate,” the House voted yesterday to approve a patients’ rights bill that would offer Americans a host of protections against health plans, the New York Times reports.
Virginia Board of Medicine Web Site Excludes Some Disciplinary Information
Virginia’s Board of Medicine launched its “long-anticipated” Web site on state doctors last week, but a law signed on July 19 bars the site from posting information about “certain disciplinary actions,” the Washington Post reports.
Lead U.S. Delegate to WHO Tobacco Negotiations ‘Retires’
Thomas Novotny, the head of the U.S. delegation to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, has “stepped down” and will retire for “personal reasons,” the Washington Post reports.
KPC Medical Management Approves Plan to Consolidate, Distribute Records
KPC Medical Management, which left 250,000 patients “in the lurch” when it declared bankruptcy and closed its 38 medical clinics last November, has made a deal with state regulators and the state’s largest HMOs to consolidate and distribute almost 12 million patient records that since November have been dispersed across Southern California in “makeshift” storage facilities, the Orange County Register reports.
Census Bureau Adjusts Number of U.S. Uninsured in 1999 Down by 2%
The U.S. Census Bureau reported yesterday that 39.3 million Americans, or 14% of the population, did not have health insurance in 1999, 3.3 million fewer than the 16% that the agency estimated last year, the AP/New York Times reports.
CMS to Target Social HMO Program for ‘Phaseout’
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly HCFA) wants to “phase out” the 17-year-old “social HMO” program when it comes up for renewal in two years, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Some Bay Area Physicians Explore ‘Retainer Practices’ Option
Frustrated with low reimbursements, increasing paperwork and “other insurance hassles,” some Bay area physicians are “quietly operating ‘retainer'” practices, and others are looking into the option, the San Francisco Business Times reports.