Latest California Healthline Stories
Maxicare Health Plan Negotiates to Sell California Managed Care Plans
Maxicare Health Plans Inc. is working to sell segments of its California managed care plans to several other insurers, the Los Angeles Times reports.
HHS Must Share Provider Investigation Findings with Medicare Beneficiaries
A federal judge has ordered Medicare officials to disclose findings when they investigate beneficiaries’ complaints that doctors or hospitals provided “poor-quality” care or made medical errors that injured patients, the New York Times reports.
Apria May Have Overcharged Medicare by $103M
Apria Healthcare Group, one the nation’s largest home health care providers, might have overcharged Medicare by as much as $103 million, according to federal investigators, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Bush Promotes Medicare Rx Discount Card Plan
President Bush on Friday promoted his prescription drug discount plan for seniors, introduced last week, while speaking to 200 health care providers at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Do Drug Reimportation Savings Outweigh Safety Concerns?
The Los Angeles Times today looks at legislation passed by the House last week that would allow individuals to import FDA-approved prescription drugs through mail order or the Internet, a proposal hailed by many as necessary to counter the high domestic cost of drugs but criticized by others as jeopardizing consumer safety.
Orange County Pilot Drug Treatment Program’s 40% Failure Rate Raises Concerns About Proposition 36
About 40% of drug offenders taking part in an Orange County pilot drug treatment program over the last few months failed to complete it, as they either “stopped showing up for meetings, began using drugs again or were arrested for new drug offenses,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
‘Tentative’ Contract Reached Between CHW, Nurses at Three Bay Area Hospitals
Negotiators representing about 1,000 nurses at three Catholic Healthcare West hospitals have “unanimously recommended” approval of a contract agreement reached late Thursday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
U.S. News Lists Hospital Rankings
U.S. News and World Report this week ranked 168 hospitals as the “best” in country.
GSK ‘Selling’ Social Anxiety Disorder, Washington Post Reports
A marketing campaign that greatly increased the visibility and sales of the social anxiety drug Paxil has some mental health advocates and researchers concerned that drug makers, “traditionally in the business of finding new drugs for existing disorders, are increasingly in the business of seeking new disorders for existing drugs,” the Washington Post reports.
The Los Angeles Times yesterday featured an interview with Dr. Milton Miller, deputy medical director of the Los Angeles County Mental Health Department and the chair of the department of psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.