Latest California Healthline Stories
Do Slower Drug Approval Times Signal A ‘Cautious’ FDA?
Drug makers and industry analysts say that the FDA is “signal[ing] a “new caution” by initiating a “slowdown” in approving new drug applications.
Legislative Committee Approves Budget With Reductions in Health Care Spending
A special legislative committee on Saturday voted in favor of a $102 billion state budget that reduces new funding for some programs, including health care services, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports.
U.N. General Assembly Opens Special Session on HIV/AIDS
The U.N. General Assembly today will begin its special session in New York to address HIV/AIDS, marking the first time that the group of 189 nations has “focused on a single disease,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
California Health Care Community Debates Mexican Doctors Bill
A bill that would allow 120 Mexican doctors and dentists to enter the state and provide care in underserved areas while “bypass[ing] California’s complex licensing rules” has “divided” the state’s health care community, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Mulling Senate Run, Oregon Gov. Seeks to Expand State Medicaid Program
As he considers running for the Senate next year, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) is “leaning” on state lawmakers to sustain the financially troubled Oregon Health Plan after his tenure as governor ends next year, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
HHS Issues Revised CHIP Enrollment Procedures Regulation
HHS issued a regulation last Friday that will “allow states to enroll more children” in their CHIP programs through “streamlined” enrollment procedures.
Legislature Debates Nursing Home Staffing Ratios, Facilities Oppose Mandates as ‘Arbitrary’
The Sacramento Bee reports on the debate over staffing ratios at nursing homes and a bill (AB 1075) that would require facilities to “add more caregivers.”
Few Receive Preventive Care Services, Study Says
Fewer than half of all Americans receive the “most beneficial, cost-effective and disease preventing services in medicine,” according to a study released by the not-for-profit group Partnership for Prevention and funded by the CDC.
WSJ Profiles ‘Renegade’ Doctor Who Prescribes Fewer Pills to Elderly Patients
The Wall Street Journal today profiles an unlikely “renegade,” Dr. David Morris, who did “something daring” at the New York-based Hebrew Home for the Aged — he “wean[ed] residents in his care off many of their medications,” most often those for diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and depression.
Tobacco Firms Agree to Meet With DOJ, But Don’t Concede
Some of the nation’s largest tobacco companies said they are willing to meet with government lawyers to “discuss the possibility” of settling the Department of Justice’s racketeering lawsuit against the industry — a possibility raised by Attorney General John Ashcroft earlier this week — but gave “few indications” that they would agree to “any significant concessions,” the New York Times reports.