Latest California Healthline Stories
New State Grants Will Improve Assistance to Disabled
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson on May 22 announced the availability of $70 million in new grants stemming from President Bush’s New Freedom Initiative, designed to allow states to assist the disabled.
Hi-Ethics to Subscribe to URAC Health Site Standards
Health Internet Ethics, a consortium of health Web sites, announced yesterday that it will use health Web site accreditation standards developed by URAC to certify members’ compliance with its principles, rather than developing its own accreditation program with an independent consumer advocacy group, as originally planned, Reuters Health reports.
Title VII Grant Cuts Will Hurt Rural Areas
President Bush’s budget proposal to “zero out” funds for Title VII of the Public Health Services Act, which provides grants to encourage medical students to pursue careers in primary care, would have “adverse consequences” for rural health care, the American Academy of Family Physicians said Monday.
eHealth Initiative Announces Official Launch
The eHealth Initiative, a consortium of 30 organizations that promotes using technology to improve health care delivery, announced its official launch yesterday.
Bills Would Help Ease Nursing Shortage, Los Angeles Times Says
With the United States expected to have half a million fewer nurses than needed by 2020, a Los Angeles Times editorial states that bills recently introduced by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Sens. James Jeffords (R-Vt.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) “would take modest but significant steps toward easing the nursing shortage.”
California Leads Nation in Nurse Organization Trend
California “is leading” the national trend of nurses joining unions, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Survey Finds Nationwide Improvement in Kids’ Health
Health indicators for children improved across the nation during the 1990s, according to the 2001 Kids Count report released May 22 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Despite Increased Copayments, CalPERS Sees Drug Costs Rise in Q1
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System saw its costs for the most expensive brand-name drugs on its formulary increase in the first quarter of 2001, despite “dramatically” raising drug copayments for enrollees in February in hopes of reducing pharmacy bills this year by as much as $19.1 million, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Chaudhuri Sells Community Medical Group of Corona
In another sign that Dr. Kali Chaudhuri’s “medical empire” is “eroding,” he has sold Community Medical Group of Corona to Corona Family Medical Group, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
Breast Cancer ‘War’ Affected by Politics, Culture, Money
“Rather than wondering whether we are winning the fight [against breast cancer], we might ask why we invariably frame our efforts against breast cancer as a war, and whose interests are served by the current battle plan,” Barron Lerner, author of The Breast Cancer Wars, writes in an adaptation of his book for the Washington Post.