Latest California Healthline Stories
Saudi Arabia Establishing a Nationwide eHealth Network
Saudi Arabia, a country “well-suited to ehealth ideas” because of its large size and relatively small population, has launched a series of health initiatives designed to link outlying health clinics to the country’s urban medical centers, Agence France-Presse/Nando Times reports.
Blacks, Immigrants Have High Rates of Maternal Mortality
African-American women and Asian and Hispanic immigrants are at greater risk for pregnancy-related deaths than white women, according to a CDC report published yesterday in the Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.
Bush Announces New Initiatives, Drug Czar
President Bush yesterday announced plans to expand the nation’s drug treatment programs and nominated Philanthropy Roundtable President John Walters to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Washington Post reports.
Senate Approves Budget Spending Outline
On a 53-47 vote “largely along party lines,” the Senate yesterday passed a fiscal year 2002 budget resolution that “aims to restrain spending” on domestic programs, including health initiatives, to a 4% increase, the Washington Post reports.
FDA Approves New Treatment for Leukemia
The FDA yesterday approved Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.’s Gleevec, the “first in a new class of designer cancer drugs” that target specific molecules while leaving “normal cells” alone, the Los Angeles Times reports.
California’s Managed Care System in ‘Crisis,’ Conference Panelists Say
California’s managed care system faces problems that “loom as large as” the state’s energy crisis, and reforms are necessary to prevent a breakdown, according to a panel of health care experts speaking at the California Health Care Symposium 2001 in San Francisco yesterday, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports.
House Republicans Call for Privacy Rule Changes
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) and Ways and Means health subcommittee Chair Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) sent President Bush a letter yesterday asking him to make “major changes” in medical privacy rules that were issued by the Clinton administration, the New York Times reports.
Doctor’s Race Unrelated to Disparities in Cardiac Care
Black heart attack patients remain “far less likely” than whites to undergo cardiac catheterization, a “common and potentially life-saving procedure,” regardless of the race of their doctors, a new study published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine found.
Davis May Cut Spending to Avoid Budget Shortfall
In light of news that the state budget surplus has shrunk by $3.4 billion, Gov. Gray Davis (D) may have to “slash” his spending plan in order to avoid a budget deficit, putting state programs such as Healthy Families “in jeopardy,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Court Says Providers Can’t Seek Extra Payments from Medi-Cal Beneficiaries’ Damage Awards
A state appellate court ruled yesterday that providers cannot supplement the Medi-Cal fees they receive from the state by filing liens against beneficiaries who are awarded damages as a result of accidents, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.