Latest California Healthline Stories
Plain Dealer Examines ‘Dangerous’ VA System
The Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday began a series detailing its investigation of the nation’s Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics, in which it “discovered that the largest full-service health system in the country is operating under many rules that would not be allowed elsewhere, sometimes with disastrous results.”
U.S., Southern California C-Section Rates Up
The United States’ “ambitious, decade-long” campaign to reduce the number of caesarean sections has come to an “apparent end,” as the number of women who undergo the procedure is “rising rapidly,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Anti-HIV Drugs Not ‘Miracle Cures,’ Los Angeles Times Says
“The therapeutic power of the new AIDS drug combinations has been rightly celebrated, but the misconception that they are miracle cures is having a dangerous, unintended effect: Both infected and uninfected men are engaging in more high-risk sexual behavior,” a Los Angeles Times editorial states.
Bush Opposes Stem Cell Federal Funding, But Won’t Block
President Bush said Friday that federal money should not be used to support research using stem cells “derived from abortion,” but stopped short of explicitly saying he would move to block the funding of such research, the AP/Baltimore Sun reports.
ePhysician Gets $18M Investment from CVS, Palm Inc.
Mountain View-based ePhysician on Tuesday received $18 million in its third round of financing, after a group of investors, including Palm Inc. and CVS Corp., decided to back the company, Reuters reports.
58% of Child Health Costs Paid Out-of-Pocket
American families paid about 58% of health care costs out of pocket for uninsured children, while they paid only 23% out of pocket for children covered by private health insurance, a new study conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Harvard University found.
GM, Medscape Launch Joint Plan for Electronic Prescriptions
To cut health care costs and the number of medical errors, General Motors Corp. and MedicaLogic/Medscape Inc. are joining forces to promote Medscape’s electronic prescriptions and medical records systems, the Wall Street Journal reports.
S.F. General’s Volberding to Take Senior Post at VA Hospital
Dr. Paul Volberding, “one of the world’s foremost AIDS physicians” and a “pioneering researcher since the epidemic began,” will be leaving his 17-year post as director of the AIDS clinic at San Francisco General Hospital, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Mathematica Research Predicts CHIP Expansion
A study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. found that CHIP programs, which provide health insurance for 3.3 million U.S. children, may expand as more states “move their programs to full speed,” the AP/Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Staff Model HMO Doctors Happier than Independent Practice Counterparts, Study Finds
San Mateo County physicians who work in a “traditional staff group model HMO” were more satisfied with the “quality of practice and patient care” and reported less income decline than physicians who work in an “office-based independent practice,” according to a new study published in this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine.