Latest California Healthline Stories
Ventura County Approves Needle Exchange Program
Ventura County’s Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 yesterday to declare a county medical emergency and start a needle exchange program, the Los Angeles Times reports.
RWJF to Fund IOM Study of Access to Care
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest health care foundation, has awarded the Institute of Medicine a $3.7 million grant to study how lack of insurance affects access to health care, the AP/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
FDA Plans Rules on Drugs in Pregnancy
In response to the “lack of information” about prescription drug use during pregnancy, the FDA is developing new rules to help pregnant women use “some medicines more safely,” the AP/Contra Costa Times reports.
Conference Addresses Proposition 36 Implementation
Yesterday’s conference in Sacramento on Prop. 36, which sends nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of prison, brought together 650 participants with “about that many” opinions on how to implement the measure, the Sacramento Bee reports.
California Hospitals, HMOs Get $1.7B in Givebacks
California hospitals and managed care organizations will receive an estimated $1.7 billion over five years in additional federal health care funding as a result of the Medicare-Medicaid giveback” legislation passed by Congress last week, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Company Works to Develop ‘Pharmacy on a Chip’
MicroChips Inc. is working to develop a computer chip that could be inserted underneath the skin to administer medications in small, electronically released doses, the Boston Globe/San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Immigrants Face Barriers to Medicaid Access
To obtain “adequate health care,” immigrants need to know how to access care and communicate with providers to “understand their diagnosis and treatment,” a study by Global Strategy Group reports.
Blacks Get Less Treatment than Whites, Study Finds
African-American patients admitted to U.S. hospitals receive less medical treatment than white patients, according to an analysis by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Are Medicare Givebacks Too Little, Too Late?
Although Congress passed more than $30 billion in Medicare “givebacks” last Friday, officials at Michigan hospitals and nursing homes called the package “little more than a Band-Aid on a gaping wound” and warned that state residents will not receive additional services, the Ann Arbor News reports.
FTC Approves GlaxoSmithKline After Divestitures
The FTC approved the merger yesterday of British drug companies Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC after the two completed a series of divestitures designed to ensure competition in drug markets the companies shared, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.