Latest California Healthline Stories
LA Times Examines Bush’s Role in Health Care
While a tightly divided Congress and the closeness of the election will likely “mute” President-elect George W. Bush’s impact on “touchy pocketbook” issues, such as prescription drug coverage and patients’ rights legislation, if Bush can reach agreement with Democrats, he may enact “significant” but “subtle” reforms to the nation’s health care system, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Ambulances Diverted from Emergency Rooms
Ambulances in Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix and Denver are being turned away from emergency rooms, the New York Times reports.
Congress Approves Final Budget Deal, Calls It Quits
After a two-year session marred by “bitter but futile” fights over health care policy, Republicans and Democrats Friday agreed to a $450 billion budget package, which included a $108.9 billion Labor-HHS appropriations bill “hung up” by months of “political jousting,” and adjourned for the year, the Miami Herald reports.
HCFA Approves PET Scan Coverage for Specific Cancers
HCFA announced on Friday that it will cover the cost of positron emission tomography (PET) scans for diagnostic purposes in certain cancers, the Washington Post reports.
Doctors’ ‘Mercy Mission’ Highlights California’s Pediatric Specialist Shortage
A team of doctors from Orange County, Calif., is embarking on a “mercy mission” to Redding, Calif., to perform a “marathon session of surgeries” for 40 children, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Bush’s HHS Secretary Choices Rumored
With the President-elect George W. Bush and Vice
President-elect Dick Cheney working to assemble a cabinet “as quickly as possible,” rumors are circulating about who will become the next HHS secretary, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Congress Expected to Pass Labor-HHS Bill
More than 10 weeks into the new fiscal year, Congress and the Clinton administration may soon complete the government’s $600 billion annual budget, with House and Senate leaders expecting lawmakers to approve the controversial $108.9 billion Labor-HHS appropriations bill today, the New York Times reports.
Pharmaceuticals Resold, Repriced Through ‘Gray Market’
This year’s shortage of flu vaccine has prompted federal investigators to open an inquiry into the drug industry’s “gray market” — a “dark” area between wholesalers and customers where medications are repeatedly resold by individuals and smaller companies, the New York Times reports.
Health Care Workers Strike at 18 Hospitals
As expected, health care workers at 18 hospitals across the state went on strike yesterday to push for higher pay and increased staffing, the Los Angeles Times reports.
New Assembly Member and MD Richman ‘Worth Watching’
There’s a doctor in the house,” Daniel Weintraub notes in a Sacramento Bee column, referring to Assembly member-elect Dr. Keith Richman (R-Los Angeles), an internist in the San Fernando Valley and chair of the Lakeside Health Care medical group.