Latest California Healthline Stories
‘Prescriber Profiles’ Target Doctors
While pharmaceutical companies have long targeted doctors to promote new medications, recently drug marketers have begun compiling “prescriber profiles,” or doctors’ “prescribing patterns,” often without the doctors’ knowledge, the New York Times reports.
Congress Unsure of How to Move ‘Medicare Giveback’ Bill
Health care providers are “increasingly” concerned that Medicare cuts imposed by the 1997 Balanced Budget Act will not be restored before Congress adjourns for the year, and members of Congress seem “no closer” to deciding whether to move the Medicare giveback package forward as part of a larger tax relief bill or separate it, CongressDaily reports.
UC Board Approves $235 Million to Rebuild UCI Hospital
Several different committees of the University of California Board of Regents voted yesterday to give the UC-Irvine Medical Center $235 million to destroy its main hospital and build a new, seismically safe facility, appropriating more than one-third of the statewide bond proceeds for refitting UC teaching hospitals, the Orange County Register reports.
Medicare FFS Enrollees Receive More Angiograms Than HMOs
Medicare HMO enrollees who need coronary angiograms receive them less often than those with fee-for-service coverage, while utilization rates for the procedure are low for both groups, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports.
New Report Grades States on Women’s Health
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research released its third biennial national Status of Women in the States report, measuring how American women fare in the arenas of politics, economics, health, education, and reproductive rights.
RWJF Grant Funds Online Privacy Studies
To help health care providers comply with some Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act mandates, the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium has received a grant from the health philanthropy Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study privacy protection for online medical records, the Boston Business Journal reports.
Congress Members Urge FDA to Review Lotronex
Several members of Congress, including Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who has received “substantial” financial backing from Glaxo Wellcome’s political action committee, urged the FDA to fast-track its review of the company’s irritable bowel syndrome drug Lotronex, the Raleigh News & Observer report
Rep. Gallegly Seeks Medicare Reimbursement Increase
Newly re-elected U.S. House Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) is preparing to make a fourth attempt to raise Medicare reimbursement rates for Ventura County hospitals to the same levels that Los Angeles County facilities receive, the Ventura County Star reports.
Insurers Plan Online Claims Filing Service Via MedUnite
Seven large health insurance companies yesterday announced plans to jointly create an Internet-based, “one-stop clearinghouse” to expedite claims, referrals and other health care transactions between physicians and insurers, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Brown Downplays S.F. General Providers’ Concerns
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (D) yesterday disagreed with physicians and nurses at San Francisco General Hospital who fear a “major meltdown” this winter, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.