Latest California Healthline Stories
ERGONOMICS: ‘Explosive’ Issue Wages ‘War’ in Congress
Ergonomics has become one of the major “stumbling blocks” in passing a Labor-HHS-Education budget bill, fueling a “war” that “collapsed” a tentative spending agreement on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports.
MIDWEST: Congressional Candidates’ Health Positions
As Election Day draws near, American Health Line this week takes a look at the health care positions of candidates in several U.S. House and Senate races where health care has played a pivotal role. Today’s report examines the Midwest region, detailing the candidates’ positions on four issues: a Medicare prescription drug benefit; a patients’ bill of rights; the uninsured; and abortion.
ROGAN/SCHIFF: 27th District Candidates on Health Issues
Prior to the election, California Healthline is profiling the health care views of candidates in some of the state’s key races. Today, CHL looks at the race for California’s 27th Congressional District (Los Angeles County) between incumbent Rep. James Rogan (R) and state Sen. Adam Schiff (D).
LOTRONEX: Study Finds FDA Conflict of Interest
After eight months on the market, the irritable bowel syndrome drug Lotronex has been cited as the cause for a number of bowel surgeries, deaths and disorders, prompting a Los Angeles Times investigation that found FDA officials had “repeatedly played down questions about the drug’s safety while siding with the manufacturer, Glaxo Wellcome Inc., in important regulatory decisions.”
LOS ANGELES: County Nurses Net Pay Raise, Ending Dispute
The battle by Los Angeles nurses for improved pay and patient care ended yesterday as the 5,000 nurses employed in county hospitals and health clinics agreed on a final contract that provides across-the-board 12% pay raises over three years.
FOUNDATION HEALTH: Premium Hikes, Cost Controls Boost Profits
Foundation Health Systems Inc., one of the state’s largest insurers, yesterday announced that its third-quarter profits rose 27%, attributing the windfall to additional customers, higher premiums and “controlled costs,” Bloomberg News/Los Angeles Times reports.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY: Supervisors Raise Funds for Public Health Initiatives
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors yesterday voted to “pump” $86 million into a “package of politically popular medical programs” over two years, despite the board’s earlier profession of the need to cut the county’s “troubled” Department of Health Services, the Los Angeles Times reports.
VisICU: Allows Remote Coverage of ICU By Intensive Care Docs
The start-up company VisICU has a new product that promises to use the Internet, video-conferencing and Web-based diagnostic software to help ICUs “spread their limited resources more efficiently” by allowing fewer intensivists to monitor more patients remotely, the Washington Post reports.
RESEARCH: Biotech Firm Sues UCSF Over Unfavorable AIDS Vaccine Trial Results
A California-based biotechnology company is seeking more than $7 million in damages from the scientist and university that submitted study results showing that the company’s drug was ineffective in preventing AIDS to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
MORAN: Drug Company Loan Scandal Brings Fallout
The National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative legal group, filed a complaint yesterday with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) accepted an illegal campaign contribution when he took a $25,000 loan from former Schering-Plough lobbyist and current Democratic House candidate Terry Lierman.