Latest California Healthline Stories
Jury Finds Merck Patents Valid In Dispute Over Gilead’s Hep C Drug
The California jury hasn’t yet decided how much in damages Gilead will have to pay, but Merck has asked for $2 billion and a royalty of 10 percent of the sales going forward.
Cost Of Aid-In-Dying Medication Doubled To More Than $3,000 Last Year
“It’s just pharmaceutical company greed,” said David Grube, a family doctor in Oregon, who says he remembers back in 2009 when a lethal dose of the drug, Seconal, was less than $200.
AHIP To Attempt To Streamline Provider Directory Updates
California is one of three states where the trade association will test out its plan to have a health IT company regularly contact providers to check for updates. It will then relay that information to several insurers.
Centene-Health Net Deal Gets Approval To Move Forward
The state regulators, however, wanted a few guarantees.
As Increasing Numbers Gain Coverage Under Obamacare, GOP Faces Dilemma
The Associated Press looks at the difficult choice for Republicans who oppose the president’s health program but haven’t offered much to replace it for the millions of people who would be uninsured without it.
$3.2M Grant Approved For Cancer, Tay-Sachs Research Efforts At UC Davis
The awards were part of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine’s competitive translational awards program, the goal of which is “to support the most promising stem cell-based projects and to help them accelerate that research out of the lab and into the real world, such as a clinical trial where they can be tested in people,” said Jonathan Thomas, chair of the CIRM board.
Thousand Oaks Doctor Loses Bid To Keep Medical License
Dr. Barry Lefkovitch was sentenced in 2013 to eight years in prison stemming from charges including three counts of forcible sexual penetration of a patient and one count of sexual exploitation of multiple patients.
MyPatientRights.org Offers Guidance For Consumers With Health Care Complaints
Liz Helms, the California Chronic Care Coalition’s president and CEO, says the site, which the coalition launched, is not a criticism of the state’s complaint process. Rather, it is intended for consumers who have no idea where or to whom they should lodge a grievance.
Registered Nurses At Kaiser Permanente Medical Center End Weeklong Strike
More than 1,000 nurses were on the picket line, seeking increased staffing levels and higher wages.
Assemblyman Takes Aim At Unexpected Medical Bills — Again
The legislation, which would limit the amount a patient can be charged by an out-of-network provider to no more than he would have paid if that provider had been in-network, fell three votes shy of passage last fall.