Latest California Healthline Stories
Medical Marijuana Case in State Supreme Court
The California Supreme Court today in San Francisco will hear oral arguments over a legal conundrum involving medical marijuana. The city of Riverside wants to ban sale of medicinal marijuana, a decision that may violate state law ensuring legal access to it. At the same time it adheres to federal law banning marijuana’s sale and use.
To Riverside officials opposed to marijuana sales, the answer is pretty simple: “A medical marijuana dispensary constitutes ‘a Prohibited Use’ ” in Riverside’s zoning code, which makes it a public nuisance, the city’s attorneys wrote in a legal brief. “Any use which is prohibited by state and/or federal law is also strictly prohibited,” the attorneys said.
But marijuana advocates, in their own brief, said Riverside officials are prohibiting the distribution of medicine, and that’s against state law.
New Institute Hopes To Boost Primary Care Pay, Numbers in California
A new organization launching next week — the California Advanced Primary Care Institute — hopes to engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders to do what others have tried with little success: change the way primary care doctors are recruited, trained and paid in California.
Northern California Addresses Safety-Net Challenges
Anticipating an influx of newly insured residents in 2014 when the Affordable Care Act fully takes effect, Northern California clinics are recruiting new primary care physicians and considering how to best use mid-level providers.
Will Firms Cut Jobs — or Benefits — Under ACA? Weighing the Evidence
Questions continue to swirl about the Affordable Care Act’s effect on employment and health coverage, with critics suggesting that the law will lead to more part-time hiring and supporters arguing that the concerns are overblown.
Big Changes in Store for Academic Medicine?
The financial pressure on academic medical centers has never been more intense than it is now, according to Mark Laret, CEO of UC-San Francisco Medical Center and outgoing chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The association, representing 141 medical schools across the country, held its annual meeting over the weekend in San Francisco.
“We have tried to use clinical income to make up for budget losses [that used to support medical schools],” Laret said. “And now that NIH (National Institutes of Health) budgets have flattened, that’s putting more pressure on, too, and increasingly we’ve had to use clinical income to support research, as well.”
In the recent past, Laret said, academic medicine has absorbed the decline in financial support for medical schools and research, but that’s changing, he said.
How Wal-Mart May Have Just Changed the Game on Health Care
Wal-Mart last week announced a new bundled payment plan with six leading hospitals, which was immediately overshadowed by the presidential race. But the groundbreaking plan — the latest major health care development in the private sector in recent weeks — holds tremendous potential to change U.S. health care.
Study: Nurse Ratio Law Has Mixed Results on Quality of Care
California’s nurse staffing law has had mixed results on quality of care, according to a new study. The California Nurses Association, the driving force behind the 2004 law, said the study’s findings were not sufficient to support the authors’ conclusions.
Physicians, Nurse Practitioners at Odds Over New Roles
It’s a time of celebration and indignation for Beth Haney, president of the California Association of Nurse Practitioners.
Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a bill that will remove a six-month waiting period for new NP graduates to write prescriptions.
However, earlier last week, the American Academy of Family Physicians came out with a policy paper that raised questions about the wisdom of expanding the scope of practice for nurse practitioners.
UC-San Diego Program Focuses on Designing Medical Devices
A new master’s degree program at UC-San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering is designed to help working engineers meet the evolving demands of one of San Diego’s fastest-growing industries — medical device design and manufacturing.
Primary Care Direct Model: ‘Neither Insurance nor Health Plan’
Accessible, high-quality primary care is a mantra of the Affordable Care Act, which promotes the development of patient-centered medical homes and accountable care organizations. A new direct primary care model attempting to deliver all of those things is being vetted in California, albeit slowly.