Latest California Healthline Stories
California Residency Programs Incorporate Chronic Disease Care into Physician Training
Experts on physician training and the management of chronic illness spoke with California Healthline about efforts to encourage California’s next generation of doctors to use an innovative chronic care model.
California Lawmakers Take a Stab at Legislating Healthy Habits
An Assembly bill that would require companies bidding on California state contracts to provide wellness benefits for employees fits in with a national trend of state legislatures encouraging healthy habits.
End-of-Life Care a Pressing Issue as Baby Boomers Age
As society’s approach to end-of-life issues changes, California health care officials and lawmakers are responding with new ways to help society confront mortality. California is one of the first states pursuing a new effort to offer curative and hospice care simultaneously to terminally ill children.
Aging Population Could Push Major Changes to Health Care
An Institute of Medicine report released last week called for major changes in the health care system to meet the needs of an aging population. One of the report’s authors said changes could be of the same scale as those that came out of the emergence of HIV/AIDS.
Assembly Bills Target Emergency Preparedness, Rent Increases at Assisted-Living Facilities
Assembly members Karen Bass and Lois Wolk, and a spokesperson from the Campaign to Improve Assisted Living spoke with California Healthline about regulation of the assisted-living industry.
California Health Care Quality Dips Slightly in HHS Report Card
According to a national report card issued last week, the quality of California’s health care dropped slightly last year compared to the year before. Hospital officials and physicians welcome quality comparisons but urge patients and purchasers to keep report cards in context.
Medicaid Contractions Inspire New State, National Opposition
Proposals to cut back Medicaid spending at the federal level and in California are galvanizing the opposition and inspiring dark predictions of physician flight and growing barriers to care for beneficiaries.
Bill on Pricing Transparency Moves to Senate Health Committee
A proposal to ban “gag” clauses aims at making more pricing data public to improve price comparison shopping for individual consumers and large industrial buyers of health care. That said, Sutter Health defends the confidentiality agreements as standard practice.
Officials Grapple With Physician Substance Abuse as State Diversion Program Nears End
Officials from the Medical Board of California, the Department of Medical Affairs and the California Society of Addiction spoke with California Healthline about drug treatment programs for physicians.
State’s New Catastrophe Response Plan Leaves Nurses Skeptical
Presented as the first of its kind in the nation, California’s comprehensive plan for delivering health care in the event of a major disaster leaves front-line providers — nurses — less than impressed.