Latest California Healthline Stories
Driver’s License Numbers Among Lost Records
The California Department of Public Health has never had the kind of loss of medical records that it had yesterday, according to Kevin Reilly, Chief Deputy for Policy and Programs at CDPH.
“We’ve had much smaller instances where a laptop was stolen,” Reilly said. “But nothing like this.”
A magnetic tape was mailed to the Capitol from West Covina (near Los Angeles), but when it arrived in Sacramento, it was just an empty envelope.
A Time of Adversity and Opportunity
It’s an unusual time to be Secretary of all things health care in California.
On the one hand, Diana Dooley will take over the Department of Health and Human Services at a time when budget cuts have already worn the public safety net down to spider-web thinness.
And she arrives with a new budget deficit looming that could gut many existing health care and service programs. In fact, outgoing Governor Schwarzenegger asked lawmakers to cut more than $1 billion from Medi-Cal and the Healthy Families programs, and to eliminate the $1.4 billion CalWORKS program altogether.
Earl Ferguson of the Southern Sierra Telehealth Network on Using Technology To Improve Care
Earl Ferguson, director of the Southern Sierra Telehealth Network, spoke with California Healthline about how telemedicine tools can help people in rural areas obtain access to primary care providers and specialists.
Innovative Plan To Keep Yosemite Clinic Open
In January, the venerable clinic in Yosemite National Park will become the first medical facility in a national park to be operated by the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Officials now are hammering out details of the transition.
Developmentally Disabled Centers Get a Hearing
A state audit raised some concerns about some of the financial steps taken by some of the state’s California Regional Centers. The centers are designed to help patients with developmental disabilities.
“Many changes have occurred recently, including losing about $500 million in funding,” oversight chair and Senate member Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) said. “Such changes make it imperative to look at how to provide these necessary services in a cost-effective way.”
“Over $4 billion goes through these centers,” Assembly member Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) said. “So if something isn’t as efficient as it can be, we need to fix it. Our goal is to watch that money, because that’s a hell of a lot of money.”
Rural Health Clinics Getting Short-Changed?
There was an interesting moment at this week’s annual conference of the California State Rural Health Association. During one of the presentations, a sit-down with two state Assembly members — V. Manuel Perez (D-Coachella) and recently elected Linda Halderman (R-Fresno) — the conversation seemed to veer away from rural health issues.
After hearing about high unemployment, the icy regulatory climate, too much government and arsenic contamination of water supplies, host Steve Barrow gently redirected the conversation.
“You know, rural [medicine] gets lost a lot in the Capitol,” he said. “We care about clean water, and cultural issues, and economic issues — but if we’re talking about economics in rural California, 11 percent of the rural economy is health care. Health care is a big part of economics in rural areas.”
Overuse of Health Services May Be a Myth
This week, at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Denver, researchers analyzed survey data from California — investigating the concern that immigrants are a major drain on health care services.
“People looked at immigrants and undocumented workers and their use of emergency services and preventive care, and found that those groups are actually less likely than other groups to use health care services,” according to David Grant, director of the California Health Interview Survey.
“The data show [lower usage] of emergency services, as well as lower usage of preventive medicine, even among immigrants who have insurance,” he said.
Urgent Care Clinics Arrive With Mixed Reviews in San Diego
The country’s only national urgent care franchise, Doctors Express, opened its first California-based center in San Diego this fall, with a second on its way in early 2011. Not everyone is convinced the new centers will provide much-needed relief to local emergency departments.
Several Factors Contributing to California’s Record-Breaking Whooping Cough Epidemic
James Cherry of UCLA, Kathleen Harriman of the California Department of Public Health and Yvonne Maldonado of Stanford University spoke with California Healthline about the state’s recent whooping cough outbreak.
Fat Californians Putting Strain on Health Economy
More California adults are obese or overweight than those who aren’t and almost 40% of children in public schools in California are overweight or obese, according to recent research. We asked stakeholders how policymakers and insurers should combat obesity in California.