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Healthcare providers struggling with state reimbursements
The Union - 08-08-2008 - Low cost clinics and doctors serving patients with Medi-Cal across the state have not received reimbursements for the past two weeks, some local healthcare professionals said Wednesday.
Prices for some drugs skyrocket
USA Today - 08-08-2008 - Drug companies are quietly pushing through price hikes of 100% — or even more than 1,000% — for a very small but growing number of prescription drugs, helping to drive up costs for insurers, patients and government programs. The number of brand-name drugs with increases of 100% or more could double this year from four years ago, researchers from the University of Minnesota say. Many of the drugs are older products that treat fairly rare, but often serious or even life-threatening, conditions.
Pacific Health’s plan to buy Anaheim (CA) Memorial meets with resistance
Los Angeles Times - 08-08-2008 - In spring 2007, hospital company Pacific Health Corp. agreed to purchase the nonprofit, 223-bed Anaheim (CA) Memorial Medical Center for $57.1 million. But the sale of a nonprofit hospital to a for-profit company must be approved by the state attorney general, and the purchase has run into opposition. At a public hearing, opponents of Pacific Health's purchase of Memorial contended that Pacific Health should not be expanding at a time when its current hospitals have been hit with so much criticism from regulators over the last year. Pacific Health's problems grew this week, as it was named in a civil lawsuit filed by Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo. He contended that the company was part of a scheme "to defraud the Medi-Cal and Medicare programs."
Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange not siding with healthcare workers union
Los Angeles Times - 08-08-2008 - The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange are locked in a clash with a union that wants to organize at a chain of hospitals the nuns operate throughout California. Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers-West is seeking to unionize more than 8,000 caregivers, as well as cafeteria workers and X-ray technicians, at five St. Joseph Health System hospitals—three in Orange County and two in Northern California. The union has alleged a variety of anti-union tactics, which the nuns have denied.
Most Americans want healthcare reform
Washington Post - 08-08-2008 - The vast majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the U.S. healthcare system, and 82% think it needs to be overhauled, according to a survey commissioned by The Commonwealth Fund. The survey, titled Public Views on U.S. Health Care System Organization: A Call for New Directions, questioned 1,004 adults on their views of the U.S. healthcare system. Nine out of 10 people surveyed said the presidential candidates should propose reforms that would improve the quality of healthcare, ensure that all Americans have affordable care, and reduce the number of uninsured.
Leavitt says new rules are not anti-birth control
(AP) - 08-08-2008 - Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is attempting to ease concerns that the Bush administration is planning to issue new rules that would limit women's access to birth control. Under federal law, institutions may not discriminate against individuals who refuse to perform abortions or provide a referral for one. The Health and Human Services Department is considering requiring healthcare providers and organizations to certify their compliance with the law. Leavitt said he wants the regulation to address the legal right that doctors, nurses, and others have to practice according to their conscience.
In California Hospitals, It’s Nuns Versus Union
Wall Street Journal - 08-08-2008 - The Service Employees International Union has a beef with some California nuns. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange run several California hospitals where SEIU’s United Healthcare Workers-West wants to organize some 8,000 employees, including X-ray technicians and cafeteria workers.
Stem Cells' New Sugar Daddy
Wall Street Journal - 08-08-2008 - Alan Trounson, a pioneering Australian embryologist, is conducting what may be the world's most ambitious experiment in public funding for science: California's voter-approved $3 billion speculative venture in human stem-cell research.
California is the first state in the U.S. to use public bonds to fund such critical experiments. Whether or not researchers can deliver hoped-for treatments of several chronic diseases, they have already transformed how controversial biomedical research is sustained.
