CMA Press Clips
Daily reports on health care policy and medicine from newspapers and magazines throughout California and around the nation.
$26-billion aid package for states becomes law
Los Angeles Times - 8/11/10 - Congress on Tuesday gave final approval to a $26.1-billion aid package for cash-strapped states that will keep 161,000 teachers and thousands of police, fire and other local government workers from being laid off. The legislation was quickly signed by President Obama. The funding will also help states maintain medical services for low-income people.
California gets $1.28B from feds for Medi-Cal
Sacramento Business Journal - 8/10/10 - California will get $1.28 billion from the federal government, thanks to a vote Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives to extend enhanced Medicaid rates through June.
Executives at health insurance giants cash in as firms plan fee hikes
Los Angeles Times - 8/11/10 - The top executives at the nation's five largest for-profit health insurance companies pulled in nearly $200 million in compensation last year — while their businesses prepared to hit ratepayers with double-digit premium increases, according to a new analysis conducted by healthcare activists.
UCSF study finds big jump in ER visits
San Francisco Chronicle – 8/11/10 – Emergency room visits to U.S. hospitals increased more than 23 percent from 1997 to 2007 - double what researchers expected the rise would be based on population growth, according to a UCSF study released today.
Hospitals' drug-resistant staph infections fall
San Francisco Chronicle - 8/11/10 - Aggressive, drug-resistant staph infections caught in hospitals or from medical treatment are becoming scarcer, another sign of progress in a prevention effort that has become a national public health priority.
Nurses Protest Pay Cut Proposal
Ventura County Star - 8/11/10 - In a dramatic show of unity, more than 100 Ventura County Medical Center nurses packed the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday demanding "respect," amid broken-down salary negotiations over a new contract.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen shares how to be 'Empowered Patient'
USA Today - 8/11/10 - CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen recently talked with USA TODAY medical reporter Mary Brophy Marcus about her new book, The Empowered Patient, which hits bookstores today.
Take better care of the mentally ill
Woodland Daily Democrat - 8/11/10 - At long last, help is on the way for the estimated 5 million Californians who suffer from mental illness. It can't come soon enough. An often overlooked benefit of President Barack Obama's federal health care reform is mental health parity: requiring insurers to reimburse treatment for mental health problems as they would for other common medical problems.
Texas Nurses Fired for Alleging Misconduct Settle Their Suit
New York Times - 8/11/10 - Two nurses agreed Tuesday to split a $750,000 payment from Winkler County, Tex., to settle the lawsuit they filed after being fired and criminally prosecuted for reporting allegations of improper medical treatment by a doctor at the county hospital, their lawyer said.
Editorial: California should regulate health care premiums
San Francisco Chronicle - 8/11/10 - Within a few years, 6 million uninsured California residents will finally get medical coverage as part of the newly passed federal health care reforms. But what will they pay?
