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State seeks to block Medi-Cal payment ruling
San Francisco Chronicle - 08-27-2008 - State health officials have asked a federal judge to suspend her order requiring them to restore 10 percent cuts in Medi-Cal payments to doctors, dentists and pharmacists, saying the ruling was unclear and legally flawed and would be prohibitively expensive for California taxpayers. Paying full fees to health care providers would cost at least $500 million a year and "will only worsen California's already dire financial situation," state lawyers said in papers filed late Monday with U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder of Los Angeles, who issued the injunction Aug. 18.
Decline in uninsured is reported for 2007
New York Times - 08-27-2008 - After climbing steadily for six years, the number of Americans without health insurance dropped by more than a million in 2007, to 45.7 million, the Census Bureau has reported. The drop was largely because more people were covered through government programs. The number of uninsured, however, are higher today than they were at the outset of the Bush administration in 2001. That year, 39.8 million people, or 14.1%, were uninsured.
Single rooms becoming the norm in new hospitals
Washington Post (AP) - 08-27-2008 - Newly built hospitals should have all single rooms because they reduce infections and may reduce medication errors, according to the authors of a new paper. A focus on single rooms would increase construction costs, with one study finding that the cost for building a new ward with only single-patient rooms would be $182 to $400 per patient, versus $122 to $500 per patient for double rooms. But many of those costs are capital costs and would be recouped relatively quickly, say the paper's authors.
New oversight, stiffer penalties approved for snooping into patient records
Los Angeles Times - 08-27-2008 - Alarmed by breaches in which UCLA Medical Center employees snooped in the confidential records of celebrities including Britney Spears, Farrah Fawcett and California First Lady Maria Shriver, state lawmakers moved Tuesday to clamp hospital files shut with new oversight and stiffer penalties.
960 babies in TB scare at Kaiser in San Francisco
San Francisco Chronicle - 08-27-2008 - Kaiser Permanente is contacting 960 mothers whose babies may have been exposed to a health care worker in San Francisco who has an active case of tuberculosis. The worker was assigned to the postpartum unit in the maternity ward of Kaiser's San Francisco Medical Center to care for mothers and infants. Kaiser officials say the infection risk for patients is very low, but testing will be provided along with treatment if necessary.
Stanford med school loosening industry ties
San Francisco Chronicle - 08-27-2008 - The Stanford University School of Medicine, in a continuing re-examination of its relationship with industry, said it will no longer allow drug and medical device makers to control the content of continuing education programs they fund at the school. A Stanford task force concluded that industry money earmarked for specific training sessions "may compromise the integrity of these education programs for practicing physicians," officials said in a statement Tuesday.
Ranks of Uninsured Fell in '07, Census Says
Wall Street Journal - 08-27-2008 - The number of Americans without health insurance fell in 2007, thanks largely to government insurance programs offsetting declines in private-sector coverage, the Census Bureau said.
FDA Clears Test to Help Doctors
Manage Heart-Transplant Patients
Wall Street Journal - 08-27-2008 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it has cleared for marketing XDx Inc.'s AlloMap, a noninvasive test that assists doctors in managing heart-transplant patients post-surgery for potential organ rejection.
