California Healthline: Mental Health Funding Jul 16 2008 VA Advertising Campaign Aims To Prevent Suicide On Tuesday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced a new advertising campaign targeted at veterans at risk for suicide. A three-month pilot project of the new campaign will take place in the Washington, D.C., area. VA has been criticized for not doing enough to prevent suicide. AP/Contra Co...
Jul 7 2008 Sacramento County Budget Cuts Hit Mental Health Care A $5 million cut to Sacramento County's Department of Mental Health's $210 million budget means that mental health patients will have fewer treatment options. Last year, more than 3,000 mental health patients received longer-term care at the county's expense. Sacramento Bee.
Jul 1 2008 Assembly Leader Says Reworked Lottery Plan Could Help With Deficit Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines said Gov. Schwarzenegger's lottery plan to reduce the state budget deficit could be modified to let the state use lottery proceeds to repay loans from voter-approved initiatives dealing with health care. Sacramento Bee et al.
Jun 17 2008 Court Case To Debate Health Care Coverage for Anorexics A Los Angeles court case set to begin later this month hinges on whether insurers are required to cover anorexic patients' medical needs. Attorneys involved in the case likely will argue over how health insurers approve and deny treatment associated with mental illnesses. Los Angeles Daily Journal.
Jun 16 2008 Santa Clara County's Budget Includes Mental Health Cuts Santa Clara County has passed a balanced $2.1 million general fund budget that includes an $8 million decrease in spending on mental health services. More than $1 billion has been cut from safety-net services in the past seven years. San Jose Mercury News.
California Healthline: Health Care Costs Aug 6 2008 Schwarzenegger Administration Details Exemptions to Pay Cuts The Schwarzenegger administration called for exempting workers in the Department of Mental Health and other health, safety and environmental workers from pay cuts that the governor ordered last week. The administration also called for wages to be withheld from some doctors and other professional...
Aug 6 2008 Walk-In Urgent Care Clinics Becoming Popular Options for Health Care Faced with long wait times in hospital emergency departments and for appointments with primary care physicians, more Americans are seeking care in walk-in urgent care centers. There currently are more than 8,000 such clinics in the U.S. Wall Street Journal.
Aug 6 2008 Ventura County Supervisors Oppose Prison Hospital On Tuesday, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to send a letter to federal receiver J. Clark Kelso opposing the proposed prison hospital near Camarillo. Meanwhile, five experts are expected to participate in a public discussion on Thursday about the potential effects of building th...
Aug 5 2008 Millions of Uninsured Go Without Care for Chronic Diseases, Study Finds At least 11 million uninsured Americans have chronic diseases, and only 25% reported seeing a doctor in the past year, according to new research in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers said the study challenges the contention that many uninsured people are young and healthy. New York Times.
Aug 5 2008 Some Medi-Cal Plans Mull Cutting Payments Some health plans that provide coverage through Medi-Cal might halt payments this month to larger vendors, such as hospitals, Kaiser Permanente and Quest Diagnostic labs, if the state budget is not resolved soon. East Bay Business Times.
California Healthline: Business Aug 5 2008 Market Volatility Takes Toll on Kaiser Numbers Despite Jump in Revenue A leader for Kaiser Permanente's health plan and hospitals said that "turbulence in the financial markets" weakened Kaiser's financial results for the second quarter. Net income was down by almost 70% from the previous year. East Bay Business Times.
Aug 5 2008 New FDA Guidelines Aim To Guard Against Conflicts of Interest The new rules will bar medical experts with significant financial holdings in companies from sitting on FDA advisory committees that review the companies' products and change the way advisory committees vote on products. The rules will take effect immediately. San Francisco Chronicle et al.
Jul 31 2008 Supporters of Paid Sick Leave Release Report To Stump for Legislation Business groups argue that mandating paid sick leave would prompt employers to eliminate jobs or reduce hours, but supporters of the measure say that the public health benefits outweigh the costs. San Francisco Chronicle, American Public Media's "Marketplace Morning Report."
Jul 25 2008 WellPoint's Net Income Drops for Second Straight Quarter On Wednesday, WellPoint, parent company of Anthem Blue Cross, reported that net income for Q2 2008 declined from $835.2 million to $750.5 million. The health plan is lowering its earning prediction for 2008 after two straight quarters of net income decline. Sacramento Business Journal.
Jul 24 2008 House Proposal Targets Small Businesses for Help Buying Health Coverage A bill by the House Small Business Committee would let small businesses form cooperatives to buy health insurance coverage and give small businesses tax credits for offering health care benefits to employees. The proposal also touts wellness benefits for workers. Wichita Eagle et al.
California Healthline: Hospitals Aug 6 2008 Schwarzenegger Administration Details Exemptions to Pay Cuts The Schwarzenegger administration called for exempting workers in the Department of Mental Health and other health, safety and environmental workers from pay cuts that the governor ordered last week. The administration also called for wages to be withheld from some doctors and other professional...
Aug 6 2008 Walk-In Urgent Care Clinics Becoming Popular Options for Health Care Faced with long wait times in hospital emergency departments and for appointments with primary care physicians, more Americans are seeking care in walk-in urgent care centers. There currently are more than 8,000 such clinics in the U.S. Wall Street Journal.
Aug 6 2008 Ventura County Supervisors Oppose Prison Hospital On Tuesday, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to send a letter to federal receiver J. Clark Kelso opposing the proposed prison hospital near Camarillo. Meanwhile, five experts are expected to participate in a public discussion on Thursday about the potential effects of building th...
Aug 5 2008 Latest State Report Details Wider Medical Privacy Lapses at UCLA An additional 59 UCLA Medical Center employees were found to have inappropriately accessed the records of celebrities and other prominent figures, almost double the number initially suspected. UCLA officials have disciplined workers, and Gov. Schwarzenegger has endorsed legislation that would im...
Aug 5 2008 Some Medi-Cal Plans Mull Cutting Payments Some health plans that provide coverage through Medi-Cal might halt payments this month to larger vendors, such as hospitals, Kaiser Permanente and Quest Diagnostic labs, if the state budget is not resolved soon. East Bay Business Times.
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