Healthcare

1,200 People to Have Canceled Healthcare Coverage Restored

May 16, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<strong>The action comes after Kaiser Permanente and Health Net reach an agreement with a state agency.</strong> <p> Two of the state's largest health plans agreed Thursday to reinstate coverage to nearly 1,200 patients whose policies...</p>

DMHC to Announce Deal with Insurer that Rescinded Policies

May 14, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

State regulators are scheduled to announce Thursday "an agreement with a major California health plan to reinstate health coverage immediately to enrollees rescinded of coverage since 2004."<br/> <br/> But even before Thursday's...

Before ‘Big Oil U’ Was ‘Big Pharma U’

May 9, 2008  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> Consumer Watchdog has protested strings-attached grants from Big Oil to universities, but the oil companies are just following the path of Big Pharma. Here, from the Century Foundation's Maggie Mahar and Niko Karvounis, is <a href="http://www.healthbeatblog.org/2008/05/bayh-dole-and-t.html">a concise history </a>of legislation that opened the classroom door to drug companies--and even let cosmetic giant Shiseido control research agendas at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital.   </p>

One board member gets it

May 9, 2008  ·  John M. Simpson

"All Californians are paying for Prop 71," said Dr. Claire Pomeroy, "so all should benefit from it."<br/> <br/> Dr. Pomeroy is the Dean of the UC Davis Medical school and has a seat on the 29-member stem cell agency board of...

Should ad execs have access to your medical records?

May 2, 2008  ·  Carmen Balber

<p> A bill passed its second California Senate committee this week that would give an ever-wider circle of companies access to Californians' private medical information. SB 1096 by Senator Ron Calderon would allow pharmacies to give...</p>

State Will Reinstate Canceled Health Policies

April 18, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> LOS ANGELES, CA -- One week after consumer advocates complained of inaction, state regulators announced Thursday that they will force three of the state's largest health plans to reinstate 26 patients who have had their medical coverage...</p>

Advocates Push To Reinstate HMO Patients

April 16, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> LOS ANGELES, CA -- Though state regulators fined Blue Cross $1 million last year for improperly dropping policyholders after they fell ill, they stopped short of helping patients get their coverage back. <br/>     ...</p>

Some medical researchers finally get it

April 15, 2008  ·  John M. Simpson

<br /> I stumbled across a delightful <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/health/15conf.html?ref=health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article in The New York Times</a> this morning: "Citing Ethics, Some Doctors Are Rejecting Industry Pay."<br />

Medical Middlemen’s Hands Are Out

April 7, 2008  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> A pair of adjacent stories on health care costs in today's New York Times illustrate the big potholes in privatizing health reform. They also point to some better paths. One article was on "huge variations" in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/health/policy/07care.html?scp=2&sq=Robert+Pear&st=nyt">end-of-life medical costs.</a> More on that later. The other, by Reed Abelson, scrutinized a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/business/07medicare.html?ref=todayspaper">seemingly failed Medicare experiment </a>in reducing diabetes treatment costs through intense case management. So far, it's been a wash at best. But the figure that struck me was the "as much as $2,000 a year" per patient that Medicare paid to private contractors to manage the cases. </p>

Panel Tosses Challenge to HMO Reviews

April 4, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> LOS ANGELES, CA -- A state appellate panel has rejected a consumer lawsuit that accuses state regulators of shirking their statutory duty to protect patients by favoring health maintenance organizations when they review complaints.<br/>...</p>

Universal health care or a mandate fake-out?

April 4, 2008  ·  Carmen Balber

<p> United States Senator Ted Kennedy, one of the nation's longest and hardest-fighting advocates to provide health care everyone and patient rights, hired one of the architects of Massachusetts' individual health insurance mandate today... </p>

Did stem cell agency learn from Klein-Ortiz flap?

April 3, 2008  ·  John M. Simpson

Has then California stem cell agency finally learned the value of good relations with the State Legislature? Maybe so.<br />