Feds Crack Down On Hundreds Of Medical Marijuana Shops In California

Associated Press

Federal prosecutors have sent dozens of letters warning medical marijuana shops in Los Angeles and Long Beach to shut down or risk potential criminal or civil action. Authorities say more than 100 pot clinics across Los Angeles County received the letters Tuesday. Lawsuits also were filed against two property owners in Long Beach, telling them it's illegal to allow pot sales in buildings they own.

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AM Alert: California SEIU lobbies lawmakers on health care

Sacramento Bee

The Service Employees International Union California, fresh off a major local securing a tentative contract agreement that includes a raise, is marshaling its members this morning to lobby lawmakers. Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, and Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, are scheduled to address attendees, who will be pressing health-related initiatives such as a Medi-Cal expansion as well as legislation to prohibit large employers from paying employees a wage low enough that they would qualify for Medi-Cal. The rally starts at 10 a.m. on the Capitol's south steps.

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State employees to receive raises in proposed deal

Associated Press

About 95,000 state employees could be in line for a 4.5 percent pay raise as part of a tentative three-year agreement reached Tuesday between Gov. Jerry Brown and California's largest public employee union.In an email to members, Service Employees Union International Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker said the pay hike would be received by July 1, 2015, with specific timing dependent on state revenues.

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Chantix effective in curbing alcohol abuse

Examiner.com

Recent research is supporting the efficacy of using Chantix (varenicline)gum to reduce cravings for alcohol abuse. Yesterday’s Boston Globe reported that the popular stop-smoking drug reduced cravings and alcohol use in 200 people in a controlled study. Another recent study of 64 participants, classified as “heavy drinkers” at the Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco, saw the group reduce their average number of drinks per week by 35.32% through the use of Chantix.

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CA Doctor Indicted For Illegally Dispensing Oxycodone

Workerscompensation.com

Fresno, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) - On Thursday, a federal grand jury returned a 27-count indictment against Terrill Eugene Brown, 61, of Visalia, charging him with conspiracy to dispense oxycodone, dispensing of oxycodone and hydrocodone, and structuring currency transactions to avoid bank reporting requirements, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner and Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth Egan announced.

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Former California politician facing new charge

Associated Press

A longtime California politician convicted of using campaign donations and taxpayer funds to fuel what he described as a gambling addiction has been charged in a separate case involving an illegal campaign flier, prosecutors said Wednesday. Former Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa was charged with false impersonation after authorities said his DNA matched DNA found on a stamp used on the flier sent during a city council race in 2010.

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Divvying up California healthcare funds

Los Angeles Times

The 2010 federal healthcare law will make health coverage available to millions of the uninsured, but it won't reach all of them. In California, county health officials and the Brown administration are now tussling over how much to spend on the remaining uninsured, and on county health programs in general. Gov. Jerry Brown wants to reclaim some of the state tax dollars that counties have been spending because there will be fewer uninsured to care for, and that's not unreasonable. But the state should be careful not to undermine the counties' efforts to protect public health, nor should it deny them the ability to care for more people in a more cost-effective way, if they choose.

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California budget talks set to finish this week amid much better tone than usual

San Jose Mercury News

With California lawmakers facing a midnight Saturday deadline to pass a spending plan, the annual number-crunching debate no longer centers on whether the state's books are balanced but how much of a possible surplus should be spent. Instead of fighting tooth and nail to prevent cuts to their favorite programs, leaders at the state Capitol will spend the rest of the week deciding how to divvy up extra revenues to schools, social services and public safety programs.

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Treatments of physical and mental health are coming together

Los Angeles Times

Many days, the sheer weight of Iszurette Hunter's clinical depression becomes more than she can lift. She clings to her bed in her South Los Angeles home. Important obligations slide away, including keeping appointments with doctors who are trying to control her asthma and high blood pressure. "I don't have no desire," she explains. As the nation seeks to extend healthcare coverage to millions of new and in many cases chronically ill patients, one of the great parallel challenges to controlling costs and improving delivery of care will be managing the mental health problems of people like Hunter.

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Embattled board mulls prescription abuse solutions

Los Angeles Times

Under pressure from state lawmakers to reform, the Medical Board of California on Tuesday embarked on a search for a new executive director and considered a host of proposals aimed at combating reckless prescribing by doctors that is contributing to overdose deaths.

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Sebelius Asked Companies to Support Health Care Law

New York Times

Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, disclosed on Tuesday that she had made telephone calls to three companies regulated by her department and urged them to help a nonprofit group promote President Obama’s health care law. She identified the companies as Johnson & Johnson, the drug maker; Ascension Health, a large Roman Catholic health care system; and Kaiser Permanente, the health insurance plan.

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Dan Walters: California budget has many holes to fill in 10 days

Sacramento Bee

Anyone who would tune into the Legislature's budget conference committee sessions this week expecting to learn how the 2013-14 budget is shaping up would be disappointed. The committee is going through the budget item by item, at least those items where the Assembly's Democrats and the Senate's Democrats differ, but anything more than slightly controversial is being "left open."

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Study Finds too Many Americans Drink too Much

San Diego Union-Tribune

On any given day in the United States, 18 percent of men and 11 percent of women drink more alcohol than federal guidelines recommend, according to a study that also found that 8 percent of men and 3 percent of women are full-fledged “heavy drinkers.” That means the great majority of Americans stay within the advised limit of two drinks a day for men and one for women, according to the study that appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

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California: Marijuana Seller Takes Plea Deal

New York Times

A medical marijuana store owner whose prosecution by the federal authorities highlighted vast disparities in how California and the Justice Department are responding to the medical marijuana industry abandoned a six-month battle against Washington on Friday and pleaded guilty to 10 charges of marijuana cultivation and distribution.

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California Senate passes bill to curb prescription drug abuse

Los Angeles Times

The state Senate on Thursday unanimously passed the last bill in a broad package of proposed reforms aimed at combating prescription drug abuse and mounting overdose deaths in California. The bills, inspired by a series of investigative stories in The Times, would help authorities track drug abusing patients as well as doctors who overprescribe painkillers and other addictive narcotics. One bill would give the state medical board the power to immediately suspend the prescribing privileges of doctors suspected of putting patients at risk.

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Marijuana regulatory bill stalls in California Legislature (blog)

Sacramento Bee

Lawmakers quashed a bill that would have created a state agency to tax and regulate California's overgrown medical marijuana landscape on Friday. Since California voters gave the green light to medical cannabis in 1996, the state has seen cities and municipalities deal with quasi-legal pot in a variety of different ways, with critics saying many dispensaries serve all comers under the pretense of helping the sick.

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Affordable Care Act's challenge: getting young adults enrolled

Los Angeles Times

Arsine Sargsyan is 23 years old, healthy and uninsured. She chooses to forgo coverage for one simple reason: "I never get sick." Despite her reluctance, Sargsyan is exactly the type of person insurance plans, states and the federal government are counting on to make health reform work.

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California health exchange tops expectations

Modesto Bee

Californians can breathe a sigh of relief over a crucial first step in implementing health care reform. State officials last week unveiled the health plans and premium rates that will be available under the California health exchange. They show the market is working as intended — actually better.

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New insurance market taking shape

HealthyCal.org

California’s new health insurance marketplace is starting to come into focus as a state agency in charge of implementing President Obama’s federal health reform steadily adds more and more detail to the emerging picture, like a painter filling in a vast canvass. But exactly how the final image will look to consumers remains a bit murky. And we probably won’t know the answer until after the health benefits exchange, known as Covered California, opens for business Oct. 1.

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Obamacare's California dreamin'

Politico         

The best news for Obamacare these days is coming out of California — but it’s a best-case scenario that might not work everywhere else in the country. The state surprised many when it announced that there won’t be any big price hikes for the health plans available through its insurance exchange — the marketplace that will serve people who don’t have another place to get health coverage.

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More Children Poisoned By Parents' Prescription Drugs

NPR

Dad takes a cholesterol-lowering statin so he'll be around to see the kids grow up. But statins, like Lipitor and Zocor, as well as some other common adult prescription drugs are causing a rise in poisonings among children, a study says. The big surprise is that children are at risk not just from opioid painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin, which most parents know need to be kept away from kids.

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Viewpoints: Program aims to reduce teenage prescription drug abuse

Sacramento Bee

The Bee recently featured articles on the problem of prescription drug abuse and the need to talk with teens. While still a public menace, illicit substances like heroin and cocaine have taken a back seat to the abuse of legal prescription medications. Many of these medications when misused or altered in some way – melted, pulverized, mixed with some other substance, injected into blood vessels – are just as addictive as many illicit drugs and can have at least as harmful side effects and morbidity. Even worse, prescription drugs are the second most common cause of accidental death in the United States.

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Feds sue landlord of Berkeley marijuana dispensary

Fresno Bee

The federal government is suing Berkeley's largest medical marijuana outlet with the goal of seizing the property from its landlord. The Contra Costa Times reports the suit accuses Berkeley Patients Group of breaking federal drug laws by allowing the sale of marijuana. It claims landlord Nahla Droubi is subject to seizure of her property.

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Medicare charges vary widely at California hospitals, new data show

Los Angeles Times

Federal officials are shedding new light on how much hospital bills vary across Southern California and the rest of the country. Medicare released pricing information Wednesday for more than 3,300 U.S. hospitals on the top 100 procedures and treatments in 2011. The federal health program for seniors and private insurers only pays a fraction of these billed charges.

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Wal-Mart Could Transform Health Care. But Does it Want to?

California Healthline

"Why is Wal-Mart speaking at a health care summit?" the company's vice president for health and wellness, Marcus Osborne, rhetorically offered up at a conference back in January. "Wal-Mart's in retail, we're not in health care." But as analysts, researchers, and other experts who spoke with "Road to Reform" took care to point out, Wal-Mart is in health care, and getting further entrenched by the year.  In the past six months alone, Wal-Mart launched a major contracting initiative with half-a-dozen major hospitals, and dropped hints -- since retracted -- that the company is exploring new services like a health insurance exchange.

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Steinberg Releases Plan to Boost Mental Health Care in California

California Healthline

On Tuesday, California Senate Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) released a proposal that aims to improve mental health services in the state and reduce the number of patients with mental illnesses in prisons and hospitals, the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" reports. Background: Steinberg said he was motived to develop the proposal by "heart-breaking and often tragic" situations that involve individuals with mental illnesses.

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Assembly speaker to push for new 'rainy-day fund' to help budget

Sacramento Bee

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez is proposing a new state spending restriction that would set aside money from capital gains taxes in good years to help the state through economic downturns. The proposed rainy-day fund would go on next year's ballot, replacing a constitutional amendment already on the ballot that unions strongly oppose.

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Solving the Prescription Drug Misuse Tragedy

Huffington Post (Blog)

An addiction scientist named Tom McLellan told me that he was once visiting one of America's top colleges, sitting in the office of the school's president, who was bemoaning the fact that he was losing a student or two a year to drug overdoses. Indeed, there's been a dramatic up-tick - triple the number from four years ago - in the number of college-age kids showing up in the nation's emergency rooms for overdoses on pain pills. In fact, these days, the number-one killer of America's young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 isn't car accidents. It's overdoses. And the majority of those are ODs on prescription medications.

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Gov. Fallin signs bill regulating Narconon Arrowhead

McAlester News-Capital

A bill giving the state oversight of Narconon Arrowhead and other drug rehabs according to legislation signed today by Gov. Mary Fallin. Senate Bill 295 co-authored by a Senate Democrat Tom Ivester D- Sayer and House Republican Jason Murphey R-Guthrie was signed today at the Capitol after passing the Senate unopposed last week. The legislation was written after an investigation into a string of deaths that happened within months of each other at Narconon Arrowhead.

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California Supreme Court upholds medical pot bans

Los Angeles Times

The California Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld the right of cities to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. “While some counties and cities might consider themselves well suited to accommodating medical marijuana dispensaries, conditions in other communities might lead to the reasonable decision that such facilities within their borders, even if carefully sited, well managed, and closely monitored, would present unacceptable local risks and burdens,” Justice Marvin R. Baxter wrote for the court.

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Drug take-back events help state see record day

Merced Sun-Star

Last month's drug take-back event was a record-breaking one for Northern California, with Merced County playing a role in that effort. It was part of National Drug Take Back Day, which allows residents to take unused or unwanted prescription drugs to designated drop-off sites to dispose of them safely. Northern California had a record 211 collection sites held by 147 law enforcement agencies, according to an email from the Department of Justice. More than 18 tons of unused or expired medications were dropped off.

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Ezekiel Emanuel: Health-Care Exchanges Will Need the Young Invincibles

Wall Street Journal

In less than five months, on Oct. 1, the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges will go live online. Millions of Americans will suddenly be able to log on to a website and choose their own heath-care coverage from a menu of subsidized options for prices and coverage levels. As the opening day gets closer, anxiety is increasing over how well these online exchanges will function.

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Florida Flips Back

Wall Street Journal

The nine Republican Governors who decided earlier this year to pump some helium into the ObamaCare balloon and expand Medicaid forgot about that saving grace of American politics: the separation of powers. On Friday Florida became the latest state to reject the expansion, as Governor Rick Scott failed to convince the GOP-controlled legislature to approve his Medicaid flip.

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Broken promise No. 2: ‘More people will have health coverage’

San Diego Union-Tribune

This week, we’re looking at the broken promises that President Barack Obama used to sell the Affordable Care Act. This editorial’s focus: The assertion that under Obamacare, more Americans will have health coverage. The president’s happy talk would lead us to believe that many millions of people more are sure to have health insurance after Obamacare takes effect. But that ignores the perverse incentives in the massively complex law — and it assumes the law will be competently implemented by the states and embraced by the uninsured.

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CalPERS seeking to catch errors, fraud in health enrollment

Fresno Bee

CalPERS is moving to strike from government health care rolls tens of thousands of people it believes are mistakenly or fraudulently receiving benefits. The fund, which is the second-largest health care purchaser in the nation after the federal government, figured last year that removing an estimated 29,000 wrongly listed children, spouses and domestic partners of government employees would save approximately $40 million annually.

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VA expands nurses to combat homelessness in Greater Los Angeles

Nurse.com

A February report from The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness showed California has almost 12,000, or 44%, of the nation’s homeless veterans, with more than half of those men and women living on the streets of Greater Los Angeles. However, in pushing to meet the Obama Administration’s goal of ending homelessness among veterans by 2015, the Veterans Administration of Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System saw an estimated 21% decline in its homeless veteran population between 2011 and 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Heroin Vaccine Neutralizes Drug Before It Hits Brain

US News

A newly-developed vaccine could potentially help heroin addicts kick their habit. In an animal trial, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in California were able to cure rats of heroin addiction with the vaccine, which prevents users from experiencing the euphoric effects of the drug, preventing it from reaching the brain.

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Synthetic pot use can mimic symptoms of prenatal disorder

Medical Xpress

Women who use synthetic marijuana during pregnancy can develop symptoms similar to those associated with eclampsia and preeclampsia, according to a new study. Although women with these serious prenatal conditions get better after delivery, researchers in California pointed out that pregnant women with a drug problem do not.

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Narconon patients allege credit card fraud

WSBradio.com

Embroiled in state licensure revocation proceedings, civil lawsuits and criminal investigations, the Scientology-affiliated drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization known as Narconon faces new allegations of credit card fraud.

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Lindsay Lohan avoids jail — again

Fox4kc.com

Lindsay Lohan checked into a California rehab center early Friday, ending — at least for now — a drama that has had more twists and turns than a high-speed car chase. Shawn Holley, the lawyer who guided Lohan through years of legal turmoil until the actress abruptly fired her in January, helped her avoid jail once again by brokering a deal, her father told CNN Friday.

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Calif. Democrats at odds over Medicaid expansion

Associated Press

California was an early booster of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law and was the first state to authorize a health insurance exchange in 2010. It also was quick to commit to the optional Medicaid expansion that has been rejected by some Republican states. Turns out, saying yes was the easy part.

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UC system cuts lifetime coverage limit for health insurance

Sacramento Business Journal

Chancellors at all 10 University of California campuses have agreed to eliminate the lifetime coverage limit and other caps on essential health benefits in the student health insurance program. The decision was made Wednesday in response to recommendations by the 31-member UC Student Health Insurance Program Advisory Board. The catch: it takes effect with the new plan year for 2013-14 academic year, so current coverage limits hold until then.

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Calif. Democrats Seek To Use Revenue To Restore Safety-Net Programs

California Healthline

Democratic lawmakers are seeking to use California's higher-than-expected revenue to restore cuts to safety-net programs, the Sacramento Bee reports. Background on Safety-Net Cuts: In recent state budgets, officials have made several changes to Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, including: Cutting reimbursement rates for physicians; Eliminating services not required by the federal government; and Imposing copayments on beneficiaries.

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Public Response to DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Days Keeps Growing

DEA.gov (Press Release)

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) Sixth National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day this past Saturday collected 50 percent more pills than the previous one, demonstrating the American public’s continued appreciation and need for the opportunity to discard unwanted, unused and expired prescription drugs from medicine cabinets, bedside tables, and kitchen drawers.

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Why is suicide rate rising for midlife baby boomers?

Modesto Bee

As Dec. 24 ticked to a close in 2011, 65-year-old Michael Kelley walked into the dark of his back yard near Sacramento High School and hanged himself from a beam on the deck. The Vietnam veteran, who struggled with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress and heart disease, died in the hospital on Christmas afternoon. "I just relive it in my head," said his widow, Cathy Kelley, now 63, who was separated from her husband when he died. "I know the dark hole of being really low. How sad he must have felt walking out there in the dark.

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Ex-Narconon prez vows to 'tell all'

McAlester News-Capital

A former president of Narconon Arrowhead said four deaths at the facility were “beyond anything imaginable.” Narconon Arrowhead is a drug rehab in Canadian that uses Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings to rehabilitate its clients. It’s also where three clients were found dead in a nine-month span. A fourth died in 2009 at local hospital.

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Coalition working on ballot measure to limit prescription drug abuse

Los Angeles Times

Fearing lawmakers may fail to pass a package of medical reform bills, a coalition of consumer groups and trial lawyers is mounting a campaign to put before voters an even more ambitious slate of initiatives aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse and holding doctors more accountable for misconduct.

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Treatment Facility has no License

TMZ.com

The treatment facility Lindsay Lohan is currently at has NO LICENSE to provide rehab treatment because its license was REVOKED ... TMZ has learned. TMZ broke the story ... Lindsay has entered Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach ... even though prosecutors never signed off on the facility. The judge is giving prosecutors a week to investigate the facility, and here's the first thing they'll find.

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Medicaid has mixed record on improving health for poor, study says

Los Angeles Times

As state leaders debate whether to expand their Medicaid programs next year under President Obama’s healthcare law, new research suggests the government insurance plan for the poor has only a mixed record of improving health. Medicaid beneficiaries are less likely than the uninsured to have catastrophic medical expenses and significantly less likely to suffer from depression, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found.

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Obamacare: How to switch plans, get kids coverage

San Jose Mercury News

How does the Affordable Care Act affect children in low-income families and people who want to buy coverage on the new state insurance exchanges? Below find some answers to questions that were posed by readers. Q: I am the breadwinner for a family of five, including my wife and three kids. The insurance for me is cheap, but for the entire family it's prohibitively expensive. I'd like to know if the health-reform law is doing anything for the kids of families — like mine — that earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

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Reform May Improve Access to Pediatric Specialties

California Healthline

Children with special health care needs in Los Angeles County should not be treated as "small adults," according to pediatric specialists who see health care reform as a golden opportunity to design tailored systems of care for children with complex, chronic and rare health conditions.

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Measure To Reverse Medi-Cal Pay Cut Advances

KPBS

Momentum is building in the state legislature to reverse a looming 10 percent cut in the rate Medi-Cal pays doctors and hospitals. The pay cut is scheduled to take effect on June 1st. Lawmakers originally approved the cut two years ago when the state was in financial trouble.

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Huntington Beach detox facility in question over man's death

ABC 7

One year ago, Jason Redmer passed away and not a day goes by that his mother, Lynne, doesn't ask the question, "Why?" "He had a deep heart and he just loved life," the Orange County resident recalls. But behind his big smile was a decade long struggle with alcohol. "Whiskey is what he normally would drink," she said. "He said when he would go on trips and vacations he would take lots of pictures because he wouldn't remember the vacations." Redmer's family said he tried several times to get sober, only to relapse. After a work injury in 2010, his mother said he also became addicted to pain killers. "It was horrible because he was trying. He was trying so hard," the grieving mother said.

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California's medical board backs some prescription-drug-abuse reforms

Los Angeles Times

The Medical Board of California on Friday embraced a host of reforms aimed at combating prescription drug abuse and reducing overdose deaths but balked at a proposal to strip it of its authority to investigate physician misconduct. The board, meeting in Los Angeles, voted to support proposed legislation that would upgrade the state's prescription drug monitoring system, require coroners to report prescription drug overdose deaths to the board, and give the panel new power to halt a doctor's prescribing in some cases.

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California conservative defends state's pot law in Congress

Los Angeles Times

For more than a decade, conservative Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has formed an unusual alliance with liberals on an unexpected topic — the defense of marijuana. Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and his allies have so far waged a futile effort to pass legislation that would prevent federal authorities from interfering with medical marijuana use in California and other places where pot use is permitted by state law.

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Be prudent in diagnosing, medicating ADHD

San Francisco Chronicle

Among all the changes that are about to happen in the way doctors diagnose psychiatric problems, I'm most concerned about the ones that could lead to adults and teens being misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is the guide by which most doctors make a diagnosis. The newest edition, the DSM-5, includes a number of changes and will be published in May. ADHD is a behavioral syndrome that is characterized by multiple symptoms of inattention or hyperactivity.

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Son's overdose makes San Ramon woman a tireless crusader

San Jose Mercury News

Blindsided by the death of her 21-year-old son, Joey, from a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol in 2009, April Rovero has since made it her mission to help other parents avoid the nightmare she endured. For the past three years, few individuals have done more than Rovero to educate students, parents and lawmakers on the dangers of such prescription drugs as OxyContin, Vicodin and Ritalin. In 2010, Rovero, 60, founded the nonprofit National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse to stem the rise in deaths and raise awareness of the problem nationwide.

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Capitol Alert: Bill setting 'zero tolerance' for driving on drugs stalls in Senate

San Luis Obispo Tribune

A proposal to create a "zero tolerance" policy for driving under the influence of drugs stalled in the California Senate on Tuesday. Senate Bill 289, by Democratic Sen. Lou Correa of Santa Ana would make it illegal to drive if the driver's blood contains any trace of drugs, including cocaine, heroin, marijuana and painkillers. Medications that have been lawfully prescribed, excluding medicinal marijuana, would be exempted.

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Teen girls less successful than boys at quitting meth in UCLA pilot research study

UCLA Newsroom

A UCLA-led study of adolescents receiving treatment for methamphetamine dependence has found that girls are more likely to continue using the drug during treatment than boys, suggesting that new approaches are needed for treating meth abuse among teen girls.

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San Francisco police still using buy-bust tactic on marijuana dealers in Haight-Ashbury

Examiner

The “decoy” arrest — in which plainclothes officers approach would-be drug sellers asking for a $40 bag of marijuana — has become an increasingly less common tactic throughout The City. But not in the Haight-Ashbury. While buy-bust arrests citywide are dropping — from 485 in 2008 to 160 last year — they are increasing in the iconic neighborhood.

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Health Care Law Is ‘Working Fine,’ Obama Says in Addressing Criticism

New York Times

President Obama said Tuesday that his health care law was “working fine,” and he played down concerns that the law could disrupt coverage or lead to higher premiums for people who already had health insurance. At the same time, federal officials released simplified application forms to be used by people seeking health insurance, tax credits and other government subsidies under the law, which Mr. Obama signed three years ago.

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Obama seeks to allay healthcare law concerns

Los Angeles Times

President Obama sought to tamp down fears Tuesday that his landmark healthcare law would raise insurance costs and cause other disruptions, saying most Americans were already benefiting from it and others soon would. "Any time you're implementing something big, there's going to be people who are nervous," the president said at a news conference at which he delivered a new pitch for the 2010 legislation. "For the average American out there, for the 85 and 90% of Americans who already have health insurance, this thing's already happened."

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Rescissions and the public opinion problems of health-care reform

Washington Post

The Affordable Care Act, “Obamacare,” has now been with us for three years. It’s gone through Supreme Court tests. It’s gone through efforts to repeal. A huge chunk of it’s already been implemented. And for the 85 to 90 percent of Americans who already have health insurance, they’re already experiencing most of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act even if they don’t know it. Their insurance is more secure. Insurance companies can’t drop them for bad reasons. Their kids are able to stay on their health insurance until they’re 26 years old. They’re getting free preventive care.

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The 'Obamacare' Rollout's 'Glitches and Bumps' Won't Doom Health Reform

National Journal

President Obama acknowledged reality when he said Tuesday that the rollout of the health reform law next year is going to be interrupted by “glitches and bumps.”  But if the past is any indication, an initial spate of difficulties or bad headlines won't alone spell failure. “There will still be stories that will say this will not be working the way it’s supposed to,” Obama said during a 45-minute press conference. “That’s basically been true of every government program that’s ever been set up.”

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Interview with Top Calif. Health Official on Doctor Shortage and ACA

Capital Public Radio

Capital Public Radio sat down with California's Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley to talk about doctor shortages in the state, and how that ties to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

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Health care reform bills going to governor

Sacramento Business Journal

The first two bills from the special legislative session on health care received final approval by California lawmakers Monday and were sent to the governor. The two bills would reform the individual health insurance market, ban insurance denials and discrimination for pre-existing conditions, guarantee issue and renewal of coverage and require that insurance premiums be based solely on age, geography and family size.

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Talking Covered California's 'massive challenge' in video

Sacramento Business Journal

Health care reform is a “mammoth challenge,” Covered California executive director Peter Lee says in a new video on small business questions about the new insurance marketplace for individuals and small employers that will go life next year, but “it will be easy relative to how complicated buying insurance has been in the past.” The video is in the latest edition of CalChamber News. Launched last year by the California Chamber of Commerce, CalChamber News covers issues affecting employers in the state.

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HMO trade group breaks down health care reform

Sacramento Business Journal

The California Association of Health Plans — the trade group for the HMO industry — is weighing in with its own version of how the Affordable Care Act will affect consumers and change the state’s insurance market. The biggest impact will be in the individual market, where some small businesses and individuals purchase coverage, according to the association’s Affordable Care Act 101 Guide.

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Managing Medi-Cal With Enrollment Up, Spending Down

California Healthline

A report from the National Center for Policy Analysis shows California at or near the extremes in two Medicaid categories: California has the second-highest percentage of Medicaid beneficiaries compared with the state's population; California's average Medicaid spending per enrollee is the lowest among the states. The report -- "The State of Health Care Spending," released last month with detailed accounts of Medicare and Medicaid spending for all 50 states -- arrives at a time of change and controversy for Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program.

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Proposal Would Raise Medicare Payments for Hospice Care Services

California Healthline

CMS on Monday issued a proposed rule that would increase Medicare reimbursement rates to hospices by 1.1%, or $180 million, for fiscal year 2014, Modern Healthcare reports. CMS said the increase was proposed in part because of a nearly 60% increase in average length of stays among Medicare beneficiaries, from 54 days in fiscal year 2000 to 86 days in FY 2010. In addition, CMS spending on hospice services has grown from $2.9 billion in FY 2000 to $14.7 billion in FY 2012.

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California Moves to Protect Smokers from Higher Obamacare Insurance Costs

Kaiser Health News

Smoking has its risks – but in California, higher prices for health insurance probably won't be one of them. The federal health law allows states to charge smokers up to 50 percent more for a health plan – but legislation is moving forward in the California legislature that will make sure that doesn't happen. And unlike other efforts around the country to alter the law, this is one coming from a Democrat. The Affordable Care Act is supposed to remove discrimination in the pricing of health insurance for things like gender and a person’s medical condition. And some say a tobacco surcharge creates a new category of discrimination that singles out smokers.

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Exclusive: White House to Streamline Obamacare Application

Time (Opinion)

A few weeks ago, I gave the President a tough time about the slow and messy implementation of his health care plan. But there’s been some progress in recent weeks — and I’m happy to pass it on. One of the things that concerned me was the 21-page application form that was required for people to join a health care exchange — which, if you’re unfamiliar with the jargon, is an online health-insurance superstore (think Orbitz or Hotels.com) where individuals will have the collective market power of large corporations like, say, Time Warner.

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Analysis: Large Part of Prison Rx Spending Goes Toward Anti-Psychotics

Associated Press

In recent years, California has spent significantly more on anti-psychotic medications for inmates than other states with large prison systems, the AP/Washington Post reports. Findings of AP Analysis: According to records obtained by the Associated Press, anti-psychotic drugs account for nearly $1 of every $5 spent on pharmaceuticals for the state prison system.

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Debating Age Limits on Tobacco

New York Times (Opinion)

The New York City Council has taken up a proposal to raise the minimum age for tobacco purchases to 21 from 18, the strictest such limits in any major American city. Smoking declined significantly among the city’s teenagers from 2005 to 2007, then remained level through 2012, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, has cited “clear data” showing that 80 percent of smokers begin before age 21.

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DEA Holds Nationwide Prescription Drug Take-Back Day

CBS

It is the safest way to dispose of unneeded and expired medication. The Drug Enforcement Administration has conducted a nationwide prescription drug take-back day. Tim Williams reports the effort deters a potential problem that’s growing bigger all the time. Saturday, a Harford County parking lot was a hot bed for drug activity, but it wasn’t people buying from dealers creating the traffic. It’s responsible citizens turning in unwanted drugs to federal agents.

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Chris Christie Comes Out For Good Samaritan Drug-Overdose Bill

Huffington Post

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has come out in favor of a good Samaritan law that would allow drug overdose victims to call 911 without fear of legal repercussions, drug policy reform advocates announced on Monday. Christie's decision to reverse his earlier opposition to the bill paved the way for a compromise measure to pass the state Senate and Assembly by overwhelming bipartisan margins on Monday. New Jersey will join 11 other states and the District of Columbia, which have similar laws, if he signs the bill as expected.

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Narconon under investigation again

WSBradio.com

The Scientology-linked drug rehabilitation program known as Narconon of Georgia is again in trouble with the law. This time, agents from the Georgia Insurance Commissioner’s office and Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter are looking for evidence of insurance fraud.

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Medical Board of California could lose investigative powers

Los Angeles Times

The Medical Board of California would be stripped of its power to investigate physician misconduct under a sweeping reform plan by legislators who say the agency has struggled to hold problem doctors accountable. The medical board has come under fire for failing to discipline doctors accused of harming patients, particularly those suspected of recklessly prescribing drugs.

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FOX 5 proves medical marijuana card ‘easy’ to get

FOX 5 San Diego

Medical marijuana has had its fair share of headlines this week, from the San Diego City Council considering re-legalizing dispensaries to Drug Enforcement Agents raiding them. FOX-5 decided to investigate a different element of medicinal marijuana: How easy is it to get a card to legally smoke it?

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Responsible gambling and the spectacle of the 'problem gambler'

Medical Xpress

Institutions that make big money out of gambling – such as governments, casinos, clubs and pubs – are fond of telling us how much they care about problem gambling. Clubs Australia (the peak body for the institutions where most of Australia's poker machines are located) sees itself as part of the solution – although it also sees the problem as "a small minority" of poker machine gamblers.

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Reverse Medi-Cal rate cuts, health providers say

Sacramento Business Journal

An unlikely coalition of doctors, dentists, hospitals, health plans and a health care union launched a statewide campaign Wednesday to support the successful rollout of federal health care reform and oppose further rate cuts in Medi-Cal, the government health care program for the poor. The “We Care California” coalition came together at the State Capitol to announce support for Senate Bill 640 and Assembly Bill 900, which would reverse cuts to California’s Medi-Cal rates, already the lowest in the nation.

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HEALTH CARE: New insurance exchange is forum focus

Press-Enterprise

State officials rolled out information on California's consumer exchange for medical insurance — a program triggered by federal health care reform — during a town hall meeting in Riverside on Thursday, April 26. About 200 health care providers, residents and insurance agents got the lowdown on the health benefit exchange, Covered California, which will allow about 4 million uninsured people to compare and buy coverage. The forum at University of California Riverside Extension was the first in a series across the state.

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Providers Concerned About Changes in Coverage for Chronically Ill Patients

California Report

Whether you love it or hate it, federal health reform will shake up the health care delivery system. And providers across the state are scrambling to make sure people living with chronic health conditions don't have disruptions to their care during the changeover. Some doctors are particularly worried about one community -- people living with HIV. That's because unlike asthma or cancer, HIV is contagious, and a break in care for those infected could have public health consequences.

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NYC Mom Calls On Bars To Help Fight Binge Drinking After Daughter’s Death

CBS New York

The mother of a young actress who died after a night of drinking in Greenwich Village is calling on city bars to help combat what she calls an epidemic of binge drinking by young people. Shana Dowdeswell, a 23-year-old actress who appeared on “Law & Order,” died of alcohol poisoning on December 12 days after she was found collapsed outside her family’s home after drinking heavily at local bars.

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Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet This Weekend for Prescription Drug Take-Back Day

Patch.com

Sacramento County officials are again asking for residents to turn in their old and unused prescription drugs. "Many Americans are not aware that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse," the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said in a press release. "Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are increasing at alarming rates, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs." This weekend, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department will offer four dropoff locations for National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.

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No health changes for California public employees

Associated Press

California has no plans to move state government workers onto the state's new insurance exchange, said Bill Madison, a spokesman for the California Public Employees' Retirement System. CalPERS provides health benefits to nearly 550,000 current state employees and their dependents. An additional 270,000 retired state workers also receive health coverage through the nation's largest public pension fund, he said. "All employees are staying in CalPERS health plans as long as they're eligible for them," Madison said this week. CalPERS is the third largest purchaser of health care in the nation. It provides benefits to more than 1.3 million public employees, retirees and their families.

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