Wednesday, May 8, 2013

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Sacramento Bee
Assembly Speaker John A. PĂ©rez 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.

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.

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.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Monday, May 6, 2013

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.