California’s Department of Public Health is partnering with a major hospital chain to improve the way patient information is reported to the California Cancer Registry in hopes of making the data more consistent and useful to researchers and policymakers.
In many California school districts, nurses must be ready to jump in a car at a moment’s notice. One nurse often serves multiple schools, watching over hundreds if not more than a thousand students at a time.
Despite a potentially disruptive U.S. Supreme Court decision expected this summer, California officials are moving forward with the creation of a new, online health insurance market that is expected to be the centerpiece of the federal health reform approved wto years ago by Congress and President Obama.
Thousands of mothers currently incarcerated in the State prison system are now eligible to serve out the end of their sentences at home or in local facilities. To qualify for the program, women must be “primary caregivers” convicted of non-violent, non-serious, non-sexual offenses with remaining prison sentences of less than two years. Roughly, half of the 9,543 women currently incarcerated in State prison fall into this category. But prison administrators estimate that department case managers will approve only about 500 inmates for early release.
California is taking the first steps toward building a far-reaching, online health insurance market overseen and regulated by the government. The exchange will be a key part of the federal health reform passed last year.
A network of doctors, community hospitals and public health plans is proposing a new, low-cost health plan for some of California’s low-income residents. But a state agency created to implement the federal health reform law is opposing the idea, saying the low-cost plan would undercut efforts to create a new insurance exchange from which millions of Californians will begin buying their coverage in 2014.
Legislation pending in California would give prison inmates sentences to life without possibility of parole for crimes they committed while a minor a chance at resentencing and parole. Supporters say inmates who committed crimes as minors should eventually have a chance to redeem themselves. Opponents say the measure would be an unfair burden on crime victims.
State policy and independent activism have combined to produce a little known good news story for California: serious injuries to children have declined dramatically over the past decade.