Scores of nurses demonstrated in front of Watsonville Community Hospital Thursday, protesting what they say is the hospital's practice of employing so few nurses and medical assistants that patients are receiving substandard care. —Santa Cruz Sentinel, 12/23/10 More »
As usual, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, had his finger on the pulse of San Francisco at yesterday's inquiry into the CPMC hospital chain. "I've been to a lot of these hearings, and lies, lies, lies is what we usually hear from CPMC. Sutter is trying to create a hospital monopoly, where they get to write a Bible that we can't interpret." —Beyond Chron, 12/16/10 More »
A doctor visit may be becoming a lot more dangerous -- especially for medical personnel -- and local nurses union officials say they want urgent changes made in light of two recent local killings. —Contra Costa Times, 12/12/10 More »
An East Bay assemblywoman has introduced a bill to improve staff safety at hospitals in response to the slayings of two medical workers, including the death of a psychiatric technician at Napa State Hospital late October. —Napa Valley Register, 12/12/10 More »
California's seven largest HMOs must pay nearly $5 million in fines because of unfair payment practices after an 18-month state investigation revealed widespread underpayments, valued in the tens of millions of dollars, for medical care provided by doctors and hospitals. —The Sacramento Bee, 11/30/10 More »
Politicians and political strategists looking ahead to the next election cycle are taking notice of an increasingly potent political force on the state and national scene - one that's overwhelmingly female and dressed in scrubs. The Oakland-based California Nurses Association has made its mark by delivering some powerful political punches with a combination of entertaining theater and savvy strategizing. —San Francisco Chronicle, 11/24/10 More »
One of California's most powerful political players these days is a Bay Area-based nurses' union, which helped torpedo Republican Meg Whitman's efforts to become governor and boosted the prospects of the eventual winning candidate, Democrat Jerry Brown. Now officials of the 85,000-member California Nurses Association say they will keep Gov.-elect Brown's feet to the fire on their agenda of improving conditions for nurses and the state's health-care system. —Wall Street Journal, 11/11/10 More »
Three million Californians are enrolled in high-deductible health insurance plans because they can't afford to pay high premiums. But the often excessive out-of-pocket costs could be causing some to delay seeking care, while jeopardizing the financial well-being of others, a new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has found. —Los Angeles TImes, 10/28/10 More »
A nurse who was attacked by an inmate at the Contra Costa County Jail died of her injuries today, prompting the promise of new legislation that would protect medical workers in jails and medical facilities. El Sobrante resident Cynthia Barraca Palomata, 55, died this morning, three days after she was struck in the head with a table lamp by an El Cerrito man awaiting processing into the jail, authorities said. —Contra Costa Times, 10/26/10 More »
A Southern California hospital chain known for aggressive billing practices and cost-cutting is being investigated by state and federal authorities for an unusually high rate of life-threatening infections among its older patients. —Los Angeles TImes, 10/12/10 More »
Assemblyman Curt Hagman's attack on registered nurses and our professional voice, the California Nurses Association, in a recent point of view (Sept. 23), and the bill he has sponsored to dictate what nurses are able to learn to better advocate for our patients, symbolize what is at stake for California patients and nurses in the November election. —Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, 10/03/10 More »
The increase will average 19% and will take effect Oct. 1 along with double-digit hikes by Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California and Health Net that also had been reviewed by the Department of Insurance. More than 1 million Californians will see their health insurance premiums rise Oct. 1 now that regulators have wrapped up their review of a plan by Aetna Inc. to raise rates an average of 19% for 65,000 individual policyholders. —Los Angeles TImes, 09/17/10 More »
Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman was leading a triumphant rally at the state GOP convention last month when she announced that New Yorkers were excited about the California governor's race. At a fundraiser she held in New York, Whitman said she met with people who "have suffered the financial reforms that are going to crimp our ability to raise capital, and they want California to turn the corner." —Sacramento Bee, 09/07/10 More »
California regulators are seeking fines of up to $9.9 billion from health insurer PacifiCare over allegations that it repeatedly mismanaged medical claims, lost thousands of patient documents, failed to pay doctors what they were owed and ignored calls to fix the problems. —Los Angeles TImes, 09/07/10 More »
Hundreds of union members celebrating the 90th anniversary of women's suffrage rallied Thursday at the state capitol, holding signs that said "Women vote for women who vote" an attack on the state's first female Republican nominee for governor. The signs were criticizing the abysmal voting record of former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, who has acknowledged that she failed to vote for most of her adult life. The rally was organized by the California Nurses Association, a vocal Whitman critic. —Associated Press, 08/27/10 More »
On Thursday, the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote, about 2,500 California nurses came to the Capitol to praise Susan B. Anthony and condemn Meg Whitman. The march and rally, featuring scores of women dressed in period costumes from the 1920s, was staged by the largely female California Nurses Association, ostensibly to celebrate the anniversary but, more pointedly, to call attention to the fact that for much of her adult life Whitman has not voted. —Ventura County Star, 08/26/10 More »
More than 3,000 registered nurses -- joined by women's rights and labor activists -- are gathering in Sacramento on Thursday to protest California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. The two-hour march begins at the Sacramento Convention Center at 4:00 p.m. PT and convenes two hours later at the steps of the state capital. Many of the participants will be wearing period costumes from the early 20th century. —Huffington Post, 08/26/10 More »
A growing cross section of California women’s, labor, and community groups will be joining thousands of registered nurses in Sacramento, Calif. August 26, to mark the 90th anniversary of women securing the right to vote with a modern day suffrage celebration. Participants will march, many in period costume, from the Sacramento Convention Center to a rally on the West Steps of the State Capitol. —Press Release, 08/16/10 More »
Meg Whitman's economic policies are based on a flawed understanding of the challenges California faces, and the Republican gubernatorial nominee's proposals would make the state's troubles worse, according to an open letter to Californians signed by a group of mostly Democratic economists from throughout the state. —Los Angeles TImes, 08/10/10 More »
Has California Republican Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who says she'll bring a fresh approach to state government, become precisely what she insists she is not - a calculating politician who changes positions and straddles the issues depending on the audience? —San Francisco Chronicle, 08/02/10 More »
