Health And Human Services

In yet another scathing critique of government health officials, a federal judge refused Friday to stay his order making emergency contraceptives available to consumers of all ages without a prescription. Calling government efforts to restrict the sale of drugs such as Plan B "frivolous and taken for the purpose of delay," U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman of New York wrote that the medications would be available to all unless the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled otherwise by noon Eastern time on Monday.

In yet another scathing critique of government health officials, a federal judge refused Friday to stay his order making emergency contraceptives available to consumers of all ages without a prescription. Calling government efforts to restrict the sale of drugs such as Plan B "frivolous and taken for the purpose of delay," U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman of New York wrote that the medications would be available to all unless the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled otherwise by noon Eastern time on Monday.

President Reagan will nominate Donald M. Newman as undersecretary of health and human services, the White House announced Tuesday.

WASHINGTON - When President Obama pledged this week to strengthen the nation's mental health system to help reduce gun violence, he also implicitly acknowledged that a gap remains in his signature effort to guarantee Americans access to healthcare. Two landmark laws - including the sweeping 2010 health law - have been enacted since 2008 to improve mental health treatment. But the Obama administration is still writing rules for both measures that will change how insurers deal with millions of Americans who suffer from mental illness and addiction.

Ruth R. Wu of San Gabriel, dean of the School of Health and Human Services and professor of nursing at California State University, Los Angeles, has received the Hassenplug Award from the California Nursing Assn. for her contributions to education.

President Reagan said he intends to nominate Dorcas R. Hardy, assistant health and human services secretary, to be commissioner of Social Security. If confirmed by the Senate, Hardy, 39, a former health services official at USC, would succeed John A. Svahn as head of the pension system. Hardy was California's assistant secretary for health under then-Gov. Reagan in 1973-74.

Operation Desert Storm has become Operation Overkill. Enough parades (Part A, June 9, June 11) have been held and money spent to finance three wars! More than 65,000 of our citizens are still serving in the Mideast. With our educational, health and human services in a deplorable state, I think it is high time that our government begins to seriously address these problems. For too many deprived people, the "parade has already passed them by." GARY TRAXLER, North Hollywood

C. McClain Haddow, former chief of staff to the secretary of health and human services, was indicted Wednesday on charges of fraudulently obtaining more than $30,000 from a charitable foundation and of taking kickbacks on contracts to write speeches for former Secretary Margaret M. Heckler. In a seven-count indictment, Haddow was charged with secretly routing $33,540 in payments from the nonprofit T.

The federal government reversed its decision to cut off $24 million in Medicare funding to Brookside Hospital in San Pablo just eight hours before it was to have taken effect. The cutoff had been ordered on grounds that poor and uninsured patients were dumped on other hospitals, but Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Robert O'Connor said the reversal was ordered "because hospital emergency room practices were brought back into line with quality standards."

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration stepped up pressure on states Monday to guarantee insurance for all their low-income residents in 2014 under the new healthcare law, warning governors that the federal government would not pick up the total cost of partially expanding coverage. "We continue to encourage all states to fully expand their Medicaid programs and take advantage of the generous federal matching funds to cover more of their residents," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote in a letter to governors.

Prodded by an ultraconservative Catholic group, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has criticized Friday's scheduled speech at Georgetown University by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Although Sebelius favors abortion rights, the "sin" that incurred the archdiocese's displeasure was the Obama administration's proposed rule requiring insurance coverage for contraception for employees of religious hospitals and educational institutions. Because Sebelius' actions "present the most direct challenge to religious liberty in recent history," the archdiocese suggested, students at the Jesuit-affiliated university shouldn't be able to hear her speak at an awards ceremony for its Public Policy Institute.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited a health clinic in downtown Los Angeles on Monday and announced more than $9 million in funding to help medical students repay school loans if they agree to work in underserved areas. Sebelius said the program will encourage more students to pursue careers in family medicine and will help relieve a shortage of primary care doctors. "Most Americans who live in underserved areas don't have access to basic care," she said during the visit to Eisner Pediatric and Family Medical Center.

The healthcare reform law passed last year requires insurers to offer, at a minimum, a set of "essential" benefits to individuals and small groups, including coverage for hospitalization, outpatient care and prescription drugs. The details of what is or is not essential were left to the Department of Health and Human Services to decide. On Friday, however, the department put out a bulletin proposing to let each state come up with its own definition. The move — which shielded the administration from a potential firestorm of criticism from patient advocates on one side and business groups on the other — was politically deft.

A Senate subcommittee chairwoman is calling for a federal review of the Obama administration's award of a $433-million sole-source contract for an experimental smallpox drug. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), in a news release issued Wednesday by her subcommittee, said that she has asked the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate. McCaskill's news release cited "serious questions" about the contract, noting that it had first been intended for only a small business and that, ultimately, it was awarded without competition to a larger company.

The Obama administration will not implement a new program to provide Americans with long-term-care insurance, abandoning a controversial part of the healthcare overhaul the president signed last year. The move will not affect other parts of the sweeping law, including preparations for a major expansion of health insurance coverage starting in 2014, according to administration officials. But the decision to give up on what was once touted as a key benefit of the law marks a major retreat for the administration and a vindication for critics who have voiced doubt about the promises that Democrats made as they fought to enact the law last year.

The Obama administration is refusing to provide information that congressional auditors say they need to root out waste and fraud in federal programs that pay out billions of dollars in disability benefits, stirring complaints about White House open-government practices. The position taken by the Health and Human Services Department has resulted in a standoff with congressional investigators, who want to flush out cases of people who obtain jobs while collecting federal disability payments.

When Jerry Brown collided with lawmakers during his first stint as governor ? having his vetoes overridden, being ejected from the Senate on an unannounced visit ? he relied on his 28-year-old legislative secretary, Diana Dooley, to smooth things over. "Her job back then was pretty tough," the once-again governor admits. More than 30 years later, he has chosen Dooley for another pretty tough job: secretary of California's Health and Human Services Agency. In Dooley, who spent her time between Brown administrations as a law student, attorney, fire chief and children's health advocate, he has a trusted confidant to oversee one of the largest and most important agencies of the state while he focuses on the budget.