Hospitals

The Los Angeles Planning Commission on Thursday approved the construction of a tower at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and rezoned a vacant Westwood lot so that it can become a city park. Cedars-Sinai received approval for a 200,000-square-foot expansion that will include 100 new patient beds and 700 parking spaces.

Health Net Inc. has agreed to pay California hospitals at least $1.95 million for care delivered to patients whom the insurer later dropped. The settlement, pending a judge's approval, resolves a lawsuit filed by California hospitals to recover payments they say the Woodland Hills company improperly withheld after canceling the coverage of hundreds of patients.

Gainesville's first community hospital has been on life support ever since Shands HealthCare system in northern Florida bought it a dozen years ago. Now, because of the recession, the plug is being pulled on money-losing Shands AGH. This fall, its nonprofit parent company will shut the 80-year-old, 220-bed hospital and shift staff and patients to a newer, bigger hospital nearby in an effort to save $65 million over three years across the eight-hospital system.

Two hospital executives have been indicted for allegedly paying homeless people for unnecessary medical treatment as part of an ongoing investigation into a scheme to bilk government health programs out of millions of dollars. Robert Bourseau, 74, who was chairman of City of Angels Medical Center, was arrested at his Los Angeles home Friday by federal investigators. Dante Nicholson, the hospital's former senior vice president, is scheduled to appear before a federal judge next month.

At a time when much of the nation's economy is on life support, the giant health maintenance organization Kaiser Permanente opened a state-of-the-art, $600-million hospital in Hollywood on Tuesday, a feat that illustrates the vitality of the healthcare sector and of Kaiser itself. The nation's largest nonprofit healthcare organization, Kaiser employs more than 128,000 people in California and is the largest private employer in Los Angeles County.

Sri Lankan forces shelled a makeshift hospital in the war zone Saturday, killing 64 civilians despite a pledge to stop using heavy weapons in its battle with the Tamil Tigers, a rebel-linked website said. A health official in the war zone confirmed that the hospital was hit twice by artillery through the day, but said he did not know who was responsible. The military denied launching the attack.

Artillery shells tore through a hospital packed with wounded civilians in Sri Lanka's war zone for a second day Wednesday, killing at least 50 people, setting an ambulance on fire and forcing the medical staff to huddle in bunkers for safety, doctors said.

It was 8 a.m., and the subject was death. A 55-year-old man was wasting away from lung cancer and cirrhosis. His weight was plummeting and his brain was swelling. But he was in denial, refusing to discuss hospice care or consider a "do not resuscitate" order. A bright pink vase filled with yellow mums sat near the window, belying the grim task facing the healthcare workers at Beth Israel Medical Center who had clustered around a conference table. "This has been really sad," said the Rev.

Workers at a hospital and two nursing homes in Hollister, Calif., have voted to remain in the Service Employees International Union rather than join a rival group launched by former officers of the giant labor organization. The election was the latest skirmish between the SEIU and the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers, which has filed election petitions to represent nearly 100,000 employees in California.

Widowed and HIV-positive, Beatrice Acheing had no money to have her baby delivered in a hospital. But she admitted herself anyway to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus during childbirth. To her relief, the boy was born HIV-negative. But their ordeal had just begun. Hours after labor, both mother and baby were shunted into a locked, guarded room with other indigent patients. They were given one meal, sometimes two, a day, but no clothes or diapers for the infants.