National Healthcare

Just off the trendy Melrose strip, on the western edge of Hollywood, is a refuge of tree-lined streets where neighbors greet each other by name and young couples start families and stick around into their golden years. Lately, it has also become a battlefront in a broader clash of conflicting imperatives: how to balance a government push to keep the aging and disabled out of institutions against community desires to protect the character and value of residential neighborhoods, particularly in a shaky housing market.

Just off the trendy Melrose strip, on the western edge of Hollywood, is a refuge of tree-lined streets where neighbors greet each other by name and young couples start families and stick around into their golden years. Lately, it has also become a battlefront in a broader clash of conflicting imperatives: how to balance a government push to keep the aging and disabled out of institutions against community desires to protect the character and value of residential neighborhoods, particularly in a shaky housing market.

National Healthcare & Hospital Supply in Orange agreed Tuesday to be acquired by Owens & Minor, a large eastern hospital supply distributor, in a deal worth about $40 million. Officials of the companies said they were not prepared to discuss plans for the future of National Healthcare's local operations or the status of the firm's 360 employees, including 100 who work in Orange County. "I do know there are some mighty fine people in this company, and a mighty fine computer system here," said Owens & Minor President G. Gilmer Minor III. National Healthcare, which said it had revenue of more than $250 million last year, supplies needles, syringes, catheters, gloves and other medical supplies to health-care hospitals and other health-care facilities, mostly in western states.

Federal law enforcement officials announced charges in the largest healthcare fraud scam in the nation's history, indicting a Dallas-area physician for purportedly bilking Medicare of nearly $375 million after he reportedly sent out "recruiters" to round up patients and get them to sign for treatments he never provided. The Medicare billings piled up by Dr. Jacques Roy grew so large over the last five years that the situation left outside experts wondering Tuesday why it took prosecutors so long to notice.

The deal that ended the two-day strike against General Motors Corp. on Wednesday won't necessarily put GM back in the driver's seat, but unloading some of its massive healthcare obligations will help GM compete with nonunion Japanese rivals -- while sending the United Auto Workers into new territory.

After the collapse of a deal with hospital chain Providence Health & Services, officials from the Motion Picture & Television Fund are close to finalizing an agreement with another national healthcare provider that would keep Hollywood's most famous nursing home afloat. In February, the fund announced that it had reached an agreement with Providence to manage the hospital and nursing home in Woodland Hills. But the arrangement fell apart this summer after Providence, a Renton, Wash.-based nonprofit health services provider, balked at assuming financial responsibility for the operations.

The constitutional clash over President Obama's national healthcare law moved closer to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, when both the administration and Republican state attorneys separately asked the justices to hand down a verdict early next year. Both sides in the legal battle cut short their time for filing their appeal petitions in the high court, and both said they were anxious for a final ruling. "This healthcare law is an affront on Americans' individual liberty," said Florida Atty.

Here are some reader questions on the national healthcare debate: I have seen various numbers that indicate that of the 50 million people in our country who do not have health insurance, anywhere from 12 [million] to 15 million . . . are illegal immigrants. Do the various plans being considered cover these people indefinitely or is there a limit and/or cutoff where they begin paying something into the plan? The White House and congressional leaders have stressed that any extension of health coverage will not include illegal immigrants.

California was the first state to adopt menu-labeling laws. SB 1420, signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September 2008, affects restaurant chains with 20 or more locations. It has a two-part rollout: In July 2009, restaurants had to provide brochures with calorie content or nutritional information, such as grams of fat and carbohydrates and milligrams of salt. Beginning Jan. 1, 2011, the second part of the law will take effect: Those same restaurants must now post nutritional information on menus or menu boards.

It is appropriate to criticize both President Bush and the Democratic candidates about cutting healthcare costs, not to speak of the self-absorbed members of Congress (editorial, Jan. 23). One consideration that is never discussed is how corporate healthcare costs for workers make American products more costly compared to either European countries, where government provides healthcare (Boeing planes versus Airbus), or less prosperous countries, where employers provide little or no benefits (India, China, Indonesia)

After the collapse of a deal with hospital chain Providence Health & Services, officials from the Motion Picture & Television Fund are close to finalizing an agreement with another national healthcare provider that would keep Hollywood's most famous nursing home afloat. In February, the fund announced that it had reached an agreement with Providence to manage the hospital and nursing home in Woodland Hills. But the arrangement fell apart this summer after Providence, a Renton, Wash.-based nonprofit health services provider, balked at assuming financial responsibility for the operations.

The constitutional clash over President Obama's national healthcare law moved closer to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, when both the administration and Republican state attorneys separately asked the justices to hand down a verdict early next year. Both sides in the legal battle cut short their time for filing their appeal petitions in the high court, and both said they were anxious for a final ruling. "This healthcare law is an affront on Americans' individual liberty," said Florida Atty.

Eunha Yi is 71 and has back problems. But with threatened cuts to state and federal healthcare programs, how will low-income seniors like herself cope? she asked. It was a question that drew applause Sunday at a town hall meeting at USC that drew a packed audience of all ages eager for answers about health coverage. "Low-income seniors don't have many assets, and affordability is a big issue for us," said Yi, a Mid-Wilshire resident who came to the meeting with a group from the Korean Resource Center, a nonprofit social service agency.

Nearly 5 million uninsured Californians could gain access to health coverage in 2014 when the nation's healthcare law expands eligibility for subsidized insurance programs for the poor, according to a new report. At that time, more than two-thirds of the state's 7 million uninsured residents will be eligible for California's Medi-Cal insurance program, which serves the state's poorest people, or for federal subsidies aimed at those who earn more but have no coverage through their jobs.

California's new insurance commissioner sought Monday to force health insurers to spend more of their revenue on medical care. In his first official act, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones ordered emergency regulations requiring insurance companies to devote at least 80% of their income to policyholders' claims in the state's individual insurance market. Jones' plan matches provisions in the new national healthcare law. Jones said the emergency regulations would enable him to enforce the 80% spending requirement in the federal law at a time when congressional Republicans are trying to kill funding for the measure.

Major insurers around the country are reporting that a growing number of small businesses are signing up to give their workers health benefits, a sign of potential progress for the nation's battered healthcare system. The increase, although not universal, has brought new security to thousands of workers, many of whom did not have insurance or were at risk of losing it. An important selling point has been a tax credit that the nation's new healthcare law provides to companies with fewer than 25 employees and moderate-to-low pay scales to help offset the cost of providing benefits.

Re "The right way to reform," Opinion, Jan. 19 Jonah Goldberg repeats a lie that's going to be repeated a whole lot more in this election year, namely that the Democrats are "vexed" because they are "lacking any other ideas." GOP corruption and incompetence deserve to be screamed about. Operating secret torture chambers is certainly a new idea in this country, but is it a good one? The Democrats have the same ideas they've had for many years: fairness and opportunity for the little guy, protection for the environment, national healthcare, development of alternative energy sources, the rule of civil law, the separation of church and state, checks and balances.

Re "Healthcare, state by state," editorial, June 14 The Times writes that despite state efforts to expand health coverage to the uninsured, a lasting solution will have to come from Washington. In addition to the need for federal funding cited in the editorial, state action is also hampered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which bars most state regulation affecting employer-sponsored health insurance. Although states lack the resources and authority to match their resolve and inventiveness, a national healthcare system isn't necessarily the best solution.

California's largest health insurers, fearing they'll lose new customers in the state's lucrative individual insurance market, have canceled controversial decisions last fall to stop selling policies for children. The insurance companies abruptly halted the sale of individual policies for kids in September rather than comply with provisions of the nation's new healthcare law that required them to accept all youngsters under age 19 regardless of their medical conditions. Insurers said at the time that the healthcare overhaul could saddle them with huge and unexpected costs, particularly if competitors exited the market.

Los Angeles Times The gig : Thomas M. Priselac is president and chief executive of Cedars-Sinai Health System, a sprawling complex in Los Angeles with 11,000 employees, vast research and teaching programs and the largest private, nonprofit medical center in the Western United States. The red carpet: Cedars-Sinai has long been associated with Hollywood. George Burns Road and Gracie Allen Drive run through its middle right past the Steven Spielberg Pediatric Research Center.