Protecting Patients

Controller's Stem Cell Agency Audit Ignores California Agency's Built-in Flaws

Santa Monica, CA -- An audit of the state stem cell agency by California’s Controller ignores fundamental flaws in Proposition 71 that created the agency, Consumer Watchdog said today.

The audit released by State Controller...

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Controller: Stem Cell Agency Passes Audit

State Controller John Chiang said an audit of the state's stem cell grant program found its conflict-of-interest policies, grant administration, administrative expenses and expenditures conform with the voter-approved ballot measure that created...

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Community Colleges, Universities Asked to Join Stem Cell Program

State universities and community colleges got an invitation last week to join California's stem cell research program.

A committee overseeing the $3 billion program voted on Tuesday to appropriate $18 million to train...

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Stem Cell Grants Being Doled Out

UCLA, USC and UC Irvine are among the research centers getting $227 million to build laboratories.

California's voter-created stem cell institute is expected to award $227 million in grants today to seed a laboratory...

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Wisconsin Stem Cell Industry Has Been Slow In Developing

Madison, WI -- With the stated goal of capturing 10 percent of the stem cell technology market by 2015, Gov. Jim Doyle used a 2006 visit to the Medical College of Wisconsin to announce an important executive order. It directed the state...

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Consumer Watchdog Calls on Governor & Regulator to Immediately Reinstate All Wrongfully Cancelled Patients, Move Forward on Delayed Rules

Santa Monica, CA -- In the wake of last week's announcement by Governor Schwarzenegger and state regulators that health insurers would be required to reinstate 26 patients whose health policies were wrongfully cancelled, Consumer...

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Hope for Patients Who Lost Policies

State to Review Canceled Health Insurance Policies -- The action, which affects thousands of Californians, is the boldest yet in dealing with companies' practice of rescinding coverage of sick policyholders.

Thousands...

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California Orders 26 Health Policies Reinstated, Opens Door to Thousands More

SACRAMENTO, CA -- The state Department of Managed Health Care ordered the policies of 26 consumers immediately reinstated and opened the door to potentially reversing policy cancellations for thousands of more Californians deemed to have been...

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State Will Reinstate Canceled Health Policies

LOS ANGELES, CA -- One week after consumer advocates complained of inaction, state regulators announced Thursday that they will force three of the state's largest health plans to reinstate 26 patients who have had their medical coverage...

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26 to Get Back Health Coverage Taken Away

State regulators to review thousands of similar cases

State regulators ordered on Thursday the immediate reinstatement of 26 health insurance policies for consumers who were wrongly stripped of them, marking the...

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Recent Articles:

Controller's Stem Cell Agency Audit Ignores California Agency's Built-in Flaws

CONTACT: John M. Simpson, 310-392-0522, ext 317; cell: 310-292-1902
May 12, 2008

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Controller: Stem Cell Agency Passes Audit

By Staff Writers, SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES
May 12, 2008

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Community Colleges, Universities Asked to Join Stem Cell Program

By Bradley J. Fikes, NORTH COUNTY TIMES (San Diego, CA)
May 10, 2008

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Stem Cell Grants Being Doled Out

By Mary Engel, LOS ANGELES TIMES
May 7, 2008

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Wisconsin Stem Cell Industry Has Been Slow In Developing

By Joe Vanden Plas, WISCONSIN TECHNOLOGY NEWS
April 27, 2008

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Recent Posts in Protecting Patients:

Stem cell loan policy OK'd

The stem cell agency's Biotech Loan Task Force approved a draft loan policy at its meeting last week and sent it on to the stem cell board's finance committee for...

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Before 'Big Oil U' Was 'Big Pharma U'

Consumer Watchdog has protested strings-attached grants from Big Oil to universities, but the oil companies are just following the path of Big Pharma. Here, from the Century Foundation's Maggie Mahar and Niko Karvounis, is a concise history of legislation that opened the classroom door to drug companies--and even let cosmetic giant Shiseido control research agendas at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital.  

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Rules, But No Cops

When the federal government passes a law but has no cops to enforce it, the crooks hold a "get out of jail free" card. That's the unfortunate effect of a sweeping and successful effort by drug and insurance companies to have federal law "preempt" state enforcement. A spate of stories today (LA Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times) on new federal rules against insurance company abuses of Medicare recipients drives home the point.

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One board member gets it

"All Californians are paying for Prop 71," said Dr. Claire Pomeroy, "so all should benefit from it."

Dr. Pomeroy is the Dean of the UC Davis Medical school and has a seat on the 29-member stem cell agency board of...

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Stem cell agency's conflicted board

One of the the problems with the California stem cell agency's board is that it is fraught with conflicts of interest. It was, in fact, designed that way in Proposition 71 which voters...

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