Posts Tagged: service

Opinion

Pharmacy benefit managers ease seniors’ drug costs

A photo illustration of drug costs, with prescription medication atop a dollar bill. (Image: Video_Creative)

OPINION: The Golden Years for senior citizens across the Golden State are longer and more active than for the generations that preceded us. This is a real gift, but it does mean most of us are battling age-related medical conditions, often dealing with them for decades. Prescription drugs are a big part of our healthcare toolbox, and today, almost 40 percent of senior citizens use five or more medications.

News

Check it out: The state Democratic convention

A view of the main floor at the state Democratic Party convention in San Jose. (Photo: Alvin Chen/Capitol Weekly)

First, take 3,000 political junkies, mix in a few dozen ambitious politicians, stir thoroughly. Let simmer for three days and — Whee! — you have California’s Democratic Party Convention. It was an earnest carnival reflecting what makes California politics so much fun.

News

Obit: Allan Hoffenblum, premier California political analyst

Allen Hoffenblum, pubolisher and co-editor of the California Target Book.

Top political analyst Allan Hoffenblum, who co-founded the California Target Book more than 20 years ago, died in his sleep, his colleagues said. Hoffenblum was 75. The Target Book, often described as the bible of political campaign professionals, analyzed the history, demographics and players — district by district — in the state’s legislative and congressional seats.

News

Deadline nears to decide internet service taxes

By next week, consumers could see their internet service subject to taxation. Currently, internet service providers do not charge state or local sales tax, thanks to a piece of federal legislation called the Internet Tax Freedom Act. But that law, authored 16 years ago by former California Congressman Chris Cox and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, will expire on Dec. 11 unless Congress acts to extend it or make it permanent.

News

Calpers: Average service, high costs

Calpensions: A new comparison with four other large public pension funds found that CalPERS, while scoring average on service, had high pension administration costs — $213 per member a year, nearly twice the average of $108 per member.

News

Brown vetoes hospital merger bill

As a deadline loomed, Gov. Brown struck down legislation to grant state Attorney General Kamala Harris more authority over nonprofit hospital mergers. The attorney general — a position he once held — already has sufficient authority, he said Monday in his veto message.

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Small town eyes CalPERS exit costs

Calpensions: A small but affluent Orange County city, with a current staff of only a half dozen employees, would have to pay about $3.6 million to leave CalPERS, the giant state pension system estimated two years ago. “I almost feel like just handing this to a reporter and saying, ‘Look at this.’

News

Auditor takes aim at state health, social-service contracting

State health officials mismanaged a special child-protection program and violated the law when they contracted out for services instead of using in-house workers, the state’s top auditor reported in a sharply worded review.

 

State Auditor Elaine Howle said the state Department of Public Health and its predecessor, the Health Services Department, spent some $2.1

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