San Francisco Chronicle: California Pacific Spends Far Less On Poor, Report Says California Pacific Medical Center, including its St. Luke’s campus, is San Francisco’s most profitable hospital, yet it spends proportionately far less on care for poor residents than other private nonprofit hospitals in the city, according to a new report. … the report released Thursday by UC Hastings College of the Law found the hospital, which is affiliated with the Sutter Health network, spends considerably less than other hospitals on charity care when compared with the amount of money received per patient (Colliver, 12/9). <

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Fingerprint’s games include parent-to-child messaging features

There is no shortage of startups providing apps for children in 2011: Toca Boca, Mindshapes, Nosy Crow, Callaway Digital… and now Fingerprint Digital.

The San Francisco-based company has launched its first five iOS apps, and is counting on a feature called Mom-Comm to help it stand out from the herd. In short, it’s like a Game Center for kids and parents, providing rewards and app recommendations for the former, and an update on their progress for the latter.

Fingerprint was founded by Nancy MacIntyre, who previously worked at electronic learning company LeapFrog Enterprises as executive vice president of product innovation and marketing. H

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If you are a senior citizen and require part d Medicare cover, choosing the right part d plan for you will highly be influenced by the prescribed drugs that you use since the part d plan only covers an applicant’s cost of drug prescriptions. When going for a part d plan one needs to carefully review his needs in terms of drug prescriptions and look at the amount that he is going to spend so as to make sure that his needs will be met at cost that will be comfortable to his budget. Since part d plans vary from state to state, one need to get information about all the plans available in his state of residence so as to know what plan will suit his medical needs.
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Interested in adopting healthier habits? You have a better chance of success if you find a friend with similar traits to share the experience, a new study suggests. the tendency of people to have similar friends — were far more likely to use the diet diary and take part in other healthy behaviors than participants whose buddies were assigned randomly. Not one obese individual signed up for the diet diary in the random networks, compared to more than 12 percent of obese participants in the similarly matched networks.

The results also suggest that the most effective social environment for increasing the willingness of obese people to adopt a behavior is one where they interact with others with similar health characteristics, the study said.

“I think it was a pretty brilliant study,” said Tricia M.

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Temporarily resolving a deadlock over the University of Texas Medical Branch continuing to provide prison health care, officials announced Thursday that a deal has been reached to extend the Galveston medical school’s involvement. For that, the university will get an additional $45 million to cover expected losses over the next year. UTMB and prison officials said that as part of the deal, negotiations will begin to possibly transition UTMB out of its nearly 18-year role as the primary medical provider for about two-thirds of Texas’ 156,000 prisoners.

One of the biggest concerns when it comes to the use of electronic cigarettes is whether they are healthy or safe to consume. To answer this question, we are going to compare electronic cigarettes with tobacco cigarettes and find out more about the benefits offered by electronic vaping devices. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Electronic cigarettes are designed as a healthy smoking alternative, offering the same smoking sensations but without the unwanted side effects of consuming tobacco cigarettes. T Full Article…

Seven million people who have been prescribed drugs to battle the unmanageable cacophony that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder brings to their minds now face another hurdle: getting those drugs at the pharmacy.

Palm Beach County pharmacist Nirav Pate finds himself fielding nearly a dozen phone calls a day from patients frantically trying to fill prescriptions.

The owner of Robalo Pharmacy says his suppliers give him only enough to fill one or two a day.

“Its rationed out. The problem is big. It is huge,” Pate said. “This is one of the biggest shortages right now.”

And health authorities nationally expect the problem to worsen through the holidays and into the new year.

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