West Region news and information

OAKLAND, Calif.— The percentage of California employers that offer healthcare coverage to their employees has plummeted in the past decade. In 2012, 60% of California employers offered coverage to their employees, down from 71% in 2002, according to a survey by the California...
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LAS VEGAS—A Nevada jury ordered the state's largest health management organization to pay $500 million in punitive damages to three plaintiffs in a civil negligence lawsuit stemming from a Las Vegas hepatitis outbreak. Two companies—both subsidiaries of UnitedHealth...
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Just months before the creation of a $4 billion health system, the two Roman Catholic hospital operators behind the deal have abandoned talks for now, citing disagreements over back-office functions.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif.—A Democratic California state lawmaker introduced a package of bills to address an expected doctor shortage as the state prepares to insure millions of new patients under federal healthcare reforms. State Sen. Ed Hernandez said his bills would expand services that...
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ORANGE, Calif.—St. Joseph Health and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, Calif., reached a deal to create a new health system. Executives said some details were not yet final, but the transaction consolidates control over operations and strategy for five St. Joseph...
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RENTON, Wash.—Providence Health & Services will have another physician as its president and CEO. Dr. Rod Hochman was promoted to lead the 26-hospital Catholic healthcare system. Hochman, 57, is one of two Providence group presidents. He will succeed Dr. John Koster starting July 1. In...
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SAN DIEGO—Scripps Health entered hospice care as the area's biggest hospice provider continues to scale down its operations under bankruptcy protection. The not-for-profit San Diego Hospice laid off about a third of its employees after disclosing last year that it faced uncertainty...
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FORT COLLINS, Colo.—The University of Colorado Health system broke ground Jan. 17 at the site of its new $11 million cancer center on the Harmony campus of its 238-bed Poudre Valley Hospital. The 30,000-square-foot outpatient facility is expected to be completed next year. The building...
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California Gov. Jerry Brown is asking the state to put an additional $350 million toward Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.— El Camino Hospital filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a voter-approved measure that limits what the public hospital could pay its executives. Officials from the two-campus Silicon Valley hospital filed a complaint in Santa Clara Superior Court in San Jose. The...
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