Labor news and information

Physician assistants may soon have more opportunities to practice in Missouri. A bill headed to the Governor's desk would provide more flexibility in how and where they provide care.
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With a $2.1 million federal grant, Ohio will expand a database for background checks allowing healthcare companies to be immediately notified if workers have been convicted of a crime that would ban them from the job.
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The acute-care hospital Producer Price Index dropped 0.6% in April, preliminary data show. The decline is the largest one-month slide for the hospital inflation measure since January 2004, the first month for which data are available.
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The Indian generic drugmaker Ranbaxy, which already operates under an unprecedented consent decree banning sales of many of its products in the U.S., agreed to plead guilty in federal court and pay $500 million to resolve allegations of shoddy factory inspections and poor quality control.
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An eight-year initiative aimed at improving healthcare quality and lowering costs has entered its final phase, and its director says the project's lessons could serve as best practices for healthcare providers across the nation.
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A former senior executive of a pharmaceutical research firm is suing the company, claiming he was fired for taking a stand against its alleged practice of scrutinizing intimate details of job applicants' personal lives.
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Quest Diagnostics Inc. will pay a $70,000 penalty and no longer automatically disqualify job applicants with prior arrests or criminal convictions as part of a settlement agreement with the New York attorney general's office.
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HHS keeps a list of people who are excluded from giving even indirect care to Medicare patients, and new guidelines urge providers to check their personnel rosters against the list once a month.
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The need for better communication—with research applicants, patients and practicing clinicians—was a frequent topic of discussion at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's board of governors meeting on Monday.
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California was an early booster of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law and was the first state to authorize a health insurance exchange in 2010. It also was quick to commit to the optional Medicaid expansion that has been rejected by some Republican states.
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