• Medical Sector Focus Delivers Healthy Returns

      With the future of health care reform more than a little hazy, opening an investment banking office with a significant focus on health care services may seem risky. But not if youre concentrating on the right companies, according to Alexand...
    • Lung Device Maker Raised $50M, Eyes 2015 U.S. Sales

      Rox Medical Inc., one of the countys better funded medical device makers, wants to help people with chronic lung diseases breathe easier. San Clemente-based Rox is working on a device to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The dise...
    • Ista Set To Turn First Yearly Profit on Drug Sales

      Irvine-based Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc. says it is set to turn its first full-year profit in its nearly 20-year existence. Ista, which makes drugs for treating various eye ailments, said it expects an operating profit of $8 million to $10 mi...
    • Bulk Buyers, Doctors, Committees Behind Billions in Hospital Buying

      Getting medical devices and supplies into hospitals comes down to doctors and middlemen. Each year, hospitals in Orange County and across the country buy billions of dollars worth of devices and other supplies, with most routine purchases b...
    • Congress should be looking at easy ways to reduce health care costs as opposed to offering a public o

      Until recently, the fate of small businesses impacted by various congressional health reform plans was essentially ignored. But now that Congress and the president are discussing the need for small businesses to be covered by a health refor...
    • Physicians Speak Out on Healthcare Reform

      Its a side of the healthcare reform debate that is seldom heard. Physicians at a recent town hall meeting at Northridge Hospital Medical Center strongly voiced concerns with a system they said is driving them out of practicing medicine, and...
    • budget cuts devastating to healthcare

      Financial turmoil in the third and fourth quarters of 2008 led three state chartered banks in the greater San Fernando Valley area to apply for assistance from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Considered by some a bailout, th...
    • Device Makers Debate How Reform Will Affect Business

      Health insurancehow to provide it and how to pay for ithas dominated the national reform discussion. But medical device makers are watching the reform debates for other reasonsmainly to predict how it will affect business. It is still prema...
    • Home Nursing Provider for Elderly Seeks Out Place in Health Reform

      Irvines AccentCare caters to sick and frail seniors whod rather stay in their homes. AccentCare, a privately owned, venture capital-backed company, provides skilled nursing and non-medical services such as dressing, bathing and bathroom hel...
    • Big Easing Seen in Health Costs

      Businesses here are projected to pay 6.5% more on average for healthcare insurance in 2010 versus this year, according to Hewitt Associates Inc., a Chicago-based human resources service company. Next years projected growth rate is down from...
    • Health insurance premiums have risen for workers

      Not every insurance carrier is raising its rates, but many are responding to the rising cost of healthcare by hiking premiums about 15 percent, and some are going higher, said Chuck Rosen, a real estate broker from Simi Valley who helps bus...
    • Local Healthcare Providers Offer New Senior Services

      The healthcare industry has long sought to meet the needs of what is arguably the most vulnerable segment of the populationthe elderly. With the country in a recession, that segment is even more vulnerable, for the elderly are at increased...
    • Agreement Brings Paralysis Device to Medical Facilities

      A device to treat partial leg paralysis has been made available to patients in a national network of orthotic and prosthetic facilities through an agreement with Bioness Inc., designer and manufacturer of the device. Valencia-based Bioness...
    • Firms Change Health Strategy

      Switching the health plan for its 150 employees from one with no deductible to a plan with a $1,000 deductible meant more than $20,000 in annual savings for Valley Community Clinic. David Adelman, a partner in the law firm of Greenberg Bass...
    • Worker's Compensation Insurer Amid Turmoil

      Employers Direct Insurance Company will reduce its staff by about 18 percent and lower premiums in an effort to reposition itself in the volatile California workers compensation market. The Agoura Hills -based company, a specialty direct wr...
    • Healthcare Costs Highlight Reasons for Reform in U.S.

      The tab for healthcare in 2008 came to a whopping $2.34 trillion in the U.S. an average of $7,681 per person, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published in the January issue of Health Affairs....
    • Much to consider about COBRA subsidy law

      THERE ARE SEVERAL pros and cons for Congress to weigh when it considers extending the law that temporarily subsidizes COBRA premiums of employees who are involuntarily terminated and want to keep health insurance offered by their former emp...
    • Industry Asks HHS for Deadline Extension on Medicare Secondary Payer Reporting

      The deadline is fast approaching for insurers to begin new Medicare secondary-payer reporting requirements, and insurance industry groups are urgently requesting an extension. Insurers need more time before the April 1 implementation of the...
    • High-risk health insurance pools

      If youve been denied health coverage because of a pre-existing health condition, you may be eligible to join your states high risk pool. These pools were created by state governments to provide coverage for people who have trouble getting p...
    • What is a discount medical program?

      Discount medical programs are savings clubs that offer an easy way to pay less for health care . Enrolling in these programs is usually inexpensive, and can save you as much 50% with participating doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies. Why joi...