health care

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The CalPERS Long-Term Care Affair

Byuclafaculty

We have noted in earlier posts that although UC employees are not covered by CalPERS, at one point in the past, they were offered the “opportunity” to buy long-term care insurance through CalPERS.  But then CalPERS began jacking up the cost and, for those who protested, offering inferior alternative policies. CalPERS position is that it didn’t deliberately lowball the initial premiums but instead just underestimated what the costs would be.  But some subscribers disagree and now there is a lawsuit. From the Sacramento Bee: CalPERS was sued Tuesday over the big rate hikes it imposed on its long-term care insurance…

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Rank Order or Rank Odor

Byuclafaculty

From today’s Sacramento Bee: On the surface, it might seem self-serving for UC Davis School of Medicine to rip into the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings that rate it below the nation’s elite primary care schools. One might suspect it was sour grapes by a medical school unhappy with its rankings.The school poured four years of research and almost $10,000 of its own grant funding into a stinging academic critique of the news magazine’s ranking methodology.”These findings raise questions regarding the ranking’s validity and usefulness,” said the paper, published this month in the journal Academic Medicine. A primary…

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Campus Happenings Yesterday

Byuclafaculty

Demonstrators return to campus Yesterday, this blog noted that UC had imposed its terms on the union (AFSCME 3299) that had struck for two days recently at university med centers.  There was a demonstration yesterday the blocked traffic at Westwood and Wilshire Boulevards.  Yours truly happened to be in a coffee shop at Lindbrook and Westwood as the demonstration ended.  Photo above. You can find a news account at http://centurycity.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/protest-rally-near-ucla-leads-to-arrests. In a totally different vein, there was some kind of children’s program at the campus Fowler Museum which produced the two figures below. Fowler fare     Yours truly noted…

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UC Hospital Dispute Seems to Have Ended

Byuclafaculty

Although UC and AFSCME 3299 – the union that called the recent 2-day hospital strike (including at UCLA) – seem to have gone their separate ways, it appears the dispute is over for now.  The Daily Bruin carries a report that UC has unilaterally implemented its last offer. Under state labor law, an employer can implement its offer unilaterally if negotiations have reached an “impasse.”  In such instances, the union might challenge the implementation before PERB on grounds that an impasse had not been reached.  Or it could threaten or undertake a strike.  However, the media release by the union…

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That Which Cannot Go on Forever…

Byuclafaculty

Herb Stein Herb Stein, President Nixon’s chief economist, once said, “That which cannot go on forever must come to an end.”  There is a school of thought – to which our governor arguably belongs – that says that because tuition at colleges and universities has been rising faster than inflation, there is a bubble that will inevitably burst, maybe around now.  Bette Billet, president of the UCLA Faculty Women’s Club for 2013-14, passed me an article that argues that both higher ed and medicine are in the same boat. So, one might assume, a university with a med school is…

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UCLA Monkey Trial Soon

Byuclafaculty

We have blogged about this case before – without really knowing what the full background is.  But apparently, it is coming to trial this Thursday: The dispute over a Wake Forest University Health Sciences primate colony in southern Forsyth County goes to its first hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday.  The hearing involves Wake Forest as plaintiffs and the board of regents for the University of California system as defendants. It will be held in the federal building in downtown Winston-Salem… The Wake Forest division filed a lawsuit in February to end a joint venture with the University of California at…

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Listen to the Regents: March 13, 2013 – morning session

Byuclafaculty

Our efforts to archive Regents meetings (since the Regents’ policy is currently to preserve them only for one year) continues.  Below is the agenda for the morning meeting of March 13, 2013.  Included was approval of a UCLA medical building about which cost concerns had been raised at an earlier meeting.  Eventually, the Regents seem to approve any construction project – even if concerns are raised – particularly when they are assured that it won’t cost them anything. Agenda for Wednesday, March 13, 2013 – morning8:30 am Committee of the Whole (open session – includes public comment session)9:30 am Committee…

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GlaxoSmithKline Problem Said to Be Fixed

Byuclafaculty

Back in May, we blogged about a cautionary note from UCLA indicating that a grant competition from GlaxoSmithKline appeared to circumvent university procedures. Now an email has gone out to faculty indicating that the problem has been fixed: I am pleased to report we resolved the barriers to faculty participation in the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Discovery Fast Track Competition. We encourage faculty who are developing novel drug targets and drug screening assays to consider applying for this program. When the competition initially launched, we found that the terms and conditions to be at odds with UC policies and faculty interests. We…

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The Gay Marriage Decisions: What Do They Mean for UC?

Byuclafaculty

As the preliminary reports and analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on gay marriage appear, you may be wondering what effect it might have on U.C., particularly with regard to benefits.  Or maybe you are not wondering since you know that U.C. has provided dependent benefits for domestic partners.  There is actually an effect through the federal tax system.  The now-defunct Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) meant that the IRS did not recognize gay marriages, even in states where such marriages were permitted.  Thus a spouse/dependent in such a relationship, even if eligible for, say, coverage under his or…

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Shying Away from Retiring

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today carries an article about surveys of faculty who say they don’t plan to retire at the “normal” age or maybe ever.  The work-til-you-drop response is attributed to such motivations as wanting to be intellectually active but also importantly to concerns about having sufficient funds and health insurance to retire.  When UC was considering changing its retirement plan – it created a two-tier program – it retained the defined benefit approach rather than switch to a defined contribution approach.  Many faculty in the U.S. are under TIAA-CREF or some similar defined contribution program which means that they…