Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, June 19, 1998
Hawaiian Airlines' top executive hospitalized
Paul J. Casey, president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Airlines Inc., was hospitalized late Wednesday after becoming ill. The company declined to name the local hospital or reveal the type of illness but said Casey responded immediately to treatment, is resting comfortably and will be released after a couple of days of observation.
Meanwhile John W. Adams, Hawaiian Air's chairman, is acting interim chief executive.
Kaiser Permanente won't cover Viagra
SAN FRANCISCO -- Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest health maintenance organization, won't cover patients' costs for impotence drug Viagra because it would be too expensive.The decision, announced today, covers the company's operations in Hawaii. (Kaiser competitor Hawaii Medical Service Association said Viagra is not covered under standard coverage. If a company requests that it be covered then it would have to pay more on its health plan.)
Kaiser officials said today that limiting patients to 10 pills a month would cost Kaiser more than $100 million a year.
The company said doctors, ethicists and pharmacists were involved in the decision, which also considered such issues as the medical necessity of sex and the dangers of recreational use.
Some 2 million prescriptions have been written for Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra since it arrived in April. The pills retail for up to $10 each.
In other news . . .
STAMFORD, Ct. -- Investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is buying General Re Corp. for $22 billion worth of stock, adding one of the world's leading insurers of insurance companies to its portfolio. Berkshire announced late today after the stock market closed that it would let General Re operate independently of its other insurance operations, National Indemnity and GEICO.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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