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CBS News:
New Bill Being Debated In California Could Lead To Surgery Shake-Up
Doctors routinely complain they have to get permission from insurance companies to treat their patients. Now a new bill being debated at the California State Capitol could change that. “I had to learn how to do everything all over again,” said Ocean McIntyre. McIntyre says she has permanent eye damage after her health insurance denied her doctor’s urgent medical treatment request. (Taylor, 8/3)
Becker’s Hospital Review:
Kaiser Permanente Taps Chief Compliance, Privacy Officer
Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente has named Jacqueline Carberry Baratian senior vice president and chief compliance and privacy officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, effective Sept. 11. She joins the system from St. Louis-based Ascension, where she also served as senior vice president and chief compliance officer, according to her LinkedIn profile. Ms. Baratian, who holds a JD, is also an active member of the American Health Law Association. (Kayser, 8/3)
Los Angeles Daily News:
Ex-CEO Of Whittier Medical Clinic Pleads Guilty In Multi-Million Dollar Medi-Cal Fraud Scheme
The former president and CEO of a Whittier area medical clinic pleaded guilty on Thursday, August 3 to healthcare fraud and identity theft in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud a Medi-Cal healthcare program that provides family planning services, authorities said. (Holshouser, 8/3)
Becker’s Hospital Review:
New York And California Lead States In Cardiology Hospitals
New York and California topped all 50 states in appearances on the U.S. News & World Report “2023-24 Best Hospitals for Cardiology, Heart & Vascular Surgery” ranking. Heart disease is the leading cause of death across the world and in 42 states, including New York and California. Still, less than half the states — 20 — appeared on the list naming the 50 best cardiology hospitals, and only 11 states were named more than once. (Talaga, 8/3)
Stat:
Medicare Slashes Safety Net Hospital Payments By Nearly $1 Billion
The federal government will pay hospitals that treat poor and uninsured patients almost $1 billion less next year, a cut that’s more than eight times larger than the one proposed in April. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services originally said it would cut payments meant to help safety net hospitals by $115 million in 2024. In the final rule released this week, however, that cut grew to $957 million. The pool of money is known as Medicare’s disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments and uncompensated care payments. (Bannow and Herman, 8/4)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Thermo Fisher Cuts 106 Workers In Fifth Round Of San Diego Layoffs In 2023
Thermo Fisher Scientific is laying off 106 San Diego employees in the fifth round of local layoffs at the life science company this year. The global biotechnology company filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) with the state that outline the job cuts. Thermo Fisher’s WARN notices say the company “is reorganizing and will be engaging in a reduction in force of its employees,” but does not provide further details about the decision. (Rocha, 8/3)
Stat:
Micronoma’s Microbiome Cancer Diagnostic Approach Under Fire
Micronoma, a San Diego-based biotech startup, was founded on the idea that signatures from microbes that colonize tumors could lead to a blood test to detect cancer. The hypothesis was based on a high-profile Nature paper, published in 2020, that suggested these microbes are consistently found in tumors, and that they create such specific signatures they could be used to identify cancer types with nearly 100% accuracy. But late Monday night, a team of researchers published a manuscript on the preprint site bioRxiv.com showing what they believe to be two “fatal errors” in the Nature paper’s analyses, invalidating not only the paper’s findings but possibly the scientific foundation for Micronoma, which has raised an estimated $17.5 million in funding from investors including SymBiosis Capital Management and the Seerave Foundation. (Chen and Herper, 8/3)
Axios:
Silicon Valley’s Biotech Sector Still Growing Amid Economy Concerns
Silicon Valley’s tech companies have struggled with mass layoffs in the past year, but the biotech industry hasn’t suffered quite the same fate. The Bay Area’s biotech hub has been in the national spotlight in recent years amid pandemic-era breakthroughs and cautionary tales like Theranos’ fall from grace. (Chen, 8/3)
Stat:
Vertex Faces Renewed Calls To Widen Access To Its Cystic Fibrosis Medicines In Poor Countries
Several Latino advocacy groups and more than 100 clinicians from dozens of countries are lending their voices to an expanding campaign to pressure Vertex Pharmaceuticals to widen access to its cystic fibrosis medications. (Silverman, 8/3)
Stat:
White House Drug Shortage Group Privately Met With Industry
A new White House task force on drug shortages held a rare in-person meeting last Friday with representatives from hospitals, drugmakers, pharmacies, and others in the drug supply chain to brainstorm policies for stemming shortages of cancer drugs. (Wilkerson, 8/3)
Stat:
With Heat Waves Through August, Officials Warn Of Health Risks
An already record-setting summer heat wave will continue through August and will put more than 51 million Americans at risk of health impacts, according to new data from federal health officials. Most of those vulnerable people live in 26 states and are expected to have at least five extreme heat days this month. Among the highest-risk counties, roughly 45% have high levels of uninsured adults and children and 18% have high senior populations, according to a relatively new monthly report drafted by the Health and Human Services Department’s two-year-old climate change office. (Owermohle, 8/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Rescue Group Warns Mount Whitney Hikers Of Snow Dangers
A search and rescue organization that serves Mt. Whitney in the Eastern Sierra warned inexperienced hikers this week to avoid some of its higher trails because they’re still covered in slippery, slushy snow that has led to injuries, including a recent slip and broken ankle that required a helicopter evacuation. “Your summit photo is not worth injuries and a rescue, let alone months or years of recovery,” urged the volunteer-run Inyo County Search & Rescue in a Facebook post. “The mountain will always be there for another attempt.” (Duggan, 8/3)
The Mercury News:
Person Tests Positive For West Nile Virus In Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County public health officials announced on Thursday the county’s first human case of West Nile virus for the season, confirmed in a person who was reported to be resting at home after a hospitalization. (Turner, 8/3)
AP:
California High Court Says County Can’t Enforce Oil Well Ban As State Debates Future Of Fossil Fuels
The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Monterey County cannot enforce a voter-approved ban on new oil and gas wells, a decision that comes amid an ongoing battle over how the state should address the health and climate impacts of fossil fuel extraction. … “People who live next to oil wells get very, very sick. Californians who live next to this stuff, they have headaches, nosebleeds, nausea,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “You do not want the oil company moving in next door.” (Austin, 8/3)
CBS News:
UCSF Doctors Leading Way On Eliminating Climate-Harmful General Anesthesia Gas Use
Doctors in San Francisco are at the forefront of a movement to replace the drugs used for general anesthesia, which have been determined to be contributing to our climate change crisis. From hip replacements to C-sections and brain surgeries, modern medicine is simply not possible without anesthesia. More than 300 million major surgeries are performed every year around the world, with about 50 million in the U.S. alone. (Donchey and McCrea, 8/3)
Fresno Bee:
Kevin McCarthy Seeks Answers About Secret Chinese-Run Lab In Reedley. ‘Disturbing’
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy joined other local politicians in sounding alarms about the ties between China and a secret lab that was shut down earlier this year in Reedley, talking with reporters Thursday in Clovis. (Morano, 8/3)
East Bay Times:
Santa Cruz County Implements New Guidelines For COVID Death Counts
Those still monitoring COVID-19 metrics in Santa Cruz County even after the local health emergency entered the rear-view mirror earlier this year may have recently noticed a dramatic jump in one of county’s most crucial data points. (Hattis, 8/4)
Axios:
COVID Uptick Hints At Our Future With The Virus
A recent uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is hinting at how the virus will keep raising a predictable seasonal threat. But experts warn the U.S. is lacking critical tools to help manage future waves. Infection levels are still relatively low, and immunity from prior infections and vaccinations means the virus is unlikely to reach the same high levels seen during past fall and winter waves. (Moreno, 8/4)
The Washington Post:
Loss Of Smell And Taste Is No Longer A Common Covid Symptom
When the pandemic began, losing your sense of smell was considered a key indicator of covid-19, and the condition affected about half of those who tested positive for the coronavirus. However, a new study reveals that the chance of smell loss from the latest omicron variants has dropped dramatically since the early days of the pandemic. “So now, three people out of 100 getting covid presumably may lose their sense of smell, which is far, far less than it was before,” said study leader Evan Reiter, the medical director of Virginia Commonwealth University Health’s Smell and Taste Disorders Center. (Yarber, 8/3)
CIDRAP:
Bivalent COVID Booster Protects Against Poor Outcomes Better Than 1-Strain 4th Dose
A fourth dose of the bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 vaccine is substantially more effective against medical treatment and hospitalization than a fourth monovalent (single-strain) dose among both previously infected and never-infected people who had received three monovalent doses, concludes an observational study published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 8/3)
Stat:
ProMED, An Early Warning System On Disease Outbreaks, Appears Near Collapse
The early warning disease network that alerted the world to the original SARS outbreak and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic appears to be in peril. A number of the senior moderators of ProMED-mail, a program operated by the International Society for Infectious Diseases, posted a letter of protest early Thursday, challenging a recently revealed plan to charge for subscriptions to the service. The group of 21 moderators, who announced they were suspending work for ProMED, expressed a lack of confidence in the ISID’s administrative operations, suggesting ProMED needs to find a new home. (Branswell, 8/3)
Stat:
CDC Recommends RSV Monoclonal Antibody For Infants
A panel of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously voted Thursday to recommend wide use among infants and some high-risk children of an antibody designed to protect against RSV, the country’s leading cause of infant hospitalization. The 10-0 recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was adopted hours later by CDC Director Mandy Cohen. (Mast, 8/3)
CIDRAP:
BARDA Orders More Jynneos Mpox Vaccine
Bavarian Nordic has received a US government contract for $120 million to manufacture more of its Jynneos smallpox/mpox vaccine, the company said in a news release today. The order comes from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. It primarily covers the manufacturing of new vaccine. (Wappes, 8/3)
The New York Times:
Medical Group Backs Youth Gender Treatments, But Calls For Research Review
The American Academy of Pediatrics backed gender-related treatments for children on Thursday, reaffirming its position from 2018 on a medical approach that has since been banned in 19 states. But the influential group of doctors also took an extra step of commissioning a systematic review of medical research on the treatments, following similar efforts in Europe that found uncertain evidence for their effectiveness in adolescents. (Ghorayshi, 8/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF DA Jenkins Blasts Courts, Says They’re Freeing Fentanyl Dealers
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins ripped the county’s criminal courts on Thursday, saying they free drug dealers from detention and have a poor conviction rate for those who do go to trial, specifically for dealing the deadly drug fentanyl. “The courts are the biggest barrier,” Jenkins said at a Tenderloin Public Safety Town Hall, in her strongest criticism of the courts during her one-year tenure. (Whiting, 8/3)
The Mercury News:
New San Jose Law Would Ban Homeless Encampments And RVs Near Schools
Standing in front of a dozen tarp-covered RVs along Education Park Drive in East San Jose, Mayor Matt Mahan and Councilmember Peter Ortiz proposed new rules on Thursday to prohibit homeless encampments and vehicle dwellings within 150 feet of a school or daycare in the city. The new ordinance, which would also include preschools, is the first time the mayor has officially proposed limitations on where the city’s homeless can reside — and is in line with suggestions he voiced earlier this year on stricter rules surrounding encampments and RVs. (Greschler, 8/4)
Capitol Weekly:
Housing First Helps, But Homelessness Challenges Remain
Confronted with the nation’s largest homeless population, Californians hold diverging viewpoints on what constitutes effective housing strategies. According to the annual report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2022, California has over 171,000 homeless individuals, 115,000 of whom are unsheltered. That adds up to an astonishing 30 percent of the nation’s homeless population and 50 percent of all unsheltered people. (Chung, 8/3)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
High Prescription Costs Prop Up Systemic Inequity
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly half of all Americans struggle with health care costs. For many, it’s the single largest cost in their budget. As someone who represents thousands of small businesses that employ millions of workers, I think this is a critical priority that we need to address immediately. Research provided by Blue Cross found that from 2014 to 2019 drug prices increased by 14 percent. This is an overwhelming reality to most, and unfortunately, minority populations have been hit the hardest by these price increases. (Julian Canete, 8/3)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Medical Mishaps Are Too Common In U.S. Hospitals
In June 2022, my husband’s recovery from surgery for a hiatal hernia, a breach of the stomach into the esophagus, wasn’t going well. He seemed caught in a driftless state, his life force slowly starting to drain almost imperceptibly away. He was failing to thrive. In fact, there were many failures — medical mishaps, a health care system focused on profit over patients, and my own shortfalls as a patient advocate. (Laurie Reed, 8/3)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Promises On New San Diego Ambulance Deal Have Familiar Ring
The history of San Diego taxpayers being blindsided by costs that they didn’t see coming because of terrible decisions by city leaders is voluminous. Any short list begins with the intentional underfunding of city pensions in 1996 — followed, incredibly, by another round in 2002. (8/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Deaths In L.A. County Jails Are The Result Of A System That Places Incarceration Above All Else
Tragedy struck again as a 29-year-old Black man died in Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department custody last week. He is the 26th person to die in our jail system this year, putting us on track for a record number of in-custody deaths. Most of the dead were Black or Latino, had not been convicted of the charges for which they were being held and were in custody only because they were too poor to pay the bail amount for their release. (Michelle Parris, 8/4)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Helping Others Helped Me After An Autism Diagnosis
I often go back in my mind to the beginning of the autism journey with my family. I think about it because I am one who reflects often, especially since I enjoy supporting other families on the autism journey. Not everyone likes advice or wants to hear my two cents, but helping is not always something I do for them. Often, helping is what I do for me. (Melanie K. Milicevic, 8/1)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
My Doctor Cared For Me From Birth Through College. Medical Care Now Is Far Less Personal.
In the 1960s, there were hundreds of family physicians practicing medicine in the city of Chicago. But my mother, Anna Marie, was a patient without one. She was 22 years old, pregnant, and with no health insurance because my father, Ignacio, was on medical disability and in between jobs. (Laura Castaneda, 8/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
I Helped My Mother-In-Law Die Using California Assisted Suicide Law
Assisted death is a hot political topic in California, but a few months ago it became personal for me. (Nuala Bishari, 7/29)
CalMatters:
California Teens Use Social Media Non-Stop. Teaching Media Literacy In Schools Could Protect Them
According to the U.S. Surgeon General, up to 95% of young people ages 13-17 use a social media platform, nearly two-thirds use it daily and one-third report using social media “almost constantly.” Yet with our brains not fully developed until around the age of 25, the consequences of spending so much time online – coupled with the amount of misinformation, disinformation and cyberbullying – are approaching a calamity. (Abagail Moffatt, 8/2)
CalMatters:
California Paid Family Leave Laws Overlook Babies In Intensive Care
In California, 9.1% of babies are born preterm, or before 37 weeks. A March of Dimes report estimates that infants admitted to a special care unit had an average length of stay of 13 days, ranging from five days for full-term infants to 46 days among those born before 32 weeks. (Cassie Lawrence, 7/31)
Los Angeles Times:
Anti-Abortionists Take Aim At A Crucial HIV Program
For the last 20 years, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, has reigned as one of the most successful global health programs in history. The program has saved an estimated 25 million lives, mostly in developing countries. Its more than $100 billion in spending on drugs, other treatments against HIV infection, education programs and other projects has helped to raise the average life expectancy in Africa by an astonishing 10 years, to 56. (Michael Hiltzik, 8/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Congress Is Old. But They’re Not Leaving.
Nearly every member of the Bay Area’s congressional delegation told the Chronicle they’re running for re-election in 2024. Several are over 70. (Joe Garofoli, 7/30)
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