Ventura County Star: Los Robles Receives Stroke-Care Certification
Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks has been awarded the comprehensive stroke center certification from DNV GL-Healthcare. Los Robles said this makes it the first hospital in Ventura County to achieve this accreditation, and only one of 14 in California. The accreditation reflects the highest level of competence for the treatment of acute stroke events.Comprehensive stroke centers are the most clinically advanced and best-equipped hospitals in a given geographical area that can treat any kind of stroke or stroke complication. In many states, stroke center certification determines to which facility a patient should be taken for the most appropriate care. (12/8)

In other news —

Orange County Register: Long Beach Children's Hospital Opens Specialty Office In Irvine 
Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach this week opened a pediatric specialty outpatient center in Irvine that is part of Fountain Valley-based MemorialCare’s network. Miller is owned by the nonprofit MemorialCare Health System, which includes Saddleback Memorial in Laguna Hills and Orange Coast Memorial in Fountain Valley. (Perkes, 12/8)

KPBS Public Media: New Report Highlights Risks Of E-Cigs; California Prepares To Tax Vaping Liquid 
Tobacco control advocates in California say the U.S. Surgeon General’s new report on the risks of e-cigarettes is right on the mark.California has already taken a number of steps to restrict their use. These include banning vaping products wherever smoking is prohibited, and raising the legal age to buy e-cigarettes to 21. In addition, the state will soon will impose a tax on e-liquids that contain nicotine, thanks to the recent passage of Prop. 56. (Goldberg, 12/8)

KPBS: A New Mother's Dilemma: The Challenges Of Returning To Work 
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Taylor is on the right track. The agency recommends that all babies be exclusively breast-fed for the first six months. On average, however, California women aren’t coming close to that goal. In fact, surveys show the rate of exclusive breast-feeding takes a big dive when babies hit the three-month mark. That’s about the time when many women have to return to work. (Goldberg, 12/9)

Sacramento Bee: Stanford Doctors Describe Conjoined Twins' Separation Surgery 
Mixing hard medical facts with light-hearted humor, surgeons for conjoined twins Erika and Eva Sandoval recounted details Thursday of the risky and intricate surgery that cleaved the girls in two. Two days after the girls were wheeled into surgery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, veteran pediatric surgeon Dr. Gary Hartman called the 17-hour separation a success and said the 2-year-olds are “recovering quite well.” He made his first public comments at a packed news conference with four other members of the 50-person medical team. (Caiola and Buck, 12/8)

In other news from across the state —

The Bakersfield Californian: Pop-Up Valley Fever Clinic Offers Specialty Care To Kids
[F]inding a pediatrician who specializes in infectious diseases, like valley fever, isn’t easy in Bakersfield, despite the fact that more people breathe in cocci spores in Kern County than anywhere else statewide, health officials say...That’s why Valley Children’s launched a pop-up clinic once a month in Bakersfield where doctors who specialize in the disease can treat kids. It’s been so successful that hospital officials are planning to host more pop-ups in Kern County, said Nael Mhaissen, an infectious disease specialist who works in the clinic. (Pierce, 12/8)

The Mercury News: Wish Book: Asthma Camp Teaches Kids They Can Still Play, Exercise
Theresa Perry  hesitated at first to send her son Michael to a weeklong summer camp geared toward helping kids learn how to manage their asthma... The educational camp, held one week every summer at Mayfair Community Center in partnership with the City of San Jose, is geared to help teach kids with techniques to manage their disease. The curriculum includes helping kids understand the different aspects of the disease, recognize the triggers of attacks, know how and when to take their medication and learn how to talk to teachers, coaches and other adult caregivers about their needs related to asthma. (Gomez, 12/8)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County Parents, Farmers Lobby State Over Pesticide Use Near Schools
Lobbying groups have been making last-minute pitches to an obscure state agency on an issue that has ramifications throughout the state and particularly in Sonoma County: To what length should farmers go to protect schoolchildren from sprayed pesticides? The state Department of Pesticide Regulation has proposed a rule that would ban pesticide applications within a quarter-mile of schools and day care centers on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Comments are due Friday and the department has received about 500 from various groups, said spokeswoman Charlotte Fadipe....Parents and anti-pesticide advocates tend to believe the proposal should crack down harder on spraying. Ag groups that include grape growers fear the regulation is overreach, not supported by science. (Swindell, 12/8)

Politico: Obamacare Repeal Could Be Biggest 2017 Tax Cut For Wealthy
The big winners in Republican plans to repeal Obamacare are likely to be the rich. Rescinding the Affordable Care Act means not only taking away health coverage from some 20 million Americans. It also means scrapping two big tax increases Democrats imposed on the wealthy to help pay for it all. (Faler, 12/8)

The Hill: Obama Health Chief Huddles With Dems To Fight ObamaCare Repeal 
Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell met with congressional Democrats on Thursday to warn of the dangers of the Republican “repeal and delay” strategy for ObamaCare and discuss ways to fight back against repeal efforts. Burwell met with House Democrats in the morning and then Senate Democrats at their lunch in the afternoon. (Sullivan, 12/8)

The Associated Press: New Coalition Will Push Back On Repeal Of Obama Health Law
Supporters of the 2010 health care law will launch a political coalition Friday to block its repeal. They're targeting Republican lawmakers whose constituents may now be at risk of losing health insurance. The initial goal is to stop Congress from repealing the law without simultaneously passing a replacement for some 20 million people covered through subsidized private health insurance and expanded Medicaid. Called "Protect Our Care," the group brings together organizations that helped pass the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare." (12/9)

In other national health care news —

The New York Times: Cures Act Gains Bipartisan Support That Eluded Obama Health Law
In recent years, few major bills have commanded as much support as the 21st Century Cures Act, which sailed to passage by votes of 392 to 26 in the House on Nov. 30, and 94 to 5 in the Senate a week later. Once it is signed by President Obama on Tuesday, as the White House has said it will be, the law will allow for money to be pumped into biomedical research and speed the approval of new drugs and medical devices. It also includes provisions to improve mental health care and combat opioid abuse. (Pear, 12/8)

Stat: Former Insys Execs Charged In Nationwide Conspiracy
The former chief executive of Insys Therapeutics and several other former executives were arrested Thursday on federal charges of conspiring to bribe doctors to prescribe a prescription version of the potent opioid fentanyl. The painkiller, called Subsys, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for cancer patients who suffer from intense bouts of pain that are not controlled by other opioid medications. In exchange for bribes and kickbacks offered by Insys employees, several doctors wrote large numbers of Subsys prescriptions for patients who did not have cancer, prosecutors said. (Armstrong, 12/8)

Los Angeles Times: The 21st Century Cures Act: A Huge Handout To The Drug Industry Disguised As A Pro-Research Bounty
To judge from the huzzahs, the [21st Century] Cures Act represents a landmark in funding for biomedical research — a $5-billion bounty for the Obama administration’s “cancer moonshot” as well as its initiatives on brain research and genomics-based “precision medicine.” ... If universal praise for a measure makes your B.S. detectors twitch, you’re on the right track. The 21st Century Cures Act is a huge deregulatory giveaway to the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, papered over by new funding for those research initiatives. The punchline is that the regulatory rollback is real, but the funding may not be — it’s subject over the next decade to annual appropriations by Congress that might never come. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/5)

Los Angeles Times: On Obamacare Repeal, GOP Ideology Is Colliding With Reality 
If there weren’t so much at stake, one would be amused at the spectacle of Republican politicians writhing as they try to make good on their ideological promise to “repeal and replace” Obamacare without ruining the lives of millions of their own constituents. In the few short weeks since the GOP added control of the White House to its existing control of both houses of Congress, the GOP has been grappling with the recognition that taking potshots at the Affordable Care Act and weakening its consumer protection provisions is no longer just a parlor game, but actions that could have genuine consequences. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/5)

Los Angeles Times: Have Hay Fever Or Hives? If Obamacare Is Repealed, You Could Be Denied Health Insurance Again 
As congressional Republicans double down on their promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act but defer a replacement for as long as several years, healthcare stakeholders and experts are stepping up their warnings of the consequences of half-baked policymaking. That’s important, because none of the proposals that Republicans have put on the table during the last six years is close to fully baked. But hospitals, actuaries and economists are warning that it’s easy to vandalize the healthcare system in ways that make it worse for tens of millions of Americans dependent on Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and individual insurance exchanges. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/7)

Modesto Bee: If Republicans Repeal Obamacare, Their Own Constituents Will Be The Ones Most Likely Harmed  
As McCarthy was speaking in Washington, 2,377 miles away in Sacramento, the liberal California Budget and Policy Center was releasing a report on Obamacare’s importance to low-income residents, revealing the state’s greatest impact in the state would be felt in McCarthy’s district – making some of his constituents victims of the repeal he advocates. The ACA gave states the option of expanding Medicaid – called Medi-Cal in California – to a new cohort of low-income residents whose incomes had been too high to qualify previously. This economic segment has been dubbed “the working poor” and its members historically comprised a large portion of the state’s medically uninsured. (Dan Walters, 12/7)

Sacramento Bee: Opioid Treatment For The Poor? That Could Die With Obamacare
California, thankfully, has never been the epicenter of the country’s opioid epidemic, but even in the state’s agricultural hubs, such as Stanislaus County, the number of people hooked on prescription painkillers and heroin is truly staggering. There, roughly 1,100 are in treatment and 400 more are waiting to get in. The story is the same all over the Central Valley and in the sparsely populated rural north, where many voters picked Donald Trump but never would have been able to afford help curbing their addictions without the Affordable Care Act that the president-elect so detests. (12/4)

Ventura County Star: Solutions To Opioid Crisis Start At Home
Ventura County has a serious drug problem. And while many people — from impacted families and health specialists to school authorities and law enforcement — are working hard to combat the county's seemingly growing addiction to heroin and prescription opioids, it is clearly not enough. ... We need to increase our efforts to reach people not only in the throes of addiction, but also those who are edging toward use and abuse of these opioid drugs, whether it be to combat physical pain or to escape a reality where they are having difficulty coping. (12/3)

Los Angeles Times: Warning: That Warning Label May Be Useless In Conveying Danger 
A paper published in the Harvard Business Review last week concluded that the U.S. warning-label system “fails miserably at distinguishing between large and small risks.” To illustrate that point, researchers from Harvard and Vanderbilt universities said consumers should think about the difference between wolves (potentially very dangerous) and puppies (not so much). (Lazarus, 12/6)

Sacramento Bee: Marijuana Regulation Is Most Responsible Course For Sacramento
California voters have spoken and with the passage of Proposition 64, adult use of marijuana is now legal in our state. Regardless of one’s personal feelings about marijuana, this new reality presents both challenges and opportunities for our community. The Sacramento City Council has taken the position that strict regulations to control every element of the industry is the best and most responsible way to protect public health, deal with illegal activity, mitigate potential negative impacts, employ thousands of Sacramentans and increase city tax revenues. (Jay Schenirer, 12/3)