- California Healthline Original Stories 1
- Gubernatorial Hopefuls Look To Health Care For Election Edge
- Public Health and Education 1
- Public Health Officials Take Swing At Broader Culture, Stigma That Supports Spread Of STDs
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Gubernatorial Hopefuls Look To Health Care For Election Edge
Health care is a significant, and often divisive, issue in the race. Here’s a look at where the top six candidates — two Republicans and four Democrats — stand. (Pauline Bartolone, )
More News From Across The State
What Patients Need To Know About The Hospital Workers' Strike
Some University of California workers, including some hospital employees, are planning a three-day strike this week. People who are in need of emergency assistance will be able to get help, but patients might have to reschedule elective surgeries.
Los Angeles Times:
More Than 50,000 UC Workers Set To Strike This Week But Campuses Will Remain Open
UC's largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, plans to begin a three-day strike Monday involving 25,000 workers, including custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. The union and university reached a bargaining impasse last year, and subsequent mediation efforts have failed to produce an agreement over wage increases, healthcare premiums and retirement terms. Two other unions have approved sympathy strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday. About 14,000 members of the California Nurses Assn., who work at UC's medical centers and student health clinics, are set to walk off their jobs, along with 15,000 members of the University Professional & Technical Employees, who include pharmacists, clinical social workers, physical therapists, physician assistants and researchers. (Watanabe, 5/6)
Sacramento Bee:
About 53,000 Hospital Workers Start 3-Day Strike Monday
About 10,000 of the 53,000 workers represented in the strike work for the University of California, Davis, on its campus or in its medical center. ... In a statement emailed the The Bee, a spokeswoman [for the UC Davis Medical Center] said, “We have a strike management plan in place and we are prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of our patients in the face of this short labor strike. ... Some same-day surgeries are being handled this week, some procedures are being moved from early next week to later next week, and some are being moved into the following week." (Sullivan, 5/7)
In other news —
Sacramento Bee:
Current, Ex-Sutter Health Employees Say Company Prevented Them From Taking Breaks
In hearings that begin Monday, about 30 current and former employees at Sutter Health’s midtown Sacramento surgery center will accuse the health-care giant of preventing them from taking meal and rest breaks and will ask the California Labor Commissioner to award them back wages and penalties. The Bee obtained copies of a half-dozen of the Sutter employees’ complaints in which plaintiffs seek anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars in lost wages and penalties. (Anderson, 5/4)
California Failing To Ensure Nursing Facilities Provide Quality Care, Audit Finds
Citations for substandard care have increased at the same time the facilities' profits are soaring. State Auditor Elaine M. Howle blasted the California Department of Public Health and other state agencies for failing to properly regulate the centers.
The Mercury News:
Audit Slams State Oversight Of Nursing Facilities
California’s skilled nursing facilities are increasingly putting their residents’ health in jeopardy, yet the state is failing to adequately crack down on the problem, according to a report released Tuesday. Citations for substandard care at skilled nursing facilities statewide increased by almost a third between 2006 and 2015, according to the report from the California State Auditor. Over the same period, profits for the state’s three biggest private operators of nursing homes soared by tens of millions of dollars, even as the number of nursing facility beds barely changed, according to the report. (Boyd-Barrett, 5/6)
A Veritable Who's-Who Of High-Profile Investors Lost Big In Theranos Debacle
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose family invested $100 million in the blood-testing start-up, is just one of the well-known investors that took a chance on what was touted as a Silicon Valley fairy tale.
The Wall Street Journal:
Theranos Cost Business And Government Leaders More Than $600 Million
A who’s who of government, business and international finance lost a total of more than $600 million they had invested in scandal-plagued Theranos Inc., according to previously sealed documents made public in a lawsuit. High on the list is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose family invested $100 million in the Silicon Valley blood-testing company, the documents show. Mrs. DeVos had previously disclosed that her family was a Theranos investor in a government filing, but the size of the investment wasn’t known. (Carreyrou, 5/3)
The New York Times:
Caught In The Theranos Wreckage: Betsy DeVos, Rupert Murdoch And Walmart’s Waltons
The company became a Silicon Valley fairy tale, with investors awarding the privately held company a valuation of around $9 billion. But the story began to unravel in October 2015 after The Wall Street Journal, owned by Mr. Murdoch’s News Corp., began questioning whether the tests worked. Theranos became the subject of federal investigations into its testing and claims of proprietary technology, which were called “nanotainers.” Much of the time the company had to resort to using conventional blood testing methods, unable to get federal approval for any test but one for Herpes. Theranos and its founder also became embroiled in a series of lawsuits, involving investors as well as one of its key partners, Walgreens, a large drugstore chain, where it offered its tests. The company reached a settlement with Walgreens last August. (Abelson and Thomas, 5/4)
Public Health Officials Take Swing At Broader Culture, Stigma That Supports Spread Of STDs
LA health officials say that it's clear the traditional ways of preventing disease — patients seeing a doctor regularly to get screened and treated — have not been working. So the county recently created a Center for Health Equity to evaluate the way certain public health issues are intertwined with social factors such as income and racial discrimination.
Los Angeles Times:
STDs In L.A. County Are Skyrocketing. Officials Think Racism And Stigma May Be To Blame
Los Angeles County launched a Center for Health Equity in October to address the idea that “health predominantly happens outside the health care setting,” said its director, Heather Jue Northover, at a recent meeting. “It happens where we live, work, play and pray.” The center will target five health disparities, including high rates of STDs among certain minority groups. (Karlamangla, 5/7)
In other public health news —
Ventura County Star:
Xanax And Other Benzodiazepines Raise New Worries In Ventura County
As anxiety about opioid deaths in Ventura County storms on, health and law enforcement leaders worry, too, about the pills that serve as second punch, sidekick and accessory. “Xanax is probably the hottest thing on the (street) market aside from heroin and fentanyl,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Matt Young, citing instances where pills are brought in from China, laced with a street opioid and sold as a black market version of the drug. “Sometimes, they’re deadly.” (Kisken, 5/5)
Peninsula Press:
California Tackles Air Pollution Disparities With Data, Policy Efforts
While California holds a reputation as a leader in environmental policy, it still ranks worst out of all 50 states for average public exposure to particulate matter pollution — tiny particles measured in microns, a millionth of a meter — largely due to the state’s topography and population density. California is also home to seven of the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest short-term levels of particle pollution. (Salian, 5/4)
Capital Public Radio:
New Campaign Tackles Incarceration, HIV Rates Among Women Of Color
Black and Hispanic women are overrepresented in U.S. prisons, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. And women of color make up roughly 80 percent of all women with HIV, despite making up only 40 percent of the female population. A private philanthropy called the California Wellness Foundation is giving out $13 million this spring to help nonprofits change those trends. (Caiola, 5/4)
Increase In Demand For Mental Health Services On University Campuses Impeded By Counselor Shortage
“We have to prioritize because we don’t have enough slots for folks,” said Mimi Bommersbach, a mental health counselor at Chico State. Advocates are pushing legislation that would require campuses to hire enough counselors to keep a one thousand students per counselor ratio.
KPCC:
Mental Health Services At Cal State Campuses At 'Crisis' Levels
An increase in demand for counseling services at California State University campuses hasn't been met with a corresponding increase in counselors and that is leading to a "crisis," campus mental health officials say. Now, they're turning to Sacramento in hopes of getting a legislative mandate to hire more staff. (Guzman-Lopez, 5/7)
In other news from across the state —
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Homeless Program Pays For Attending Meetings And Writing Policies
The city of Sacramento is offering hefty financial bonuses to hospitals, health plans and government and nonprofit agencies for attending meetings and helping to launch its $64 million Whole Person Care program on homelessness. Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other Sacramento leaders consider the pilot program central to achieving their goal of housing 2,000 homeless people by 2020. (Hubert, 5/5)
'Pharma Folks Are Nervous' As Trump Gears Up For Major Speech On Curbing Drug Prices
This week's planned speech is expected to offer a “comprehensive strategy” that administration officials say will result in a “profound modernization” of how the government pays for some drugs. But the pharma industry is watching anxiously in case President Donald Trump goes off script.
The New York Times:
As Trump Prepares Plan To Lower Drug Prices, Big Pharma Girds For A Fight
In his State of the Union address in January and again in New Hampshire in March, President Trump made a bold promise: “You’ll be seeing drug prices falling very substantially in the not-too-distant future,” he said, “and it’s going to be beautiful.” Not if the pharmaceutical companies can stop it. Big Pharma is pouring money into a lobbying campaign to thwart any serious efforts to rein in prescription drug prices ahead of a presidential speech this month where Mr. Trump plans to lay out his drug pricing proposals. (Pear, 5/6)
Stat:
Trump Often Ad Libs. What Does That Mean For His Drug Pricing Speech?
President Trump is expected to deliver a major address on drug prices this week. And perhaps more than with any other president, Washington is wondering: What will he say? There’s the version of the speech that top health officials have been touting and previewing for the last several weeks — the serious, “comprehensive strategy” that will result in a “profound modernization” of how the federal government pays for at least some drugs, to hear health secretary Alex Azar or FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tell it. (Mershon and Silverman, 5/7)
The Hill:
Five Things To Watch As Trump Takes On Drug Prices
President Trump is slated to give a long-awaited speech laying out proposed actions to lower drug prices. The health-care industry is on edge. It’s unclear what exactly Trump is going to propose, and the president has a well-known propensity to go off script. (Sullivan, 5/6)
IRS Aggressively Enforcing Employer Mandate Despite Trump's Promise That Health Law Is All But Dead
Business groups want relief from the mandate, but lawmakers have little appetite to take up any more changes in this politically charged election year.
The New York Times:
Trump Says He Got Rid Of Obamacare. The I.R.S. Doesn’t Agree.
At a rally in Michigan a little over a week ago, President Trump assured his supporters that he had kept his promise to abolish the Affordable Care Act — even though Congress had failed to repeal the Obama-era health law. “Essentially, we are getting rid of Obamacare,” Mr. Trump said, reminding a cheering crowd that the individual mandate that required most people to have health insurance or pay a penalty was scrapped as part of the Republican tax bill he signed into law last year. “Some people would say, essentially, we have gotten rid of it.” (Rappeport, 5/6)
In other national health care news —
The New York Times:
V.A. Medical System Staggers As Chaos Engulfs Its Leadership
At first, it was one doctor quitting the tiny Ukiah Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Northern California. Then another left, and another, until of the five doctors there a year ago, only one remained. The Veterans Choice Act, passed by Congress amid scandalous stories of hidden waiting lists at Veterans Affairs hospitals, allowed more veterans to get care from private providers, but it created an avalanche of paper at Veterans Affairs facilities as outside doctors sent in information on patients. Veterans Affairs doctors had to enter so many medical records manually into the aging department health records system that it crippled their ability to see patients. (Philipps and Fandos, 5/4)
The Washington Post:
The Use Of Virtual Doctors Visits Are Growing But Insurance Doesn't Always Pay
Tucked into the federal budget law Congress passed in February was a provision that significantly expands the use of telemedicine — long a hyped health-care reform and now poised to go mainstream within five to 10 years. “There’s much broader recognition of the benefits,” said Mei Wa Kwong, executive director of the Center for Connected Health Policy, a research group that promotes telemedicine in Sacramento. “The law is the latest to make telemedicine more accessible. But we still have a ways to go before most consumers are aware of the option.” (Findlay, 5/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
Opioid Vs. Crack: Congress Reconsiders Its Approach To Drug Epidemic
In the 1980s, Congress passed a series of laws that aimed to counter the widespread use of crack cocaine with tougher sentencing guidelines. Three decades later, lawmakers are once again considering legislation aimed at curbing a drug crisis: opioid abuse. This time, the emphasis is on funding research into a public-health crisis and enabling states to deal with its consequences. Lawmakers and experts haven’t reached a consensus on why the federal government’s response to opioids is so different from the crack epidemic that preceded it. Nor has the dynamic entirely changed on Capitol Hill. Although there is nearly universal support for a robust response to opioid abuse, a bipartisan push to revise the sentencing guidelines set during the crack era faces a more uncertain legislative future. (Peterson and Armour, 5/5)
Stat:
Drug Distributors Get Hauled To The Hill To Answer Questions About Opioids
The rhetoric has come from lawmakers and doctors, entertainers and academics, and even from President Trump: The pharmaceutical industry, all have said, is in large part to blame for the ongoing opioid crisis. But even amid an epidemic that took nearly 50,000 American lives in 2016, lawmakers have remained reluctant to bring pharmaceutical executives to Capitol Hill and question them face to face. (Facher, 5/7)
The New York Times:
Romaine Riddle: Why The E. Coli Outbreak Eludes Food Investigators
Scientists searching for a toxic strain of E. coli that has raced across 25 states, sickening 121 people and killing one, have been able to identify the general source as the Yuma, Ariz., growing region. But as the outbreak enters its second month, they still cannot find the contamination itself — it could be lurking in the area’s fields, water sources, harvesting equipment, processing plants or distribution centers. Federal officials predict that the outbreak, linked to romaine lettuce, will continue for several weeks. (Hoffman, 5/7)
The Washington Post:
Alzheimer’s Cure Is Being Pursued With The Help Of An Online Game
Want to cure Alzheimer’s? Get in line. Researchers have long been puzzled by the disease and vexed by how long it’s taking to unravel its mysteries. One group of scientists is helping speed up that process with assistance from the public. “Stall Catchers,” a game created by Cornell University’s Human Computation Institute, turns the hunt for a cure from frustrating to fun. In the game, players watch short movies — made using a multiphoton microscope — that show blood flowing through the brains of living mice. Players work on a data set of thousands of images to point out “stalls” — areas of reduced blood flow caused by white blood cells accumulating on the sides of the vessels. (Blakemore, 5/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
Which Anti-Depressant Is Right For You? Your DNA Can Shed Some Light
Paxil or Prozac, Zoloft or Lexapro? When treating a patient suffering from depression, Brent Forester considers which anti-depressant to prescribe—ideally, one that will ease psychic pain without side effects. It can be a tough call. (Lagnado, 5/6)