- Health Care Personnel 1
- Nobel Prize For Chemistry Goes To Three Scientists For Harnessing Sped-Up Evolution For Best-Selling Drug, Biofuels
- Around California 1
- Voucher Program To Help More Than 300 Homeless Veterans In Bay Area Move Into Permanent Housing
- The Opioid Crisis 1
- Sacramento-Based Federal Task Force Targets Drug Sales In Dark Corners Of Internet
- Hospital Roundup 1
- Santa Clara County Offers To Buy Two Hospitals As Part Of A Bankruptcy Reorganization By Their Parent Company
- Health IT 1
- This App Says It Can Detect Mental Health Problems By A Person's Phone Usage. But Does It Live Up To Its Promise?
- Public Health and Education 1
- Ventura-Manufactured 'Landmark Innovation' To Treat Significant Burns Gets Approval From FDA
- National Roundup 4
- Senate Sends Sweeping Opioid Package To Trump To Sign; Advocates Laud Legislation's Focus On Treatment
- Focus On ACA Or Go All In For 'Medicare For All'? Democrats Divided Over Path To Take On Health Care
- Hopeful Of Taking The House, Dems Quietly Readying For Slew Of Investigations Into Health Law 'Sabotage'
- Employers Shift Larger Share Of Medical Costs To Workers, As Annual Premiums For Covering A Family Hit Nearly $20,000
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Dirty Air And Disasters Sending Kids To The ER For Asthma
Children in some California counties visit emergency rooms for asthma at nearly double the statewide rate, which experts attribute largely to air pollution that is likely to worsen as wildfires and other environmental disasters increase in severity. (Harriet Blair Rowan, )
More News From Across The State
The winners -- Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology, George Smith of the University of Missouri and Gregory Winter of the MRC molecular biology lab in England -- “have taken control of evolution and used it for purposes that bring the greatest benefit to humankind,” the Nobel committee said.
The Associated Press:
Chemistry Nobel For Using Evolution To Create New Proteins
Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for using a sped-up version of evolution to create new proteins that have led to a best-selling drug and other products. The Royal Swedish Academy of Science said their work has led to the development of medications, biofuels and a reduced environmental impact from some industrial processes. (Ritter, Heintz, and Chester, 10/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Caltech Scientist Is Among 3 Awarded Nobel Prize In Chemistry For Sparking ‘A Revolution In Evolution’
Frances Arnold, a biochemical engineer at Caltech, was awarded half of the $1.01-million prize for her pioneering experiments in the field known as directed evolution. The other half of the prize was split between George P. Smith of the University of Missouri in Columbia and Gregory P. Winter of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, who paved the way for directed evolution to become an important tool in drug development. (Netburn and Kaplan, 10/3)
In other news, a physicist dies after selling his Nobel prize to help pay for his medical costs —
The Associated Press:
Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Leon Lederman Dies At 96
Leon Lederman, an experimental physicist who won a Nobel Prize in physics for his work on subatomic particles and coined the phrase “God particle,” died Wednesday at 96. ... Lederman won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1988 with two other scientists for discovering a subatomic particle called the muon neutrino. He used the prize money to buy a log cabin near the tiny town of Driggs in eastern Idaho as a vacation retreat. The couple moved there full-time in 2011 when Leon Lederman started experiencing memory loss problems that became more severe, his wife said. His Nobel Prize sold for $765,000 in an auction in 2015 to help pay for medical bills and care. (Ridler, 10/3)
Voucher Program To Help More Than 300 Homeless Veterans In Bay Area Move Into Permanent Housing
The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veteran Affairs have awarded $5.3 million for rental assistance and support services to various HUD offices in the Bay Area and Central Valley. Meanwhile, two measures on the ballot in November would raise $6 billion for housing for struggling families, veterans and severely mentally ill people.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Federal Program Spends $5.3 Million To Help Homeless Veterans In Bay Area, Central Valley Get Housing
More than 300 veterans experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area and Central Valley will soon move into permanent housing with the help of a joint federal program, officials announced Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs awarded $5.3 million for rental assistance and support services to various HUD offices in the Bay Area and Central Valley, according to HUD. (Hernandez, 10/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Two Measures Would Raise Record-Breaking $6 Billion For Affordable Housing
Two years after voters approved billions of dollars to fund low-income homes around California, affordable housing advocates are upping the ante bigtime — with two statewide bond measures on the Nov. 6 ballot to raise a record-breaking $6 billion for housing for struggling families, veterans and severely mentally ill people. If they pass, the two measures would generate the most money ever approved by statewide voters for affordable and supportive housing in California. (Fagan and Allday, 10/3)
Sacramento-Based Federal Task Force Targets Drug Sales In Dark Corners Of Internet
Cracking down on illegal drugs being shipped through the mail has become a larger nationwide priority in the effort to curb the opioid crisis. “The criminals have moved to a new place, and we want to make it very clear that we’re coming,” U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said.
Sacramento Bee:
New Federal Task Force Aims To Crack Internet Drug Markets
The vendor was known as “CokeWave” on a hidden corner of the internet, and the packages would arrive in the mail with return addresses like “Amazon Logistics,” “Hobby Lobby” or “Marvel Hobbies.” But tucked inside the priority mail flat rate boxes were vacuum-sealed Mylar bags containing cocaine and marijuana that federal agents had ordered online from the “Dream Marketplace.” (Stanton, 10/3)
Santa Clara County officials have long expressed interest in acquiring O’Connor and St. Louise as public hospitals to extend its reach and help relieve overcrowding at the county-run Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose.
East Bay Times:
Santa Clara County Offers $235 Million For O’Connor, St. Louise Hospitals
Santa Clara County has formally offered to buy O’Connor Hospital in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, including the De Paul Health Center in Morgan Hill, for $235 million as part of a bankruptcy reorganization by the hospitals’ parent company. Verity Health System of California has asked the bankruptcy court to approve an auction in December in which the county’s bid would be considered along with others that might come forward. (Woolfolk, 10/2)
In other news from across the state —
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Santa Rosa Doctor Thomas Keller Indicted On Drug Distribution, Fraud Charges
A Santa Rosa neurosurgeon whose specialty includes pain management has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that include unlawful distribution of painkillers over more than a year. The indictment against Thomas M. Keller, 71, unsealed Monday, alleges he illegally distributed Oxycodone, fentanyl and Tramadol spanning a period of 13 months from June 2017 to July 2018, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco. Keller gave the drugs to people as a licensed doctor but acting outside the scope of his practice and without a legitimate medical need, federal prosecutors contend. (10/3)
Almost no one outside the company has any idea whether it works, and most of the company’s key promises or claims aren’t yet backed up by published, peer-reviewed data. In other health and technology related news, Facebook's kid-centric app draws fire.
Stat:
Mindstrong's Mood-Predicting App Is Shadowed By Questions Over Evidence
In the world of digital health, Silicon Valley-based Mindstrong stands out. It has a star-studded team and tens of millions in venture capital funding, including from Jeff Bezos’ VC firm. It also has a captivating idea: that its app, based on cognitive functioning research, can help detect troubling mental health patterns by collecting data on a person’s smartphone usage — how quickly they type or scroll, for instance. The promise of that technology has helped Mindstrong build incredible momentum since it launched last year; already more than a dozen counties in California have agreed to deploy the company’s app to patients. (Sheridan, 10/4)
The Associated Press:
Child Experts File FTC Complaint Against Facebook Kids' App
Children's and public health advocacy groups say Facebook's kid-centric messaging app violates federal law by collecting kids' personal information without getting verifiable consent from their parents. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and other groups asked the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday to investigate Facebook's Messenger Kids for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. (10/3)
Ventura-Manufactured 'Landmark Innovation' To Treat Significant Burns Gets Approval From FDA
The device uses a patient’s own skin cells to create a spray that is applied to the wound to regenerate healthy skin, which means less donor skin is needed to treat a wound.
Ventura County Star:
FDA Approves Ventura-Manufactured Burn Treatment RECELL
A treatment for people who have experienced significant burns has received FDA approval, allowing the Ventura-manufactured product to be used in adult patients across the country. It’s the first new device to receive pre-market approval for burn treatments in 20 years, said Dale Sander, chief financial officer for Avita Medical. The company is based in Valencia and Melbourne, Australia, but produces its device in an industrial park in Ventura. (Martinez, 10/3)
In other public health news —
Ventura County Star:
Ventura County Goes Pink For Breast Cancer Awareness Month
With October designated as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, several events are planned throughout Ventura County for survivors, caregivers and others who want to help support organizations that raise money to fight this disease. The Oaks mall and Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks kicked everything off on Tuesday with “Paint the Town Pink,” a fundraiser for the Cancer Support Community Valley/Ventura/Santa Barbara. (Doyle, 10/3)
It was a rare bipartisan feat that brought the massive opioids package together that also gives both sides a win right before the contentious midterm elections. Included in the bills is a crackdown on the flow of synthetic opioids from other countries, expanded treatment options, and provisions promoting research to finding alternative pain treatments.
The Washington Post:
Senate Easily Passes Sweeping Opioids Legislation, Sending To President Trump
The Senate passed the final version of a sweeping opioids package Wednesday afternoon and will send it to the White House just in time for lawmakers to campaign on the issue before the November midterm elections. The vote was 98 to 1, with only Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) opposing it. (Itkowitz, 10/3)
CNN:
Senate Passes Legislation To Fight Opioid Epidemic
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell referred to it as "landmark" legislation in remarks on the Senate floor on Wednesday, saying that the bill will bring "relief to American communities that have been decimated by the scourge of substance abuse and addiction." McConnell said that the package will "deliver critical resources to establish opioid-specific recovery centers," and "will help law enforcement stop the flow of opioids across borders and increase safeguards against over-prescription." (10/3)
The Hill:
Senate Sends Bipartisan Package To Fight Opioid Epidemic To Trump's Desk
In the House, Republican incumbents in tough reelection races touted their work on the bill, while in the Senate more Democratic incumbents lauded the progress. For example, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), who faces a tough race in a state President Trump won handily in 2016, praised the bill from the Senate floor Wednesday and pointed to the inclusion of provisions he worked on. Some Democrats say the bill is a good first step but more work still needs to be done, including more funding. (Sullivan, 10/3)
In other news on the crisis —
Stat:
Opioid Settlement Will Take Time, But May Cost Less Than The Big Tobacco Deal
The sprawling opioid litigation confronting drug makers and distributors is likely to take years to resolve, but cost less than the infamous lawsuits that were filed against Big Tobacco and, not surprisingly, will hurt some companies more than others, a new credit analysis suggests. For the moment, the litigation is still in the early stages and the first trials are not scheduled until September 2019. But despite the uncertainty, any potential settlement is expected to be “considerably lower” than the $206 billion deal reached with the four largest U.S. cigarette makers in 1998, according to analysts at S&P Global Ratings. (Silverman, 10/3)
The Washington Post:
Fentanyl Test Strips Lead To More Caution Among Illicit Drug Users
Illicit drug users who are certain that fentanyl is mixed into the heroin they consume are much more likely to take precautions that reduce their chances of overdosing, researchers reported Wednesday in a small study. The survey examined the use of fentanyl test strips by 125 injection drug users in Greensboro, N.C., over a two-month period last year. Distribution of the small strips has become an increasingly popular “harm reduction” technique in the past few years among groups trying to protect drug users from overdosing on the powerful narcotic that has swept most of the United States. (Bernstein, 10/3)
Focus On ACA Or Go All In For 'Medicare For All'? Democrats Divided Over Path To Take On Health Care
For the first election in years, Democrats see health care as a winning issue -- one to go on the offense over instead of defending their votes. But they party's candidates lack coherency in their approach. Some push a "Medicare for All" plan while others think shoring up the health law should take priority. Meanwhile The Washington Post Fact Checker looks at ads targeting Democrats over "Medicare for All."
The Wall Street Journal:
Some Democrats Want Medicare For All. Others Aren’t So Sure
Shortly after her primary victory in New York, Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared her goal of giving Medicare to all Americans. Some fellow Democrats like Ken Harbaugh aren’t convinced. The Navy veteran, who is challenging Rep. Bob Gibbs (R., Ohio), says the party should focus on bolstering the Affordable Care Act, not starting from scratch with Medicare for All. “We need a much quicker fix, which is shoring up the ACA,” he said. (Armour, 10/4)
The Washington Post Fact Checker:
GOP Ads Falsely Depict Democrats As Supporters Of Sanders’s Health Plan
With a sick child on the couch, holding a teddy bear, a mother calls to make a doctor’s appointment. She pulls out her health-insurance card and then with her voice breaking, says: “What do you mean you don’t take that anymore? But it’s through my work.” The ad, via the National Republican Campaign Committee, concludes by claiming that the Democratic candidate, Xochitl Torres Small, “takes from us to give it all to Washington.” (Kessler, 10/4)
Meanwhile, Republicans are struggling to get some voters to trust their promises to protect preexisting conditions coverage —
The Washington Post:
GOP Candidates Pay The Price For Attempts To Kill Obamacare And Its Guarantee Of Coverage For Preexisting Conditions
In February, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley joined a Republican lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and with it protections for Americans suffering from preexisting medical conditions that previously could be excluded from insurance coverage. Now, running to unseat Democrat Claire McCaskill in one of the nation’s most competitive U.S. Senate races, Hawley is airing a sympathetic ad using the affliction of his 5-year-old son, diagnosed this year with a rare bone disease. (Jan, 10/3)
The Hill:
GOP Lawmaker's Ad Pledges Support For Pre-Existing Condition Protections
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) on Wednesday released a reelection ad saying he wants to ensure protections for people with pre-existing conditions, making him the latest vulnerable Republican to highlight support for the ObamaCare provision. ...His campaign did not say how he is taking on the Republican party. A spokesman pointed to an op-ed from last year where Rohrabacher wrote that Medicare should bear all the costs of covering people with pre-existing conditions. (Weixel, 10/3)
But party leaders insist that, if they do gain control of the House, they want to be careful to make sure their inquiries into the Trump administration's moves on health care will be focused on real policy rather than point-scoring.
Politico:
House Democrats Plan Investigations Blitz Over Trump Health Policies
Democrats are quietly preparing to launch a slew of investigations into the Trump administration's health care moves if they retake the House in November, aiming to freeze the White House's efforts to unravel Obamacare and probe the administration's care of immigrant kids. The wide-ranging inquiries, coordinated across multiple committees, would focus on the administration’s most controversial actions on health care, which include chipping away at the Affordable Care Act, urging the courts to gut the health law's protections for pre-existing conditions, and separating migrant families at the border, lawmakers and aides told POLITICO. (Cancryn and Ollstein, 10/4)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Immigrants Refuse Aid For Fear It Will Doom Green Card Hopes
When she was struggling financially this past year, Laura Peniche traveled all over Denver to get free food from churches to feed her three young children. She was too scared to apply for government food assistance. When she was offered a chance a few weeks ago to get a reduced-rent apartment through a city program, she turned it down. Instead, she stretches her budget to pay several hundred dollars a month more to rent somewhere else. (10/3)
Stat:
What The Last Trade Debate Over Drug Prices Can Tell Us About The New One
The drug pricing advocates who once trounced President Obama for his proposal to shield expensive biologic drugs from competition are now girding for a fight with President Trump over his new trade pact. ...Trump announced earlier this week that his newly renegotiated trade agreement with Mexico and Canada — now dubbed the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — will require all three countries provide 10 years of exclusivity for brand name biologic drugs, which are made from living cells and used to treat complex conditions like cancer. That means competitors that copy these drugs, often known as biosimilars, would be legally barred from entering the market for that period of time. (Florko, 10/3)
Stat:
This New Advocacy Group Is An Unapologetic Defender Of High Drug Prices
It’s less than a week old, but a shadowy new pharma advocacy group is already launching diatribes against advocates for lower drug prices, blasting pharmacy middlemen and defending even sky-high list prices for prescription drugs. The new group, the Alliance to Protect Medical Innovation, says its goal is to “help educate policymakers and the public about medical breakthroughs developed by the biopharmaceutical industry.” An “About Us” section on its website describes it as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. (Florko, 10/4)
Los Angeles Times:
More Than 1 In 3 Americans Eat Fast Food On A Typical Day, And We Eat It All Day Long
If you’re an adult in America, there’s a better than 1 in 3 chance that you’ll eat fast food today — if you haven’t already. New survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 36.6% of us eat some kind of fast food on any given day. That includes 37.9% of men and 35.4% of women, according to a report published Wednesday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. (Kaplan, 10/3)
Not only has the number of workers who face an annual deductible grown, but the average deductible has creeped higher and higher for more than a decade, a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds.
The Associated Press:
Survey: Companies Continue To Pass Health Costs To Workers
If your employer is sticking you with a bigger share of the medical bill before health insurance kicks in, you may have to get used to it. More companies are making workers pay an annual deductible or increasing the amount they must spend before insurance starts covering most care, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Annual deductibles for single coverage have now climbed about eight times as fast as wages over the last decade. (10/3)
Modern Healthcare:
Workers Shoulder A Growing Share Of Healthcare Costs
The ongoing stability of the employer market where 152 million people get their coverage is welcome news for companies, considering the volatility and high premiums that have characterized the individual insurance market where roughly 20 million people buy coverage.
But there's a trade-off: Employers have continued to shift a larger share of the cost of coverage to their workers by requiring them to pay more for healthcare out of pocket. Not only has the number of workers who face an annual deductible grown, but the average deductible has creeped higher and higher for more than a decade. (Livingston, 10/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Employer-Provided Health Insurance Approaches $20,000 A Year
The average cost of employer health coverage offered to workers rose to nearly $20,000 for a family plan this year, according to a new survey, capping years of increases that experts said are chiefly tied to rising prices paid for health services. Annual premiums rose 5% to $19,616 for an employer-provided family plan in 2018, according to the yearly poll of employers by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. Employers, seeking to blunt the cost of premiums, also continued to boost the deductibles that workers must pay out of their pockets before insurance kicks in. (Wilde Mathews, 10/3)
The Hill:
Premiums See Moderate Increase In 2018 For Employer Plans
Overall, the burden of deductibles for covered workers has tripled since 2008, growing eight times faster than wages, according to the survey. “Health costs don’t rise in a vacuum. As long as out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, drugs, surprise bills and more continue to outpace wage growth, people will be frustrated by their medical bills and see health costs as huge pocketbook and political issues,” KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said. (Hellmann, 10/3)