Los Angeles Times: Bay Area Healthcare Workers Will Have To Mask As Threat Of COVID, Flu Looms
Healthcare workers in several Bay Area counties will soon be required to wear masks in patient care settings as the region contends with continued coronavirus transmission and looks ahead to the wider respiratory virus season. The mandates, which go into effect Nov. 1, require health officials in Contra Costa, Alameda, Sonoma and San Mateo counties to wear masks in hospitals and other settings where patients will be getting care indoors. (Lin, 9/21)

Bay Area News Group: Several Bay Area Counties Issue Mask Mandates In Hospitals Amid COVID-19 Surge
Several Bay Area counties have issued new masking mandates for health care workers as officials confront seasonal upticks in the rates of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses such as influenza. (Byik, 9/21)

Fresno Bee: Here’s What To Do If You Were Charged For A COVID Vaccine 
The latest round of updated COVID-19 shots just rolled out in the U.S. But some people are getting a bill of nearly $200 for a vaccine that’s supposed to be free. Here’s why and what you can do if that happens to you. (Stark, 9/21)

AP: Booking A COVID-19 Vaccine? Some Are Reporting Canceled Appointments Or Insurance Issues
Some people seeking the newest COVID-19 vaccine are running into high demand, insurance headaches and supply delays coast to coast. Millions of the newly formulated vaccines have shipped out since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on them last week for ages 6 months and up. Cases started rising again in late summer, and experts hope that the new shots will help protect people during the upcoming fall respiratory virus season. (Shastri, 9/21)

USA Today: Has Distrust In COVID Vaccines Caused Same Skepticism In Flu Shots?
Less than half of all US adults received their flu vaccine last flu season (47.4%), but that rate is slightly higher compared to the same time in March a year prior (45.4%). Vaccination is vital to protect individuals, communities and to avoid burdening already overtaxed health care systems. Last season, people vaccinated against the flu were about 40% to 70% less likely to be hospitalized because of flu illness or related complications, according to preliminary estimates from the CDC. (Chernikoff, 9/22)

Mayo Clinic News Network: At-Home COVID-19 Tests: A Mayo Clinic Expert Answers Questions On Expiration Dates And The New Variants 
At-home COVID-19 tests allow you to collect your sample and detect active COVID-19 infections. But what if you have at-home COVID-19 tests nearing expiration or expired on your shelf? (Balzer, 9/21)

California Healthline: Biden Administration To Ban Medical Debt From Americans’ Credit Scores
The Biden administration announced a major initiative to protect Americans from medical debt on Thursday, outlining plans to develop federal rules barring unpaid medical bills from affecting patients’ credit scores. The regulations, if enacted, would potentially help tens of millions of people who have medical debt on their credit reports, eliminating information that can depress consumers’ scores and make it harder for many to get a job, rent an apartment, or secure a car loan. (Levey, 9/21)

AP: White House Aiming To Scrub Medical Debt From People's Credit Scores, Which Could Up Ratings For Millions
Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that the Biden administration is taking the first steps toward removing medical bills from people’s credit scores, which could improve ratings for millions of people. Harris said that would make it easier for them to obtain an auto loan or a home mortgage. Roughly one in five people report having medical debt. The vice president said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is beginning the rulemaking process to make the change. (Boak, 9/21)

Bloomberg: Pfizer's Covid Drug Paxlovid Found To Be Less Effective
In a real-world study of people with Covid-19, Pfizer Inc.’s antiviral Paxlovid was less effective at preventing the infection’s most serious cases than it was in initial trials. The pill was just 37% effective at preventing hospitalization or death in high-risk patients when compared to no Covid treatment at all, according to an observational study published Thursday in JAMA Network Open. In earlier studies, it cut the risk of hospitalization or death by as much as 89%. (Cattan, 9/21)

Stat: Senators: Long-Delayed Opioids Study Would Put Patients At Risk
Two Democratic senators are warning the Food and Drug Administration not to proceed with a controversial trial meant to measure opioids’ effectiveness as a chronic pain treatment. In a letter shared with STAT, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) warned FDA Commissioner Robert Califf against using the method in the agency’s ongoing work to evaluate whether opioids, despite their widespread use, are effective at treating chronic pain. (Facher, 9/22)

The New York Times: FTC Sues Anesthesia Group Backed By Private Equity, Claiming Antitrust
After vowing to tackle consolidation in the health care industry, the Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust lawsuit on Thursday that challenged the growing practice of private-equity firms backing companies that amass medical practices and dominate local markets. The suit targeted a large doctors’ group that operates anesthesia practices in several states, claiming the group and the private equity firm advising and financing it were consolidating doctors’ groups in Texas so they could raise prices and increase their profits. (Abelson and Sanger-Katz, 9/21)

Reuters: Big Pharma Bets On AI To Speed Up Clinical Trials
Major drugmakers are using artificial intelligence to find patients for clinical trials quickly, or to reduce the number of people needed to test medicines, both accelerating drug development and potentially saving millions of dollars. Human studies are the most expensive and time-consuming part of drug development as it can take years to recruit patients and trial new medicines in a process that can cost over a billion dollars from the discovery of a drug to the finishing line. (Grover and Coulter, 9/22)

SFGate: Do Masks Protect You From Wildfire Smoke? Here’s What Experts Say
Noxious smoke from several wildfires in Northern California and Oregon was carried by winds into the San Francisco Bay Area this week, leaving many of us wondering how to protect ourselves from whatever toxic particles may be lingering in the air. Unfortunately, the cloth mask you usually wear inside the grocery store is effectively useless, according to experts. (Bindman, 9/21)

Fresno Bee: Dry Cleaning Chemical PCE Pollutes Cities Across California
Investigations over several years have found that even the “purest” groundwater is not immune to contamination from a carcinogenic chemical long used by a common business operation found in towns and cities across the state: dry cleaners. Since the 1940s, perchloroethylene, or PCE for short, has been a popular chemical employed in dry cleaning shops across the country. (Shuman, 9/21)

Politico: Republican Senators Demand EPA Pull Back Soot Plan
Almost two dozen Republican senators have joined a late-breaking chorus of calls for EPA to scrap plans for tightening a key national standard for airborne soot. The agency's January proposal released in January "fails to consider several important factors that will make implementation of a lower annual standard extremely difficult, or in some cases impossible, to no measurable benefits to public health, the environment, or the economy," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and 22 other GOP lawmakers wrote in a letter released Thursday morning. (Reilly, 9/21)

Politico: Senate Dems To Agencies: Get In Alignment On Drinking Water
Senate Democrats kicked off an effort Wednesday to align agencies charged with ensuring safe drinking water access to communities. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resource Subcommittee on Water and Power, announced the effort during a hearing emphasizing the need for more data on drinking water access, which he said affects more than 2 million Americans. (Yachnin, 9/21)

AP: Some Providers Are Dropping Gender-Affirming Care For Kids Even In Cases Where It's Legal
As Republican-led states have rushed to ban gender-affirming for minors, some families with transgender children found a bit of solace: At least they lived in states that would allow those already receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapy to continue. But in some places, including Missouri and North Dakota, the care has abruptly been halted because medical providers are wary of harsh liability provisions in those same laws — one of multiple reasons that advocates say care has become harder to access even where it remains legal. (Salter and Mulvihill, 9/22)

Associated Press: Appeals Court Takes Up Transgender Health Coverage Case Likely Headed To Supreme Court
A federal appeals court is considering cases out of North Carolina and West Virginia that could have significant implications on whether individual states are required to cover health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance. (Willingham, 9/21)

CalMatters: Legal Fights Over California’s Homeless Camps Expand To Supreme Court 
The California State Association of Counties and League of California Cities told justices that a string of federal court rulings over the last five years have made addressing health and safety concerns “unworkable.” (Kuang, 9/21)

Stat: Senate HELP Committee Spars Over Health Care Workforce Policies 
In a striking display of discord Thursday, leaders of the Senate’s health committee clashed over a proposal to increase the number of primary care doctors and nurses in the United States. (Cohrs, 9/21)

Axios: AI Might Be Listening During Your Next Health Appointment
Your doctor or therapist might not be the only one listening in during your next visit. Artificial intelligence may be tuning in as well. Health care is racing to incorporate generative AI and natural language processing to help wrangle patient information, provide reliable care summaries and flag health risks. But the efforts come with quality and privacy concerns that people developing these tools acknowledge. (Reed, 9/22)

Stat: Why Are Kaiser Permanente Staff Considering A Strike?
This week, the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions is negotiating a new national contract with the health care giant. More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers across the country have voted to authorize a strike if Thursday and Friday’s bargaining sessions do not end in an acceptable deal. If announced, the strike will affect the more than 12 million people served by Kaiser’s 39 hospitals and 715 medical offices in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Georgia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The unions involved represent about 40% of Kaiser staff. (Trang, 9/21)

The 19th: Weight Discrimination In Health Care Is Prominent Among Women, Nonbinary People, Poll Finds
Women and nonbinary people are more likely than men to say they have experienced discrimination from a medical provider or been denied medical services, and the disparity is particularly acute when it comes to weight-based discrimination, according to a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll. (Luthra, 9/21)

The Desert Sun: Palm Springs-Based Pharmacy To Pay $1M For Alleged Medi-Cal Fraud
A Palm Springs-based pharmacy will pay nearly $1 million to settle allegations that it defrauded California's Medicaid program, according to a press release from state Attorney General Rob Bonta. The settlement agreement resolves allegations that LASR Enterprises, Inc., unlawfully sought and received reimbursement from Medi-Cal for drugs that it over-dispensed, or that it dispensed drugs without a valid prescription. (Sasic, 9/21)

AP: Medicaid Coverage Restored To About A Half-Million People After Computer Errors In Many States
In late August, CMS warned that some state computer systems were flagging entire households for further information — and dropping all family members when no one responded — instead of reviewing each individual separately and automatically renewing children who remain eligible. It sent letters to all states asking them to verify their compliance with federal rules. (Lieb, 9/21)

The Hill: CDC Data Shows Obesity Prevalence More Common In A Growing Number Of States
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the prevalence of obesity is rising all across the nation. The CDC data found that 22 states had a prevalence, or “proportion of adults with a body mass index (BMI) equal to or greater than 30,” of obesity over 35 percent in 2022. In comparison, 17 states had a prevalence of obesity over 35 percent in 2021. (Suter, 9/21)

The Wall Street Journal: How Well People ‘Think’ They Slept Might Matter More Than How They Actually Slept
How satisfied people are with their night’s sleep has a major impact on how well they feel the next day, regardless of what a tracking device might indicate about the quality of that sleep. (Sadick, 9/21)

East Bay Times: Gun Violence Is Causing An Anxiety Crisis. How To Help Your Kids
I remember my first experience with an active shooter. Last summer, I was on the rooftop terrace of a hotel where I was attending a work conference. A hotel employee arrived, breathless, and told us we couldn’t leave. Downstairs in the lobby, there was a man with a gun. We locked the doors and waited in silence until word came that the shooter had been apprehended. (Dr. Hansa Bhargava, 9/22)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Mental Health, Addiction Must Be Addressed As One 
California has spent a stunning $17.5 billion trying to combat homelessness over just four years. But, in the same time frame, from 2018 to 2022, the state’s homeless population grew. There are at least 7,600 people experiencing homelessness every night in San Diego. (Jason Whan Park, 9/20)

Los Angeles Times: California's New Conservatorship Law Is A Risky Experiment, Not Backed By Data 
/California law has tried for almost 50 years to protect people with mental illness from forced treatment, and for just as long, critics have said that the state is leaving mentally ill people without treatment, abandoning them to die on the streets. Last week, the critics’ arguments won out, as the Legislature unanimously passed SB 43, which would allow the state to force more people into mental health care or substance use treatment. (Alex V. Barnard, 9/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: I Was A Juror In An S.F. Fentanyl Case. Here’s Why I Voted To Acquit
Last year, I served as a juror in a San Francisco case of a man charged with dealing fentanyl. Before the trial, I didn’t realize that people selling drugs on our streets are sometimes victims of human trafficking or how our state anti-human trafficking laws can impact drug cases. But after learning about the specific requirements of the law, reviewing the judge’s detailed instructions and weighing all of the evidence, I voted to acquit. So did 10 out of my 12 fellow jurors. (Anna Frammolino, 9/19)

East Bay Times: California Can Lead Nation With Public Option For Health Insurance
California’s workers are facing a mounting health care affordability crisis. The cost of insurance for families has grown more than two and half times faster than wages have, putting health care out of reach for more and more people. This gap is even larger for the state’s Black and Latino populations. (Richard Scheffler and Stephen Shortell, 9/21)