Los Angeles Times: L.A. COVID-19 Cases Falling As Officials Brace For Winter
“We’re definitely seeing a decline,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in an interview. “The summer bump is over.” ... Ferrer said she anticipates L.A. County will remain at a lower level of coronavirus transmission “hopefully for a few more weeks, until the weather gets colder, more things are moved indoors and there’s a lot more celebrations and travel” that could help spread the virus. (Lin II, 10/10)

Los Angeles Times: COVID-19 Vaccines Easier To Get In L.A. County
While COVID-19 vaccines have been in short supply in parts of Los Angeles County, that dearth is easing in some places, officials say. The L.A. County Department of Public Health says the updated COVID-19 vaccine is now available at all eight of its public health centers — in downtown L.A., Hollywood, Willowbrook, Monrovia, Pacoima, Pomona, Whittier and Lancaster. Two weeks ago, the health department began offering the updated vaccine at clinics at Ted Watkins Memorial Park near Watts and Eugene A. Obregón Park in East L.A., which are open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. (Lin II, 10/11)

The Bakersfield Californian: Bakersfield City Council To Decide Whether To Enforce Future COVID Mandates 
Bakersfield’s elected will hear a resolution Wednesday night over whether they will choose to enforce any future COVID-19 mandates in the event of another outbreak. (Donegan, 10/10)

NBC News: People Who Got Covid At Least 5 Times Describe How Illness Changed
Reanna Sunford Clark is one of five people interviewed by NBC News who described what it has been like to get Covid at least five times. All five either tested positive at home, received a positive antibody test later or were diagnosed by a health care provider each time. They provided images of test results, medical records or correspondence with friends or family as verification. Overall, they said, the experiences have left them confused and curious about the reasons for their frequent illnesses. Three people said their later infections were all less severe than the first — though there wasn’t necessarily a clear pattern of milder symptoms with each new illness. Even so, having Covid was still mentally and emotionally exhausting each time, they said, since it disrupted their work and time with loved ones. (Bendix, 10/8)

KTVU: 1st Person Convicted Of Fentanyl-Related Murder In California Sentenced To 15 Years
The first person to be convicted of a fentanyl-related murder was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison by a Placer County judge, KCRA reported. In July, Nathaniel Cabacungan, 21, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder following the death of a 15-year-old Northern California girl, which the Placer County District Attorney said was the first fentanyl murder conviction of its kind in the state. (10/10)

Reuters: Court OKs Mallinckrodt Restructuring, $1 Billion Cut To Opioid Settlement 
Drugmaker Mallinckrodt on Tuesday won court approval for a bankruptcy plan that cuts $1 billion from what it must pay opioid crisis victims, cancels existing equity shares, and trims nearly $2 billion in other debt. The Ireland-based company reached a relatively swift conclusion to its second Chapter 11, which began on Aug. 28, just 14 months after its previous bankruptcy concluded. (Knauth, 10/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Mallinckrodt Bankruptcy Plan Gets Approval, Will Wipe Out $1 Billion In Opioid Payments 
This is a setback to governments and individual addicts who filed lawsuits seeking compensation from drugmakers for their role in the opioid crisis. The legal fight stretches back nearly a decade, when more than 3,000 lawsuits from states, Native American tribes and counties alleged the drugmakers, pharmacies and distributors played down the risk of painkillers and didn’t stem their flow. A few opioid manufacturers that lacked the funds to settle those thousands of lawsuits turned to bankruptcy to try to resolve them. (Saeedy, 10/10)

Orange County Register: Kaiser Unions Lay Groundwork For Another Strike In November 
Executives at Kaiser Permanente have received notice of another potential strike just days after 75,000 employees ended a three-day walkout. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions issued a 10-day strike notice Monday, Oct. 9, warning of a possible strike Nov. 1-8 if the healthcare giant fails to address “an acute and dire” staffing crisis and continues to outsource jobs. (10/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Healthcare Strikes Threaten To Prolong Wage Pressure On Hospitals 
Because of a confluence of factors such as political support from the White House and a tight labor market, Americans across a variety of industries are walking off the job at a rate not seen in years. In the healthcare sector, those broader factors have converged with industry-specific grievances, such as nursing shortages, that were exacerbated by the pandemic. (Wainer, 10/10)

Fresno Bee: Fresno County Accepts $6 Million Bid For Former University Medical Center Campus
The owner and developer of several downtown Fresno buildings is on track to add the former University Medical Center property to his portfolio. (Sheehan, 10/10)

Reuters: Walmart Expands Online Healthcare Benefits For US Employees 
Walmart said on Tuesday it will expand online primary care benefits as part of its employee health insurance plan to its workers in 28 U.S. states. The retailer employs more than 2 million people, according to a regulatory filing, and is the largest private employer in the United States. (10/10)

Medical Economics: Physician Group Slams Insurers For Overcharging Taxpayers For Medicare Advantage
Medicare Advantage has become a health care “cash cow” for insurance companies even as patient care suffers across the country, according to a new report. Taxpayers are overpaying by at least $88 billion a year for Medicare Advantage (MA), also known as Medicare Part C, the privately administered health insurance program. Depending on the calculations, that overpayment may be as much $140 billion a year, according to “Our Payments Their Profits: Quantifying Overpayments in the Medicare Advantage Program,” published this month by Physicians for a National Health Program. (Payerchin, 10/10)

BenefitsPRO: Denied By AI: Medicare Advantage's 'Predictive' Software Cuts Off Care, Say Feds 
Judith Sullivan was recovering from major surgery at a Connecticut nursing home in March when she got surprising news from her Medicare Advantage plan: It would no longer pay for her care because she was well enough to go home. At the time, she could not walk more than a few feet, even with assistance — let alone manage the stairs to her front door, she said. She still needed help using a colostomy bag following major surgery. (Jaffe, 10/9)

Modern Healthcare: SCAN, Alignment Tailor Medicare Advantage Plans For Diverse Groups
Medicare Advantage carriers are designing plans for underserved populations that address specific healthcare needs while also finding a way to differentiate their business from competitors. Tailoring Medicare Advantage plans for specific populations is an emerging trend that could become part of these companies' long-term strategies and prompt other industry players to follow suit. (Berryman, 10/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Medicare Fall Enrollment For 2024 Starts Oct. 15
Medicare’s fall open enrollment, which runs Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, is an opportunity to review your benefits and make changes for 2024. ... To help make the process easier, The Inquirer has curated a Medicare primer based on questions sent in by readers. Now updated for 2024, it can help you select the best Medicare plan for you. (Gantz, 10/10)

Sacramento Business Journal: Walgreens Closes A Folsom Store, Looks To Sublease Space 
Pharmacy chain Walgreens permanently closed a location on Monday and the retailer is looking to sublease the space. (Abbott, 10/10)

Modern Healthcare: Walgreens To Launch Virtual Care Services In 2023
Walgreens will launch an on-demand virtual care service later this month, Tracey Brown, chief customer officer and president of retail, announced at a HLTH conference keynote Monday. The company will offer dermatology, primary care, urgent care, women’s health and men’s health services, Brown said. Patients can set up video visits with providers, attend virtual consultations with a doctor or nurse practitioner and have prescriptions shipped to their home, she said. (Hudson and Tepper, 10/10)

Reuters: US FDA Warns Online Vendors To Stop Selling Unapproved Weight-Loss Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday published letters warning two online vendors to stop selling unapproved versions of semaglutide and tirzepatide, the active ingredients in popular GLP-1 class medications including Novo Nordisk’s powerful weight-loss drug Wegovy. In the letters sent to Semaspace and Gorilla Healing on Oct. 2, the FDA said the only approved semaglutide products were Wegovy and Novo’s diabetes drugs Ozempic and Rybelsus. It noted that tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, had only been approved for diabetes. (Wingrove, 10/10)

Fox News: Veterans Plagued By Errors In Health Benefit System Due To Computer Mishap
An automated Veterans Affairs system meant to help accelerate claims decisions actually helped contribute to inaccurate ratings on 27% of high blood pressure claims. A VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report published last week found that more than a quarter of the 60 reviewed high blood pressure claims that were handled by the Automated Benefits Delivery System resulted in wrongful claims decisions for veterans, according to a report from Military.com. (Lee, 10/11)

Los Angeles Times: Bill To Allow Amsterdam-Style Cannabis Cafes In California Goes Up In Smoke With Newsom Veto
Cannabis dispensaries in California won’t be able to convert their businesses into cafes where they can sell food and host live concerts anytime soon. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Sunday that would have legalized Amsterdam-style cafes in the state and provided the cannabis industry an opportunity to host customers in a more inviting lounge setting. (Solis, 10/10)

CNBC: Supreme Court Won't Hear Challenge To FDA Rejection Of Flavored Vapes
The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear arguments in a case challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to reject approvals of flavored electronic cigarettes. The case is one of several challenges to the FDA’s regulation of the vaping industry, which has hooked members of a new generation on nicotine, and ballooned into an $8.2 billion market in less than a decade. (Constantino and Sykes, 10/10)

The New York Times: Illicit Vapes And E-Cigarettes Flood Stores As F.D.A. Struggles To Combat Imports 
Some vapes are appearing with increasing nicotine levels that approach those in a carton of cigarettes. U.S. regulators did not authorize them, but have failed to keep them off shelves. (Jewett, 10/10)

USA Today: Life-Changing Surgery: Doctor Disconnects Brain Of 6-Year-Old With Rare Disease
A 6-year-old girl with a rare neurological disease recently underwent a 10-hour surgery in California where half of her brain was disconnected in an effort to help cure her. ... The surgery was performed by Dr. Aaron Robison at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. Robison told ABC 7 that "just disconnecting it [the brain] is enough to stop the disease completely and essentially, potentially cure it." (Hauari, 10/10)

Voice Of San Diego: AG Says Sheriff Must Find Solution To Jail Deaths - Or Face Consequences 
Fix the problem or face the consequences. That was Attorney General Rob Bonta’s message for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department on Saturday regarding the unusually high number of jail deaths locally. Bonta said he wanted to give San Diego’s newly-elected Sheriff Kelly Martinez time to fix the problem. But if death rates in San Diego jails don’t come down, Bonta said he could pursue multiple legal remedies. (Huntsberry, 10/10)

San Diego Union-Tribune: County Supervisors Approve $3 Million For Migrant Services In San Diego 
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to allocate $3 million to local nonprofits so they can continue to provide services to arriving migrants, with hopes of consolidating such resources in the near future at a proposed migrant center. (Fox, 10/10)