CalMatters: CA Finds Disparities For Black Moms In Maternal Mortality Rate
More than two and a half years after a law took effect requiring maternity care staff to complete racism in medicine training, only 17% of hospitals were in compliance, according to an investigation published by the state Department of Justice Friday. The training matters, Attorney General Rob Bonta and others said during a press conference, because of the state’s persistently high death rates among Black mothers. (Hwang, 10/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Scripps Health No Longer Partnering With MD Anderson Cancer Center 
When Scripps Health announced a partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2016, the San Diego provider said that the relationship would “enable us to offer the best cancer treatment available anywhere.” But Scripps confirmed this week that the collaboration recently ended. (Sisson, 10/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune: State Medical Board Seeks To Revoke Or Suspend License Of Second Doctor In Eliza Serna's Death In Jail
State regulators are seeking to discipline a second physician who treated Elisa Serna in the days before her 2019 death in the Las Colinas women’s jail in Santee. (McDonald, 10/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Insurers Spar With Biden Administration Over Coverage For Mental Health Care
Many consumers with insurance are forced to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars a year on mental-health care despite a 15-year-old law that is supposed to make such treatment as affordable and accessible as any other type of medical care. Now the Biden administration wants to impose new requirements on insurers that it says would reduce out-of-pocket costs for mental-health care and substance-use-disorder treatment. The insurance industry is firing back, arguing the proposal would drive up prices and set impossible-to-meet standards. (Armour, 10/29)

Stat: Biden Proposes Fixes To No Surprises Act Dispute Resolution Process
The Biden administration dropped a new proposal Friday designed to fix the controversial dispute resolution process that’s part of the federal surprise billing ban. Since the beginning of 2022, the No Surprises Act has shielded patients in most cases against bills from out-of-network providers for care delivered at in-network facilities. But the behind-the-scenes battles between those providers and health insurers over what that care should cost have gotten ugly. (Bannow, 10/27)

Axios: As Millions Lose Medicaid, ACA Sign-Up Season May Help
Relatively few people who lost Medicaid coverage this year have wound up in Affordable Care Act plans — but the HealthCare.gov sign-up period starting this week could be a chance to enroll people who've fallen through the cracks. The ACA's health insurance markets, which offer heavily subsidized coverage for lower-income people, can provide a backstop for some of the millions who have been removed from Medicaid this year as states pare their rolls for the first time since the pandemic. (Goldman, 10/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Half Moon Bay’s Day Of The Dead Honors Lives Lost In Mass Shootings
Families and friends of the departed gathered in Half Moon Bay over the weekend during a Day of the Dead commemoration with a special focus on the lives lost during January’s mass shootings at two farms. The Día de Los Muertos celebration, sponsored by the nonprofit outreach organization Ayudando Latinos A Soñar (Helping Latinos Dream), drew about 1,000 people and featured a parade, face painting, music, food, altars to memorialize loved ones lost, and sugar skull painting to celebrate the lives of departed souls. (Pederson, 10/29)

Axios: Speaker Johnson On Shootings: "Problem Is The Human Heart, Not Guns"
New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Fox News' Sean Hannity in his first interview as speaker that now is not the time to discuss legislation to address the scourge of mass shootings, adding: "The problem is the human heart, not guns." (Lawler, 10/27)

Politico: White House Hits Johnson Over Claiming Gun Violence Was A Matter Of The ‘Heart’
The Biden administration hit back Friday on Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent comments that placed blame for mass shootings in the United States on Americans’ “hearts,” calling the remarks “offensive.” In a statement, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the administration “absolutely” rejected “the offensive accusation that gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because of Americans’ ‘hearts.’” “Gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because congressional Republicans have spent decades choosing the gun industry’s lobbyists over the lives of innocent Americans,” Bates added. (Haberkorn, 10/27)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Mass Shootings Can Affect Kids' Mental Health. Here Are Some Ways To Respond
Many parents and caregivers are struggling to explain the recent mass shooting in Maine to their children. But mental health practitioners say there are steps they can take to support young people through difficult moments like this. Professionals recommend limiting, or at least closely monitoring, kids’ media consumption. But it’s also important for adults to monitor their own reactions. (Richardson, 10/27)

CNN: Matthew Perry: Cause Of Death Pending Additional Investigation In Actor’s Death
The cause of actor Matthew Perry’s death at his residence Saturday will require additional investigative steps by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office before reaching a conclusion, according to records from the agency. The medical examiner updated its online record for Perry on Sunday afternoon, listing his cause of death as “deferred.” “In cases where the cause of death cannot be determined at the time of autopsy, a deferred certificate will be issued until additional studies have been completed,” according to the LA coroner’s guidelines. (Campbell, Mossburg and Rosenbloom, 10/30)

The Telegraph: Matthew Perry: The Tragedy Of Extreme Addiction Is That The Body May Never Recover
The comic star appeared to have achieved sobriety-induced optimism – but drink and drug abuse takes its toll on the body, even in recovery. (Lytton, 10/30)

The Independent: How Matthew Perry Confronted His Drug Addiction, And Spent His Life Urging Others To Seek Help
‘Friends’ star, who has died aged 54, was a prominent campaigner for drugs reform and spoke candidly about his own battles with substance abuse. (O'Connor, 10/29)

The Guardian: ‘Matthew Perry Took Me To AA’ – Why Saving People Mattered More To The Star Than Friends 
The Perry House was a 5,500 sq ft beachfront compound in Malibu where Matthew Perry formerly lived. When he decided to relocate in 2013, he teamed up with addiction specialist Earl Hightower and turned the house into a residential sober-living centre, where men with addiction issues could attend meditation programmes and a 12-step workshop. Perry sold the house two years later, stating, “It was too expensive to run and the business didn’t really work.” At the time, he said he wanted to refocus the business on smaller, less showy premises closer to the centre of Los Angeles, although it’s unclear whether he achieved this aim. Nevertheless, the idea of the Perry House was so noble that, in 2013, he received a Champion of Recovery award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The Mercury News: Fentanyl: Neighbors Say Warnings Missed Before San Jose Baby's OD Death
Baby Phoenix Castro wasn’t breathing when a San Jose Fire dispatcher’s voice crackled over their radio system at 10:11 a.m. on May 13.The message was brisk: “CPR is in progress. The three-month-old female is unconscious….” By the time neighbor Nancy Wetherington saw what was happening, the baby was lying on a white ambulance stretcher. Her tiny hands and feet were already gray. (Sulek and Nickerson, 10/29)

Axios: White House Calls For All Schools To Carry Naloxone Amid Rising Youth Overdoses
The Biden administration on Monday will send a letter urging all schools to keep an opioid overdose reversal drug on hand and train staff and students on how to use it. The request is a response to the grim reality that opioid overdoses — particularly those involving illicit fentanyl — have risen rapidly among children and teenagers in recent years. (Owens, 10/30)

CNN: Alaska Airlines Incident Renews Calls For FAA To Address Pilot Mental Health Reform 
Countless professional pilots are calling on the FAA to take up “decades overdue” mental health reform after one of their own was charged with trying to crash an Alaska Airlines flight. (Muntean and Wallace, 10/29)

NBC News: Psychedelics And Mental Health Issues: What You Should Know
What many people don’t understand about psychedelics, said psychiatrist Dr. Joshua Woolley, director of the translational psychedelic research program at the University of California, San Francisco, is the impact can last for days, weeks or longer after the substance is no longer detectable in the body. In a new study, British researchers described the experiences of 608 people who were willing to talk about long-lasting difficulties that occurred after they had taken psychedelic drugs. ... According to the new study, 15% of the participants experienced “derealization," or confusion or uncertainty over what was real in the days, weeks or months after a psychedelic experience. (Carroll, 10/29)

Reveal: America Goes Psychedelic, Again
Psychedelic drugs have been illegal for 50 years, but they’re trickling back into the mainstream because they show promise in helping treat post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health challenges. We begin the hour with reporter Jonathan A. Davis visiting Psychedelic Science 2023, the largest-ever conference on psychedelic drugs. It’s put on by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, an organization dedicated to legalizing MDMA (also known as ecstasy or molly) and other psychedelic drugs. (Davis and Schiller, 10/28)

CNBC: Pharmacy Staff From Walgreens, Chains Like CVS To Walk Out Again
Some pharmacy staff from Walgreens and other drugstore chains are planning to walk out this week in the latest pushback against what they call unsafe working conditions that put both employees and patients at risk. (Constantino, 10/29)

NPR: The FDA Issues Warning For Eyedrop Products Due To Infection Risk
U.S. health officials are warning consumers to stop using more than two dozen over-the-counter eye drop products due to the potential risk of eye infection that could lead to vision loss. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued the alert for 26 products from the following brands: CVS Health, Leader (Cardinal Health), Rugby (Cardinal Health), Rite Aid, Target Up&Up and Velocity Pharma. (Bowman, 10/29)

AP: A New Cure For Sickle Cell Disease May Be Coming. Health Advisers Will Review It Next Week
The only cure for painful sickle cell disease today is a bone marrow transplant. But soon there may be a new cure that attacks the disorder at its genetic source. On Tuesday, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will review a gene therapy for the inherited blood disorder, which in the U.S. mostly affects Black people. Issues they will consider include whether more research is needed into possible unintended consequences of the treatment. (Ungar, 10/27)

Bay Area News Group: CRISPR Could Kill HIV. But We Don't Know If It's A Cure
In a provocative first step toward an elusive end to a devastating disease that has claimed 40 million lives, three patients have received CRISPR gene-editing therapies in an effort to eradicate HIV from their bodies. The results ... have not yet been disclosed by the San Francisco biotech company that created the technology based on Nobel Prize-winning research by UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna. But the potential treatment, called EBT-101, is safe and caused no major side effects, Excision BioTherapeutics reported at a meeting in Brussels this week. (Krieger, 10/28)

First for Women: Little-Known Ozempic Side Effect Is Worse For Women Over 50: MDs Explain & Advise 
By now, we’ve all heard about the wildly popular prescription injectable drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy that are helping people lose loads of pounds quickly. Perhaps you’ve seen friends successfully slim down. Or you’ve noticed Hollywood celebs, like Sharon Osbourne, looking a bit scary-thin. But amid all the buzz and success stories is a growing list of side effects for these prescriptions. One that keeps popping up: muscle pain. (Maxbauer, 10/29)

Bay Area News Group: A 'Tsunami' Of Cases As Alameda County Eviction Moratorium Ends
One is spending all her money on a messy divorce. One was shot in the foot and couldn’t collect his disability check. More than one lost a job to the pandemic. Eviction court was filled last week with those who could not pay their rent. Spread out on benches under fluorescent lamps on the second floor of an Alameda County courthouse in Hayward, they were waiting to learn whether they will be forced from their homes at the end of the month. (Talerico, 10/29)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: One Homeless Couple Is So Close To Housing. They Just Need To Be Found. 
Brice Michalek needed to find one woman. He knew exactly what to do next: Michalek would load her and her wheelchair into his van and drive to an office. Inside, the woman could get a Social Security card that would let her apply with her partner, who spent years in the Navy, for a housing voucher for veterans. Plenty are available, meaning the couple could be off the street and under a roof within weeks. If Michalek could find her. (Nelson, 10/29)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Students Can Still Go To School Even If They Have Mild Symptoms, New State Health Guidance Says
During the height of the pandemic, schools sent kids home if they had a sore throat, cough, headache or any potential COVID-19 symptom and told them to stay home for as long as two weeks if they came in contact with someone with COVID. (Taketa, 10/28)

Stat: Paying For Covid Pills Will Soon Shift To Insurers
The Biden administration is slowly shifting millions of Covid-19 treatments to private insurers and drugmakers, starting next week. The transition to commercial payers and providers will begin Nov. 1 but last through at least December as providers dole out existing stock, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter issued Friday. That includes Pfizer’s Paxlovid, which the government will stop ordering on Dec 15, and Merck’s Lagevrio, which will be open for provider orders through Nov. 10. (Owermohle, 10/27)

Axios: Federal Coverage Of COVID Drugs Ending
The uninsured, and those with Medicare or Medicaid coverage, will be able to get Paxlovid at no cost until the end of 2024. Pfizer is also setting up a patient-assistance program for uninsured and underinsured people, and it will run a co-pay savings program for those with private insurance. (Reed, 10/30)

NBC News: New Covid Variant Gains Dominance Amid Slow Uptake Of Updated Shots
A new Covid variant has become dominant in the U.S., but relatively few people have thus far gotten the new shots that could offer some protection against it. The variant, called HV.1, replaced EG.5 as the country's most prevalent this week, according to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The two variants are genetically similar versions of omicron. (Bendix, 10/27)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 That Confines You To Bed For Several Days Most Likely To Lead To Long COVID, Study Finds 
[In the study,] COVID-19 survivors who were bedridden for at least 7 days had the highest prevalence of symptoms, while those never bedridden had similar rates to uninfected participants. A higher prevalence was also noted in those hospitalized for their infections 2 to 22 months after diagnosis. (Van Beusekom, 10/27)

The Bakersfield Californian: Valadao Introduces Resolution Raising Awareness Of Rare Brain Disease 
For former Bakersfield Mayor Harvey L. Hall, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease took its toll just two weeks and a few hours after he was diagnosed in 2018. Residents of Bakersfield were shocked at the sudden death of the city's longest-serving mayor, from 2001 to 2016, who was also president and founder of Hall Ambulance Service Inc. Hall was 77. (Peterson, 10/30)

The Bakersfield Californian: CARE Grants Village Fest Proceeds To Nonprofits 
Local nonprofit organizations serving children had thousands of reasons to rejoice last week as Children’s Advocates Resource Endowment awarded more than $37,000 raised from Village Fest, known to many as the "party of the year." (10/28)

Bay Area News Group: Pleasanton Plans To Drill New Groundwater Wells To Address Contamination
Pleasanton is moving forward with a plan to build two new drinking-water wells to replace its wells found to be contaminated. The new wells would be drilled away from the ones contaminated with the potentially harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — known as PFAS  — that caused the city to stop using the three wells it currently operates. (Byik, 10/30)

The Oaklandside: Downtown Oakland Used To Have Two Cemeteries. Where'd They Go?
Most burial plots were relocated long ago, but not all the remains were dug up. (Rasilla, 10/27)