Los Angeles Times: L.A. Care To Pay $1.3 Million To Settle Patient Privacy Violations
L.A. Care, a Los Angeles-based health plan for Medi-Cal recipients, has agreed to pay $1.3 million in a settlement to resolve two privacy and security rule violations and chart a corrective plan to secure their members' information. The violations involve the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 that covers what specific healthcare organizations can share about patients without their consent. (Garcia, 9/11)

Fresno Bee: CA Hospital Said Firm Tried To ‘Improperly Influence’ Executive 
A Modesto-based company vying to take over a shuttered, bankrupt Central San Joaquin Valley hospital is accused of sending the hospital’s chief executive a $150,000 check that the hospital’s lawyers say was an attempt to “improperly influence” her decision-making. (Montalvo, 9/11)

Los Angeles Times: Panda Express Founders Donate $100 Million To City Of Hope Cancer Center 
Chinese food has been an American favorite for well over 100 years, but it wasn’t until the success of Panda Express that the cuisine became a staple at seemingly every suburban mall. Now, the chain’s founders, Peggy and Andrew Cherng, are looking to transform how Americans undergo treatment for cancer, drawing on traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture and other Eastern healing methods. (Darmiento, 9/12)

The Washington Post: American Red Cross Announces National Blood Shortage 
The American Red Cross announced a national blood shortage and is calling on more people to donate blood and platelets to shore up its supply, which it said has “fallen to critically low levels.” The organization, which is headquartered in D.C. and collects and distributes around 40 percent of the country’s blood donations, said its blood supply has dropped nearly 25 percent since early August, a shortfall of about 30,000 blood and platelet donations. (Amenabar, 9/11)

Modern Healthcare: LPN Omission From CMS Staffing Mandate Causes Concern
LPNs, who make up about 13% of nursing home staff and as much as 75% of clinical staff at some facilities, were omitted in the proposal the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Sept. 1. The proposed mandate would require nursing homes to provide three hours of care per resident, per day, with 0.55 hours of care coming from registered nurses and 2.45 hours of care coming from certified nursing assistants. No mention is made of LPNs, who provide most of the hands-on care in skilled nursing facilities. Their absence in the proposed rule worries the industry, particularly given the overall staffing challenges in healthcare. (Eastabrook, 9/11)

Axios: Nursing Homes' Image Problems Persist After COVID: Poll
Most Americans say they wouldn't want to live in a nursing home — or for a relative to live in one — over concerns about care quality and cost, according a new Gallup survey. Why it matters: Nursing homes already had an image problem before they were hit hard by COVID-19, and the poll suggests they have more work to do to regain public trust. (Goldman, 9/12)

The Washington Post: Ferid Murad, Who Won Nobel Prize For Cardiovascular Discovery, Dies At 86 
Ferid Murad, a pharmacologist who shared a Nobel Prize in 1998 for discovering that nitric oxide, an air pollutant, plays a key role in relaxing blood vessels, a startling finding that led to treatment advances in heart disease, erectile dysfunction and breathing struggles in premature infants, died Sept. 4 at his home in Menlo Park, Calif. He was 86. Dr. Murad’s discovery dates to the 1970s, when he began studying nitroglycerin, the substance that Alfred Nobel, the namesake of the annual awards given in medicine and other disciplines, used to invent dynamite in 1867. (Rosenwald, 9/11)

Berkeleyside: Berkeley’s Mental Health Crisis Team, At 510-948-0075, Expands Hours
The Specialized Care Unit, Berkeley’s mobile crisis team, has expanded its hours and will now take calls from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week. When the SCU first began taking calls Sept. 5 their schedule was limited to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. The unit aims to eventually run all day, every day. (Gecan, 9/11)

Capitol Weekly: The Capitol Weekly Interview: Sen. Susan Eggman’s Long Battle For Mental Health Reform 
Widely regarded as the most knowledgeable and effective state legislator on mental health issues in the Legislature, Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) is credited with major, bipartisan legislative accomplishments over nearly 12 years, first in the Assembly, now in the Senate, where she chairs the Senate Health Committee. Despite bipartisan and often unanimous support, there has also been intense opposition, mainly from disability rights groups opposed to any kind of “involuntary” treatment and counties concerned about funding and deadlines. Two major Eggman bills are currently before the Legislature, in the final days of the legislative session, reportedly well on their way to passage and the governor’s desk, after facing procedural hurdles and last-minute amendments. (Bathen, 9/11)

Los Angeles Times: Teens Know Social Media Hurts Their Mental Health. They Came Up With Solutions And Resources.
For teens, the conversation on mental health and social media means developing healthful habits around the platforms, which have become nearly inextricable parts of their lives. Through the Los Angeles Public Library’s Teens Leading Change initiative, a group of teenagers at the Palms-Rancho Park and Playa Vista branches have created public service announcements and brochures that offer tips on how they and their peers can maintain healthful habits online. (Gomez, 9/11)

Stat: FDA Approves Updated Covid Vaccines
The Food and Drug Administration announced Monday that it had greenlit two updated Covid-19 booster shots in people as young as 6 months old, triggering a process that could see the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines become available in doctors’ offices, clinics, and pharmacies later this week. The updated approvals relate only to the two messenger RNA vaccines on the U.S. market. An application for an updated vaccine from Novavax is still pending. (Branswell and Herper, 9/11)

The Washington Post: New Covid Vaccine Booster Could Be Available This Week After FDA Approval 
If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off Tuesday, injections could be available in pharmacies, clinics and doctor’s offices by the end of the week. ... The CDC is leaning toward a broad recommendation that covers almost all ages, mirroring the FDA approach, according to federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. But it is possible that some on the agency’s panel of outside experts, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, will push for a targeted recommendation focused on those at greatest risk — older Americans or people with weakened immune systems or other illnesses. The committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday on the matter and CDC Director Mandy Cohen is expected to weigh in shortly afterward, the final step in allowing the new shot to be administered. (McGinley and Sun, 9/11)

NPR: FDA Approves COVID Shots From Moderna And Pfizer
Some outside experts think everyone who's eligible should get boosted, especially because the number of people catching the virus and getting so sick they're ending up in the hospital and dying has been rising again for weeks. "When it comes out, I will get one. I will encourage friends and family to get one," says Dr. Robert Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco. "I think it's important for us to maintain our immunity because COVID is still around and as we're seeing now it's still capable of infecting a lot of people and hurting and killing some of them." (Stein, 9/11)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Approves Newest Covid-19 Boosters 
The boosters will be the first that their manufacturers sell commercially, rather than to the federal government.  ... Moderna said it would price its vaccine at $130 a dose. Pfizer hasn’t specified a price to date, though it has said it was considering up to that sum. The expected prices are significantly more than the U.S. government paid, but the vaccine makers will probably offer discounts to health plans. Many people with health insurance will be able to get boosted without having to pay anything out of pocket. People without insurance should be able to get the shots—at a retail pharmacy and certain government sites—at no cost under a federal program. (Whyte, 9/11)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves New Covid Shots
Also of concern in the handoff to the private market: the nation’s 23 million adults with no health insurance. The Biden administration has made plans to cover costs and offer the Covid vaccine through local clinics and major pharmacies, but some experts are worried about whether people who lack insurance will be aware of the new shots — or where to get them. ... Vaccine manufacturers are expected to donate doses for the uninsured. Kelly Cunningham, a spokeswoman for Moderna, said the company had no cap on the number. (Jewett and Weiland, 9/11)

Reuters: US FDA Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech And Moderna's Updated COVID Shots 
A third shot, made by Novavax, is still under review by the FDA. Novavax said it did not expect its shot to be authorized in the United States before a meeting of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel on Tuesday to recommend who should receive the updated vaccines. (Erman and Roy, 9/11)

The New York Times: What to Know About the New Covid Booster Shots
Unlike the bivalent shots from last fall, the latest mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna are monovalent, meaning they are designed to protect against just one variant: XBB.1.5, a recent descendant of Omicron that emerged earlier this year. (Sheikh, 9/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: What UCSF’s Bob Wachter, Other Top COVID Experts Say About The Swell
Dr. Bob Wachter, UCSF’s chief of medicine, hosted his first COVID roundtable discussion since June late last week, aiming to assess the current pandemic trajectory amid a summer wave of infections and hospitalizations in the Bay Area. For the introductory Grand Rounds of the new academic year, he brought together three well-known UCSF infectious disease experts with “different but mutually respectful perspectives” — Dr. Monica Gandhi, Dr. George Rutherford and Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. (Vaziri, 9/11)

The Washington Post: Threads Blocks Searches For ‘Covid’ And ‘Long Covid’ 
Instagram’s text-based social platform Threads last week rolled out its new search function, a crucial step toward the platform’s expansion and one that would give it more parity with X, formerly known as Twitter. Not even 24 hours later, the company was embroiled in controversy. When users went to Threads to search for content related to “covid” and “long covid,” they were met with a blank screen that showed no search results and a pop-up linking to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Lorenz, 9/11)

The Bakersfield Californian: Tehachapi Doctor Accused Of Spreading Falsehoods About COVID-19 Vaccines, Masks
The California Medical Board may discipline a Tehachapi doctor who's accused of telling a patient falsities about COVID-19 and the coronavirus vaccine, which breaks from a doctor's proper standards of care, according to an accusation. (Desai, 9/11)

Wired: Yes, There’s A New Covid Variant. No, You Shouldn’t Panic
The Pirola Covid variant has an alarming number of mutations, but it doesn’t seem to be taking hold or causing severe illness. (Browne, 9/11)

CIDRAP: SARS-CoV-2 Infections May Trigger Islet Autoantibodies In Kids At Risk For Diabetes
Children with a high genetic risk of developing type 1 diabetes see an increase in islet autoantibodies, which develop against pancreatic β-cell proteins, shortly after infection with SARS-CoV-2, illustrating a temporal relationship between COVID-19 and islet autoantibodies not seen with influenza. The study was published in JAMA. ... Of 885 children who agreed to participate in the study, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies developed in 170 children at a median age of 18 months, and islet autoantibodies developed in 60 children. Six of the 60 children tested positive for islet autoantibodies and SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at the same time, and six tested positive for islet antibodies after having tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies 2 to 6 months earlier. (Soucheray, 9/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Lawmakers Pass ‘YIGBY’ Bill To Let Churches Build Housing
A state bill that could allow churches to build affordable housing on their parking lots and excess lands — known as "Yes In God's Back Yard" — passed the California Legislature on Monday and heads to the governor’s desk. If Gov. Gavin Newsom signs SB4 — introduced by State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco — into law, it would allow for thousands of urban lots to potentially be used for housing construction. (Ravani, 9/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Lawmakers Pass Bill To Allow Separate Sales Of ADUs
Two state bills that could boost construction of ADUs, or accessory dwelling units, moved to the governor’s desk Monday. AB1033, by Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, allows cities to decide whether property owners can sell ADUs separately, as condos, from the primary home. (Ravani, 9/11)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego's Camping Ban Enforcement So Far: Dozens Of Warnings, 5 Tickets And Zero Arrests 
San Diego police recently warned more than 80 people that they were violating the city’s controversial new camping ban. Five allegedly broke the rules again and got a ticket. But nobody has yet ended up in jail for being stopped a third time. New data show there has not been a dramatic spike in citations or arrests for several laws used to clear encampments, even as the number of people sleeping outside in parts of San Diego falls. (Nelson, 9/11)

Fresno Bee: Fresno Leaders Raise Objections To Drug Needle-Exchange 
A Fresno City Council member whose district includes the city’s downtown core accused the Fresno County Board of Supervisors of becoming “an accessory to drug dealers” after a decision last week to allow a once-a-week needle-exchange program to operate in county-owned space in downtown Fresno. (Sheehan, 9/11)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Deputy Gets Probation For Taking Prescription Drugs From Vista Station Drop Box 
A veteran San Diego County sheriff’s deputy who took prescription drugs from a drop-off box at the Vista station was sentenced Monday to two years of probation. (Hernandez, 9/11)

Sacramento Bee: El Dorado County School Board Considers Parental Notification
The Buckeye Union School District Board of Trustees in El Dorado County heard from community members Wednesday night about the possible adoption of a policy that would require school staff to inform a student’s parents if they become aware that a student is transitioning or experimenting with their gender identity. The chairman of the El Dorado County GOP, Todd White, wrote to the Buckeye board in August, encouraging members to approve a notification policy identical to one that resulted in a lawsuit in Southern California. In White’s August 16th letter, he asked the board and Buckeye superintendent David Roth to consider implementing the very same policy as Chino Valley Unified School District. (Hatch, 9/11)

The Washington Post: Seven Arrested In Protest At McCarthy’s Office Over HIV Program 
Seven people were arrested after occupying the office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Capitol Hill and demanding that Congress reauthorize the PEPFAR global initiative to fight HIV and AIDS. The provisions of PEPFAR — which stands for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — are set to expire Sept. 30. The program has been credited with saving more than 25 million lives. (Silverman, 9/11)

Axios: Why A Longtime HIV Relief Program Has Higher Stakes For Funding This Year
The HIV/AIDS community is also concerned about increased scrutiny of federal HIV programs, and that that House Republicans' 2024 budget proposal called for eliminating the CDC's Ending the HIV Epidemic program started under the Trump administration. "These culture wars are now leaking into and harming public health," Kyle McGowan, of consulting firm Ascendant Strategic Partners, who served as chief of staff at the CDC during the Trump administration, told KFF Health News. (Reed, 9/7)

Health Payer Intelligence: Medicare Part D Patients With HIV May See Lower Drug Costs Under IRA
The Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Part D redesign may improve affordability for beneficiaries with HIV, but stakeholders will need to take steps to ensure beneficiaries get the most out of these cost breaks, an Avalere analysis found. “The IRA’s Part D redesign provisions aim to reduce affordability challenges and may significantly affect PWH,” the analysis stated. “HIV stakeholders hope that addressing affordability challenges could increase access to antiretrovirals and potentially improve antiretroviral adherence.” (Waddill, 9/11)

aidsmap: Antibodies That ‘Wait And Pounce’ Generated By Promising HIV Vaccine Candidate 
An HIV vaccine candidate has proved it can guide B-cells, the part of the immune system that makes antibodies, into being able to produce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) with the ability to block the entry into T-cells of many strains of HIV. Dr Wilton Williams of Duke University described the vaccine candidate in a plenary talk at July’s 12th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2023). (Cairns, 9/7)

Medical Xpress: Researchers Find Genetically Intact HIV Virus Prefers To 'Hide' In Organs Of The Immune System
A small number of HIV-infected cells remain in the tissues of people living with the virus and who are undergoing antiretroviral therapy. These viral reservoirs, real obstacles to the cure of HIV, have long been known to exist. Until now, however, it wasn't known which organs the virus prefers to hide in. ... In a study published in the journal Cell Reports, the scientists reveal that genetically intact viruses, responsible for viral rebound if antiretroviral therapy is interrupted, are concentrated in the deep tissues of the spleen and lymph nodes, organs of the immune system. (Geoffroy, 9/11)

Freethink: At Least 5 People Have Been Cured Of HIV. Is The Pandemic Ending?
Being diagnosed with AIDS used to be a death sentence — in the US, more than half of those diagnosed with the disease between 1981 and 1992 died within 2 years. Today, though, the life expectancy of someone in the US who is infected with HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — is about the same as the rest of the population. (Houser, 9/9)

The New York Times: Statin May Lower Heart Disease Risk For H.I.V. Patients 
Americans with H.I.V. are achieving the once unthinkable: a steady march into older age. But beginning around age 50, many people living with the virus face a host of health problems, from heart disease and diabetes to social isolation and cognitive decline. And so the medical research community, which some three decades ago developed lifesaving drugs to keep the virus at bay, is now hunting for new ways to keep people with H.I.V. healthier in their later years. (Ryan, 9/10)

Healthline: Olympian Greg Louganis: We Need to Improve Care for Older People Living with HIV
Olympic diving icon Greg Louganis shares how he learned to overcome anxiety by working his “courage muscles” and why he’s passionate about improving care for mental health and people who are aging with HIV. (Mastroianni, 9/9)

Military Times: GOP Defense Budget’s Abortion, Diversity Limits Draw Biden Veto Threat
President Joe Biden on Monday threatened to veto House Republicans’ plans to fund the Defense Department for 2024 because of its provisions that would dramatically limit reproductive care options and military diversity training. The White House statement comes just a few days before House members are scheduled to vote on the $826 billion Defense Department budget plan for fiscal 2024. Chamber Democrats have already voiced strong objections to the package, but Republicans hold the majority in the chamber. Senate Democrats have also denounced the proposed measures, and any final bill would have to be passed by their chamber as well, where they hold the majority. (Shane III and Harris, 9/11)