The Desert Sun: Eisenhower Health Unveils Mobile Medical Unit To Reach Underserved
Eisenhower Health's new medical clinic on wheels will soon hit the road and deliver medical services to the Coachella Valley's most underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. (Sasic, 2/13)

The Bakersfield Californian: Hall Ambulance Recognizes Top Paramedic, EMT And Other Employees As 'Best Of The Best' 
Hall Ambulance dispatcher Kirk Chambers had years of experience as a paramedic before switching to another kind of high-pressure job as an emergency dispatcher. That earlier experience, he said, allows him to visualize what's occurring "on the ground" at the scene of a crisis, even when he's miles away, in contact over an emergency phone line. (Mayer, 2/13)

Bloomberg: Women-Led Health Startups Drew $167 Million Of Funding In 2023
Funding for women-led health startups surged more than 2,000% last year, helping drive fund raising of $167 million for the industry, according to a report sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and prepared by consulting firm Salient Advisory. Companies founded solely by women received $52 million in funding, representing 31% of all funding dollars allocated last year, according to the report. (Olurounbi, 2/13)

AP: Some Worry California Proposition To Tackle Homelessness Would Worsen The Problem
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging voters to approve a ballot initiative that he says is needed to tackle the state’s homelessness crisis, a change social providers say would threaten programs that keep people from becoming homeless in the first place. In 2004, voters approved legislation that imposed a tax on millionaires to finance mental health services, generating $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue each year that has mostly gone to counties to fund mental health programs as they see fit under broad guidelines. (Nguyen, 2/14)

Los Angeles Times: A Year Ago, L.A. County Declared Homelessness A State Of Emergency. Is It Working?
Just over a year ago, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, following Mayor Karen Bass’ lead, declared a local emergency on homelessness in an effort to inject a sense of urgency into addressing the needs of the almost 76,000 unhoused people spread across America’s largest county. On Tuesday, the supervisors heard from Cheri Todoroff, executive director of the L.A. County Homeless Initiative, who said the emergency order declared in January 2023 “absolutely is working.” (Cosgrove, 2/14)

Fresno Bee: El Dorado County Pushes Back Against Native Housing Project 
Two California residential facilities that would house vulnerable Native women are supposed to break ground next month in El Dorado County. But the local community is mobilizing against the project. (Hatch and Hall, 2/13)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom's Top Education Advisor Bares His Mental Health Struggle: 'You're Not Alone'
The boy hated himself. Six months into his first year in high school, he dropped out. For more than a year, he isolated himself in his Huntington Beach bedroom where he became addicted to video games and anonymously vented his anger online with racist and misogynistic screeds, haunted by suicidal thoughts and fantasies about hurting others. His health deteriorated as he binged on pepperoni pizza, grew obese and developed terrible rashes. (Watanabe, 2/14)

Military Times: Psychedelic To Receive Fast-Track Review As Possible PTSD Drug
Midomafetamine, or MDMA, a form of molly or ecstasy that has increasingly been coupled with patient therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, was approved recently for a fast-track review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a Feb. 9 announcement from Lykos Therapeutics. The designation means the FDA will review the drug on a faster timeline — six months instead of 10 — and “direct overall attention and resources” to the study of drugs that, if approved, would allow for “improvements in the safety or effectiveness of the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of serious conditions,” according to the FDA’s website. (Perez, 2/13)

Los Angeles Times: The Plan To Diagnose Alzheimer’s In People With No Memory Problems
In a darkened Amsterdam conference hall this summer, a panel of industry and academic scientists took the stage to announce a plan to radically expand the definition of Alzheimer’s disease to include millions of people with no memory complaints. Those with normal cognition who test positive for elevated levels of certain proteins that have been tied to Alzheimer’s — but not proven to cause the disease — would be diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s Stage 1, the panel members explained. (Petersen, 2/14)

Boston Globe: Biogen Alzheimer’s Drug Launch Off To Slow Start 
Seven months after US drug regulators fully approved Biogen’s treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, only about 2,000 patients are taking the medicine nationwide, the company said Tuesday. (Saltzman, 2/13)

Stat: Congress Considering Partial Increase For Doctor Pay In Medicare
Lawmakers are considering increasing doctors’ Medicare pay in an upcoming government funding package, but their policy would only partially offset cuts providers saw earlier this year, three lobbyists and two sources familiar with the talks told STAT. (Cohrs, 2/13)

Roll Call: Physicians Lobby Congress On Medicare Pay Cuts
Rep. Larry Bucshon on Tuesday told doctors upset about Medicare reimbursement cuts that began in January that there’s a good chance at least part of those cuts could be addressed in a spending package Congress is supposed to pass next month. “Do I think we’ll get the full 3.4 percent?” the Indiana Republican said, referring to the level of cuts that doctors have dealt with this year, during an appearance before the American Medical Association’s national advocacy conference. “I don’t know, but people in both political parties and on both sides of the Capitol know this has to be fixed.” (Hellmann, 2/13)

Healthcare Finance News: Medicare Beneficiaries To Receive Part D Out-Of-Pocket Cap 
Beneficiaries with Medicare Part D are poised to reap significant savings with the implementation of a $2,000 out-of-pocket spending cap for prescription drugs covered under the program, which is slated to take effect in 2025. This provision, signed into law as part of 2022's Inflation Reduction Act, aims to alleviate financial burdens for millions of beneficiaries by curbing excessive out-of-pocket costs and reducing Medicare expenditures on prescription medications. (Eddy, 2/13)

NerdWallet: What To Do If Your Hospital Drops Your Medicare Advantage Plan 
Slightly more than half of Medicare-eligible people are enrolled in Medicare Advantage — but hospitals around the country have been dropping Medicare Advantage plans due to issues with prior authorizations and denials. Hospitals and health systems in at least 11 states announced in 2023 that they would be out-of-network for some or all Medicare Advantage plans in 2024, according to reporting from Becker’s Hospital Review, a medical industry trade magazine. (Ashford, 2/13)

Stat: Private Equity Deals In Medicare Advantage Declines
Major insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare and Humana have edged out private equity firms from investing in Medicare Advantage, according to a new report. (Trang, 2/13)

KQED: Bay Area Lawmakers Push To Enforce State Anti-Bias Training Requirement For Maternal Health Providers
Two Bay Area lawmakers want to step up enforcement of a 2019 law aimed at reducing the disproportionately high maternal death rate among Black people in California. The proposed legislation, introduced Monday, would set a firm deadline for maternal care facilities to fully complete a required anti-bias training and impose penalties for those that don’t comply. (Altenberg, 2/13)

Politico: A Company Tracked Visits To 600 Planned Parenthood Locations For Anti-Abortion Ads, Senator Says 
A company allegedly tracked people’s visits to nearly 600 Planned Parenthood locations across 48 states and provided that data for one of the largest anti-abortion ad campaigns in the nation, according to an investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden, a scope that far exceeds what was previously known. The details in Wyden (D-Ore.)’s letter, sent Tuesday morning, reveal what’s believed to be the largest publicly known location-driven anti-abortion ad campaign. Abortion rights supporters have feared this type of data could also be used by certain state governments to prosecute women who get the procedure after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled there is no constitutional right to an abortion. (Ng, 2/13)

AP: Mental Health Emerges As A Dividing Line In Abortion Rights Initiatives Planned For State Ballots
As advocates push this year for ballot measure initiatives aiming to protect abortion rights, key differences have emerged in the language of proposed measures. Among them is the inclusion of mental health exceptions. A Missouri proposal would allow lawmakers to restrict abortions after a fetus is considered viable, except if an abortion “is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.” A similar measure has been proposed in Arizona. In 2022, Michigan voters passed an abortion rights amendment with a mental health exception for viability limits. (Fernando, 2/13)

The New Republic: How The Right Weaponized The Dobbs Ruling To Wage War On Trans People 
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with their now infamous ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the adverse disruptions to both the legal landscape of abortion and the quality of life of both abortion seekers and pregnant patients across the country were nearly immediate. But, the dystopia of Dobbs holding isn’t limited to reproductive freedoms—it has also endangered other constitutional privacy matters that determine the right to purchase and use contraception, the right of same-sex intimacy and marriage, and the right to marry across racial lines.  However, what’s become clear is that the far right intends to test the judicial system for future breaches by first targeting transgender people’s access to gender-affirming care. (McNeill, 2/14)

The Hill: More Than Half Of Black Transgender Youth Have Considered Suicide In The Past Year 
More than half of Black transgender and nonbinary young people reported having seriously considered suicide in the past year, and more than 20 percent said they had attempted suicide, according to data released Tuesday by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization. Black LGBTQ young people experience elevated rates of discrimination related to both their race and ethnicity and their LGBTQ identities, according to Tuesday’s report, which analyzed survey responses from over 28,000 LGBTQ teens and young adults in the U.S. (Migdon, 2/13)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Rady Children's Hospital Seeing Increase In Kawasaki Disease Cases. Cause Remains Elusive. 
After experiencing a lull during the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians at Rady Children’s Hospital have been somewhat surprised at the number of young children diagnosed with Kawasaki disease in the new year. (Sisson, 2/13)

NBC News: CDC Hasn't Changed Covid Guidelines Yet: Here’s What You Need To Know
People who test positive for Covid should still isolate for five days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even though many Americans are already ignoring the policy. That guidance is likely to change at some point, however. Following reports that the CDC was considering easing Covid isolation restrictions — including guidelines that people can leave their homes after being fever-free for 24 hours — the agency refused to confirm that such plans were in the works. The potential change was first reported by The Washington Post. (Edwards and Lovelace Jr., 2/14)

CIDRAP: Research Shows 1 In 10 Infected Pregnant Women Develop Long COVID 
New research presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s (SMFM) annual meeting this week suggests that 1 in 10 pregnant women who contract COVID-19 during pregnancy develop long COVID. The study abstract is published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. (Soucheray, 2/13)

CIDRAP: Study: Older US Adults Who Exercised Prepandemic At Lower Risk Of COVID Infection, Hospitalization
US adults aged 45 and older who were physically active before the pandemic were 10% less likely to contract COVID-19 and 27% less likely to be hospitalized if they were infected, a Brigham and Women's Hospital–led study suggests. (Van Beusekom, 2/13)

Politico: There’s A New Life-Saving Vaccine. Why Won’t People Take It? 
The latest data from the CDC shows that only 16 percent of eligible pregnant people got vaccinated for RSV. Among the over 60 population, it was just over one in five. And among babies and eligible young children, the uptake was “low,” the CDC said. Four years after Covid hit and fueled growing vaccine hesitancy, the rollout of the RSV vaccine this fall and winter offered a case study unfolding in real time. At issue was whether the public health and medical communities had acquired the skills, speed and agility needed to counter malicious misinformation before it took hold in the public’s mind. (Kenen, 2/13)

San Diego Union-Tribune: SDSU Report Calls Tijuana River Contamination A Public Health Crisis. 'We Know People Are Getting Sick.' 
A new report released Tuesday and written by researchers at San Diego State University calls the Tijuana River a “public health crisis,” citing broad evidence of unhealthy conditions from untreated sewage to industrial waste. (Sisson, 2/13)

AP: Biden Administration Expands Program To Help Rural Towns Plagued By Sewage Problems 
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is expanding a program to help rural communities with serious sewage problems get technical help to plan improvements and apply for funding. Eleven communities in the South and Southwest were chosen in 2022 for a pilot program, and another 150 will be able to apply for assistance, which will be granted on a rolling basis, said Radhika Fox, assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s water office. (2/13)