San Diego Union-Tribune: Lifeline Or Power Grab? Palomar Health May Cede Oversight Of CEO, Other Top Executives To Private Company 
Under heavy financial pressure, elected leaders at Palomar Health are considering a significant management change that would end their direct supervision of the top executives who oversee the organization’s strategic planning and day-to-day operations. (Sisson, 2/26)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Scripps Physician Finally Getting To Use The Technology He Helped Invent For Heart Condition 
Dr. Steven Mickelsen dreamed up a new way to treat a heart condition called atrial fibrillation while finishing a medical fellowship at the University of Iowa in 2012. (Sisson, 2/25)

CNBC: UnitedHealth Subsidiary Change Healthcare Down For A Fourth Day Following Cyberattack
Change Healthcare’s systems are down for a fourth straight day after parent company UnitedHealth Group disclosed that a suspected cybersecurity threat actor gained access to part of its information technology network on Wednesday. UnitedHealth, the biggest health-care company in the U.S. by market cap, owns the health-care provider Optum, which merged with Change Healthcare in 2022. Optum services more than 100 million patients in the U.S., according to its website, and Change Healthcare offers solutions for payment and revenue cycle management. (Capoot, 2/24)

SC Media: Exclusive: Cyberattack On Change Healthcare Was An Exploit Of The ConnectWise Flaw
Security experts have warned for the past couple of days that the two flaws recently uncovered in ConnectWise’s ScreenConnect app could become the major cybersecurity story of 2024 – and that the healthcare and critical infrastructure sectors were especially vulnerable. ... SC Media has learned that the recent cybersecurity incident at UnitedHealth's Change Healthcare that led to slowdowns at pharmacies was caused by a strain of LockBit malware that was used to exploit the vulnerabilities in ConnectWise ScreenConnect. (Zurier, 2/23)

Axios: Pharmacies Unable To Fill Prescriptions After Change Healthcare Cyberattack
Patients across the country have been unable to get their prescriptions filled as health tech company Change Healthcare responds to a cyberattack. It's still unclear when Change Healthcare will return to normal operations, and until then, local pharmacies that rely on the company to process payments through patients' insurance say they're facing outages and delays in filling prescriptions. (Sabin, 2/23)

Los Angeles Times: San Francisco Will Start Prosecuting Drug Dealers For Murder 
County by county in California, as fentanyl overdoses escalate, local prosecutors are turning to a novel legal strategy to stem the spiraling death toll: charging drug dealers with murder. In July, Placer County reached a landmark plea deal that sent a man to prison for 15 years-to-life on charges of second-degree murder after he provided a Roseville teenager with a fentanyl-contaminated pill that proved lethal. (Wiley, 2/26)

Los Angeles Times:  'Very Aggressive Treatment' On The Streets Of Skid Row From A Renegade M.D. 
The team gathered at 4th and Crocker streets and headed south, into the blue-tented netherworld of social collapse, armed with lifesaving drug-overdose kits and injectable, long-acting anti-psychotic medication. “We’re trying very aggressive treatment on the streets,” said Dr. Susan Partovi. “Housing definitely saves your life, but there’s a small sub-group of people who won’t accept housing because of their mental illness. ”She figures that if she administers medication that lasts a month and can help stabilize patients — with their consent — they’ve got a chance. (Lopez, 2/24)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Few Homeless People Have Been Detained Under San Diego's Camping Ban. The Number Prosecuted Is Even Lower. 
There’s no question San Diego’s camping ban has made an impact. Its passage last summer corresponded with a drop in homelessness downtown, more people asking for shelter and an increase in riverbed encampments. Other cities have moved to follow San Diego’s lead. Some lawmakers want to take the rules statewide. (Nelson, 2/25)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Volunteer Santa Rosa Homeless Operation Reignites Discussion About Winter Shelter Options
The upstart volunteer group operating a mobile warming center in southeast Santa Rosa to provide emergency aid to unsheltered residents has reignited a perennial discussion about available winter shelter space in Sonoma County. An estimated 2,266 people are homeless across the county, according to a January 2023 census, and about a quarter of those surveyed were chronically homeless. About 27% reported having a chronic health condition. (Pineda, 2/25)

Los Angeles Times: Hollywood Homeless Encampments Fuel Neighborhood Frustration 
The fire that broke out on Franklin Avenue last month was, by some measures, a modest one. But with winds blowing in the Cahuenga Pass that night, it had the potential to be destructive. Embers from the fire, which started at a homeless encampment, landed on a nearby apartment building, Fire Department officials said. By the time the blaze was out, it had scorched a nearby tree, destroyed two cars and sent smoke into nearby homes. “It smelled like burning fuel, burning plastic,” said one Hollywood resident who lives nearby. The fire that burned on Jan. 7 broke out in the first neighborhood targeted by Inside Safe, the initiative created by Mayor Karen Bass to move homeless people off sidewalks and into housing. The area is also one of the few in Los Angeles to receive a second visit from the mayor’s program. (Zahniser, 2/25)

San Diego Union-Tribune: A Covid-19 School Program Sheltered Hundreds Who Lost Homes To San Diego Floods. It Wil Expire This Fall Without New Funding.
LeMoine is one of more than 200 families displaced by the Jan. 22 flood who have received free motel stays through a schools program called Project Rest. Officials say it’s the first program of its kind in San Diego County where public schools pay for temporary housing for students and their families experiencing short-term or long-term homelessness. (Taketa, 2/25)

Capital & Main: California Plans To Eliminate A Healthful-Food Program That Has Served Both Farmers And Low-Income Residents
Cris Oliveros and Dennise Sanchez, both 30, pick through Pink Lady apples and Cara Cara oranges at the Huntington Park Farmers Market in Southeast Los Angeles. Oliveros works as a barista at a hotel in downtown Los Angeles; Sanchez delivers for DoorDash. Both qualify for CalFresh, the state’s food-support program for low-income earners. At the farmers market, they can stretch CalFresh benefits with Market Match, an innovative state program that matches dollar-for-dollar CalFresh spending at farmers markets and farm stands. Oliveros said the extra $20 from Market Match allows him to get fruit and vegetables, freeing up CalFresh funds so he can buy 32 eggs for $18.But in early January, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to cut approximately $37.8 billion dollars in the 2024-2025 state budget, including $33.2 million of Market Match’s $35 million budget — effectively eliminating the program. Asked how Newsom’s decision would affect them, the couple responded quickly. (Sanchez-Tello, 2/21)

The New York Times: Supreme Court To Decide How The First Amendment Applies To Social Media
The most important First Amendment cases of the internet era, to be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday, may turn on a single question: Do platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X most closely resemble newspapers or shopping centers or phone companies? The two cases arrive at the court garbed in politics, as they concern laws in Florida and Texas aimed at protecting conservative speech by forbidding leading social media sites from removing posts based on the views they express. (Liptak, 2/25)

Politico: Social Media Cases Head To SCOTUS — But Conservatives May Have Already Won
Big Tech platforms and their Republican critics are bracing for a faceoff in the Supreme Court on Monday over the policing of online speech. But in the real-world argument over who gets to post their views on social media, conservatives have largely won. The two cases in front of the court have their roots in the post-Jan. 6 banning of Donald Trump from multiple social media platforms. When the then-president was kicked off for violating policies against incitement to violence, state lawmakers in Florida and Texas jumped in. They passed laws later in 2021 to tie the hands of tech companies and force them to keep all views online, and not deplatform political candidates. (Kern, 2/25)

Bloomberg: Zuckerberg Wants No Personal Legal Blame For Instagram, Facebook Addiction
Mark Zuckerberg is seeking to avoid being held personally liable in two dozen lawsuits accusing Meta Platforms Inc. and other social media companies of addicting children to their products. The Meta chief executive officer made his case at a hearing Friday in California federal court, but the judge didn’t immediately make a decision. A ruling in Zuckerberg’s favor would dismiss him as a personal defendant in the litigation with no impact on the allegations against Meta. (Graf, 2/23)

NBC News: Doctors Warn Freezing Embryos Is Essential After Alabama Ruling With IVF Consequences
After Alabama’s state Supreme Court ruling on IVF, doctors are warning that women using in vitro fertilization and their babies could face major health risks — and young cancer patients could lose the chance to build a future family — if fertility clinics stop using frozen embryos. “That is a possible reality,” said Dr. Irene Dimitriadis, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at the Mass General Fertility Center in Boston. “It hurts me to think of it because that means we’re kind of going backwards in medicine.” (Dunn, 2/24)

The Washington Post: Cancer Patients Express Worry, Devastation About Alabama IVF Ruling 
A cancer diagnosis often comes with a host of difficult decisions, including what to do about the impact of treatment on a person’s fertility. Many individuals grappling with this dual burden turn to in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a way to preserve their reproductive options. That’s why cancer patients and oncologists are expressing shock and anxiety about the recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos are considered children under the law. (Malhi, 2/25)

The Hill: White House Accuses Republicans Of ‘Attempting To Erase Their Own Records On IVF’ 
The White House on Monday put the spotlight on House Republicans’ support for legislation that says life begins at conception even as many of them have rushed to defend in vitro fertilization following a controversial Alabama court ruling. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in a memo shared with The Hill, pointed to GOP support for the Life at Conception Act, which she described as “an extreme, dangerous bill that would eliminate reproductive freedom for all women in every state.” (Samuels, 2/26)

The Washington Post: 125 Republicans Have Backed Antiabortion Bill Without IVF Exception
Prominent congressional Republicans are coming out in support of in vitro fertilization days after the Alabama state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are people and therefore that someone can be held liable for destroying them. But many of the same Republicans who are saying Americans should have access to IVF have co-sponsored legislation that employs an argument similar to the one the Alabama Supreme Court used in its ruling. The congressional proposal, known as the Life at Conception Act, defines a “human being” to “include each member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization or cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.” The bill would also provide equal protection under the 14th Amendment “for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.” (Alfaro, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Alabama Justice Who Quoted Bible In IVF Case Often Invokes Religion
In the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that said frozen embryos are people, Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote a concurring opinion that sought to define the “sanctity of unborn life,” citing heavily from scripture and theology. His opinion, which drew criticism from abortion rights activists for instilling religious beliefs into a judicial decision, was the latest in nearly 20 years on the bench in which he has repeatedly invoked religion on his way to laying the groundwork to overturn Roe v. Wade. Parker has also openly criticized other judges for not sufficiently considering religion in their rulings and has expressed support for the theory known as the Seven Mountain Mandate, which calls for conservative Christians to run the government and broadly influence American life. (Rosenzweig-Ziff, 2/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: Food Allergy Sufferers Get Protection From Adverse Reactions With New Drug
When 8-month-old Liam Wang ate scrambled eggs for the first time, he broke out in hives — surprising his parents, Ann Marqueling and Kevin Wang, who have two older children who do not have egg allergies. They took Liam to an allergist and discovered that in addition to eggs, he was also allergic to peanuts, walnuts and cashews. And the skin prick test indicated the allergies could be severe.  ... A newly approved drug has the potential to offer some relief for Liam, his family and millions of others like them who worry that accidental exposure to even small amounts of peanuts or other foods can trigger a potentially life-threatening reaction. (Ho, 10/25)

The Washington Post: U.S. Launches Probe Into Possible Fraud By Organ Collection Groups 
Federal authorities have launched a wide-ranging investigation of the nonprofit organizations that collect organs for transplant in the United States, according to six people familiar with the inquiry, which seeks to determine whether any of the groups have been defrauding the government. The probe involves U.S. attorneys in various parts of the country who are investigating organ procurement organizations in at least five states. Their team includes investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services and the office of Michael Missal, the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs. They are seeking to determine, among other things, whether any of these groups have been overbilling the government for their costs. (Bernstein, Johnson and Rein, 2/26)

Stat: Obesity Drugs Seen As Possible Treatment For Liver Disease MASH
As drugmakers race to join the obesity drug market ignited by the approval of Wegovy and Zepbound, they’re not just competing on their drugs’ weight loss effects. They’re also competing on their products’ ability to treat a severe form of liver disease. (Chen, 2/26)

The New York Times: Your Inhalers And EpiPens Aren't Very Healthy For The Environment
For eco-conscious consumers of personal medical devices, recycling options are limited. Some companies are trying to change that. (Alcorn, 2/26)

CIDRAP: US Flu Levels Stubbornly High As COVID Declines Further
Flu levels remain elevated, with increases in half of US regions, as COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) levels stayed on downward trends, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest weekly updates. Though the national test positivity declined a bit, to 14.8% of respiratory virus samples, the percentage of outpatient visits for flulike illness held steady at 4.5%, the CDC said in its weekly FluView update. (Schnirring, 2/23)

CIDRAP: Birth-Month Study Shows Importance Of Timing For Flu Shot
Children born in October and vaccinated against influenza in that month are both more likely to be vaccinated against flu and less likely to be diagnosed as having influenza than children born in other months, according to a new study The BMJ. The observational study is based on insurance records of 800,000 US children ages 2 to 5 years old who received flu vaccines from 2011 to 2018. Researchers analyzed rates of diagnosed influenza among children by birth month, and found that those with October birthdays had the lowest rates. (Soucheray, 2/23)

USA Today: Millions Of Americans Suffer From Long COVID. Why Do Treatments Remain Out Of Reach?
The complexity of both the disease and the drug development system, not to mention the difficulty of getting doctors to believe them and insurance to pay for visits, has left long COVID patients feeling alone and adrift. Americans are paying a price. According to a 2022 analysis, long COVID costs the American economy at least $200 billion a year because of lost productivity, lost wages and medical costs. (Cuevas and Weintraub, 2/26)

CNN: Antidepressant Prescriptions To Youths Spiked During Pandemic, Study Finds 
Many young people have reported having poor mental health during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Their experiences are affirmed by a new study finding that the rate of prescribing antidepressants to this group also spiked during the same period. (Rogers, 2/26)