AP: California Wants To Pay Doctors More Money To See Medicaid Patients
When Hunter Morgan bought an optometry practice in Southern California three years ago, one of the first things he did was start seeing patients who use Medicaid — the government-funded health insurance program for low-income people. The previous owners had not accepted patients on Medicaid, which covers roughly a third of California’s 39 million residents. But Morgan felt he had a responsibility to serve people in need. (Beam, 3/21)

The Desert Sun: Desert Care Network Donates $2.5M To DAP Health's Expansion Campaign
The Desert Care Network, which encompasses three hospitals, has donated $2.5 million to DAP Health to aid its Vision Forward campus expansion and upcoming affordable housing complex Vista Sunrise II, DAP Health announced Thursday. (Sasic, 3/21)

The Mercury News: Amputations, Sexual Assault, Lice: Bay Area Nursing Home Operator Settles Lawsuit
A company operating 10 nursing homes in and around the Bay Area has settled a lawsuit by local county prosecutors and the State of California alleging it neglected vulnerable patients’ medical care and hygiene needs and exposed them to physical and sexual assaults. Under the settlement, Mariner Health Care, with two facilities in San Jose, two in San Pablo, two in Hayward, one in Oakland, one in Fremont, one in San Rafael and one in Santa Cruz, agreed to pay up to $15.5 million if it fails to abide by terms related to patient safety and staffing levels. (Baron, 3/20)

Fresno Bee: Valley Children's Executive Pay Called 'Excessive". Fresno Councilmembers Demand Probe
After learning of the $5 million-plus annual compensation for the CEO of Valley Children’s Hospital, two Fresno City Councilmembers called a press conference to demand a state investigation into the nonprofit hospital’s finances. (Galicia, 3/20)

CalMatters: California Doctors Struggle To Make Payroll One Month After Ransomware Attack
For a month now Sacramento dermatologist Dr. Margaret Parsons has been unable to submit insurance claims to get paid for services provided. All of her private practice’s claims go through Change Healthcare, the country’s largest network for insurance billing and the subject of a Feb. 21 cyberattack that has yet to be fully resolved. (Johnson and Ibarra, 3/21)

Axios: UnitedHealth Hack Reveals Gaps In Doctors' Cyberattack Insurance
Many health care providers struggling to get paid after the hack of a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary are still trying to figure out if their cyberattack insurance will help cover their losses. (Reed, 3/21)

Reuters: UnitedHealth Says Unit Change Has Restored And Rebuilt Functions Handled By Amazon
UnitedHealth Group said on Wednesday its unit Change Healthcare's cloud-based services for handling medical claims were completely rebuilt and restored, about a month after a cybersecurity attack on the subsidiary crippled healthcare in the United States. Amazon's cloud services for two of Change Healthcare's applications were restored from backups and cleared by their cybersecurity partners, the insurer said. (3/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Eli Lilly And Other Big Pharmas Are Backing This San Diego Biotech With $175M 
A San Diego biotech is working on therapies that could tackle life-altering conditions, like autoimmune diseases and cancer, by modifying cells. But instead of engineering cells in a lab, they’re doing it inside your body. (Rocha, 3/20)

Axios: Senate Probe Examines High-Risk Biotech Research
Senators are launching an investigation of national security threats posed by high-risk biological research amid intensifying concern over U.S.-China biotech competition and lingering questions about COVID's origins. The probe by the top lawmakers on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee could help fuel a push for new restrictions on Chinese contract research firms like WuXi AppTec that critics say are tied to Beijing and pose a security risk. (Bettelheim, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk’s Neuralink Shows First Patient Using Its Brain Implant
Elon Musk’s Neuralink introduced the first patient to receive its brain-computer implant, a 29-year-old diving-accident victim who showed during a livestream that he can now move a computer cursor using the device. ... Moving a computer cursor isn’t a big technical leap for brain-computer interfaces. An older brain chip first implanted in a human in 2004 also helped a paralyzed person move a cursor with only their thoughts. But the older chip must be attached to a device on the outside of the brain to transmit data, requiring wires protruding through the skin. Another notable feature of Neuralink’s presentation was that Noland Arbaugh was multitasking: playing chess while speaking about his experience getting the implant. Prior demonstrations of brain-computer interfaces have required dedicated attention to a particular task. (Winkler and Corse, 3/20)

CBS News: Social Security Clawed Back Overpayments By Docking 100% Of Benefits. Now It's Capping It At 10%
If they couldn't immediately pay the bill, the agency could dock their entire monthly Social Security payment, leaving some people financially destitute, as reported by "60 Minutes," KFF Health News and other media outlets. In a statement issued Wednesday, Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley said the agency will cease "the heavy-handed practice of intercepting 100% of an overpaid beneficiary's monthly Social Security benefit" if they failed to respond to a demand for repayment. Instead, he added, the agency will limit the clawback to 10% of an overpaid beneficiary's monthly benefit. (Picchi, 3/20)

The Mercury News: Shigella Cases Continue To Grow In Santa Cruz County
Numbers are continuing to climb when it comes to a bacterial outbreak that Santa Cruz County public health officials have been battling for weeks. As of Monday, there were 37 confirmed cases of shigellosis in the county, primarily in the North County region among individuals experiencing homelessness, county Health Officer Lisa Hernandez told the Sentinel. That is an increase of 10 overall cases since late February. (Hattis, 3/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: What’s Behind That Pesky Lingering Cough? Doctors Weigh In
You tested negative for COVID, or perhaps didn’t test at all. Any mild fever or body aches you had weeks ago have long since faded, but a lingering cough — be it from COVID-19, the flu or a bug of unknown provenance — just won’t go away. The remnants of a pesky virus seem to be plaguing many people right now as March brings the tail end of the winter respiratory virus season. (Ho, 3/20)

CIDRAP: Climate Change Unleashing Torrent Of Infectious Disease Threats, Physicians Caution
The shorter and milder winters, warming oceans, altered precipitation patterns, and extreme weather of climate change are fueling the spread of infectious diseases, experts warn today in JAMA. Infectious-disease physicians from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the University of California Davis (UCD) noted that the past decade saw 9 of the 10 warmest years on record, along with severe heat, droughts, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes. (Van Beusekom, 3/20)

KQED: San Francisco Gets New Glimpse Into Illicit Drug Use With Wastewater Testing
A new program to test wastewater for substances like fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine is giving San Francisco’s health officials a new window into the city’s pressing overdose crisis. The effort comes as San Francisco recently experienced the worst year for overdose deaths on record in 2023, when 806 people died of accidental overdose. (Johnson, 3/20)

CBS News: SFHSA Workers Picket Over Short Staffing, Say Prop. F Drug Screening Law Hard To Implement
Workers with San Francisco's Human Services Agency are demanding change. Their union, SEIU 1021, say the agency is so short staffed, it's making it difficult for them to do their jobs. They say challenges will become even greater if they have to implement a new drug screening law. On Wednesday, more than a hundred workers rallied for better working conditions, including Alejandra Calveron. "They keep moving me from department to department to help different areas of need because we don't have enough staff," Calveron regarding the current issues. (Hari, 3/20)

The Bakersfield Californian: Several Obstacles Perpetuate Kern's Delay Of Conservatorship Law 
Kern’s mental health providers have begun to brainstorm with interested parties across the county to form a plan on how to implement Senate Bill 43, legislation that passed last October that greatly expands the state’s conservatorship law. (Donegan, 3/20)

The Washington Post: House Republicans Call For Probe Into Unspent Mental Health Funds 
House Republicans asked a government watchdog to investigate federal officials’ oversight of mental health funding, citing documents showing that more than $3.8 billion intended for emergency coronavirus response and for a 988 suicide and crisis hotline remained unspent as of late last year. (Diamond, 3/20)

Los Angeles Times: Children On Skid Row: Four Migrant Families Form A Tenuous Community
When the big green sanitation trucks rumbled up, eight of the 10 children living in the Skid Row encampment were away at school, easing the stress on the four sets of parents as they stuffed their belongings into plastic bags and storage boxes and dismantled their tents. Sanitation workers told them they couldn’t keep a canopy that sheltered their cooking area or the plastic pallets they used to keep their bedding off the cold concrete. Those minimal comforts were soon swallowed up by the trucks. (Vives and Smith, 3/21)

CNN: People With Darker Skin Are 32% More Likely To Have Pulse Oximeter Readings Overestimate Oxygen Levels, Report Says
Scientists have long known that pulse oximeters are less accurate when used for people with dark skin tones – and now, a new report offers some insight into just how much more inaccurate these fingertip clamps can be. (Howard, 3/20)

Axios: Doctors Less Likely To Respond To Black Patients' Emails, Study Suggests
Black patients at large health systems may be less likely than white patients to get responses from doctors to emailed questions, a new JAMA Network Open study suggests. (Goldman, 3/21)

Reuters: Trump Signals Support For 15-Week National Abortion Ban
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he was leaning toward a 15-week national ban on abortion but supports exceptions for rape, incest and saving the life of the mother because "you have to win elections." (Chiacu and Oliphant, 3/20)

The Washington Post: Women Are Getting Off Birth Control Amid Misinformation Explosion
Search for birth control on TikTok or Instagram and a cascade of misleading videos vilifying hormonal contraception appear: Young women blaming their weight gain on the pill. Right-wing commentators claiming that some birth control can lead to infertility. Testimonials complaining of depression and anxiety. Instead, many social media influencers recommend “natural” alternatives, such as timing sex to menstrual cycles — a less effective birth-control method that doctors warn could result in unwanted pregnancies in a country where abortion is now banned or restricted in nearly half the states. (Weber and Malhi, 3/21)

Voice Of San Diego: Dems To Issa: Are You In Or Out On Border Sewage Fix? 
As Congress barrels toward finishing a massive spending bill by Friday, some wonder whether California Rep. Darrell Issa supports emergency funding to fix a broken wastewater plant at the border that’s key to keeping Tijuana sewage out of San Diego. “Inland dude, Darrell Issa, has decided to now get involved in the sewage issue by making it as hard as possible to fix a broken sewage plant. Thanks dude,” wrote Serge Dedina, former mayor of Imperial Beach, the California town most blighted by Tijuana’s border sewage spills, on X in response to a Voice of San Diego story on the matter. (Elmer, 3/20)

Voice of OC: Costa Mesa Eyes Limiting Number Of Cannabis Shops
Costa Mesa City Council members are looking to limit the number of retail cannabis shops to 35 after city officials began questioning just how many should operate within the city. Officials are also eying how close the shops should sit next to homes, youth centers and other cannabis storefronts. (Gradillas, 3/21)

Los Angeles Times: Starbucks' Extra Charge For Nondairy Milks Stirs Up Lawsuit 
The cost to drink a milk-based Starbucks Frappuccino goes beyond the $5-plus price tag for California residents Maria Bolliger, Dawn Miller and Shunda Smith. All three are either lactose intolerant or have a milk allergy. Ingesting any milk product, they say, can result in issues including stomach pain, digestive tract inflammation, bowel irregularities and even vomiting. (Campa, 3/20)

CalMatters: California Spends More On Schools With The Neediest Kids. Here’s How It’s Succeeded, And Failed.
A decade after California revolutionized the way it funds schools, nearly everyone agrees the initiative has done what it was meant to do: improved math and reading scores and brought more resources to students who struggle the most. And nearly everyone also agrees that the Local Control Funding Formula, as it’s known, could use a tune-up. Black and Latino students’ test scores have improved but still lag behind their white and Asian peers, and schools in affluent areas still spend far more per student than schools in poorer neighborhoods. (Jones, 3/20)

Politico: CDC: US Life Expectancy Rises After 2-Year Dip
U.S. life expectancy increased for the first time in two years, according to a new report by the CDC. The report, released Thursday, marks a notable reversal: People born in the U.S. in 2022 can expect to live 77.5 years, an increase from 76.4 in 2021. Life expectancy had dropped in 2020 and 2021, which experts have said was driven by Covid-19 deaths and drug overdoses. The 2021 life expectancy report — a decline from 77 years to 76.4 years — marked the lowest U.S. life expectancy since 1996. (Cirruzzo, 3/21)

NBC News: Aggressive Colon Cancer: Newly Identified Bacteria Found In Half Of Tumors May Drive Growth
A type of bacteria that causes dental plaque may be behind a treatment-resistant form of colorectal cancer, a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature found. The particular bacterium, which appears to shield tumor cells from cancer-fighting drugs, was found in 50% of the tumors tested in the study. The discovery, experts say, could pave the way for new treatments and possibly new methods of screening. (Sullivan, 3/20)