Becker's Hospital Review: Isolated California Hospital Gets $2M From Payer To Stave Off Closure
L.A. Care Health Plan is giving Avalon, Calif.-based Catalina Island Health hospital a $2 million grant to help stay afloat as the hospital looks to make an affiliation arrangement. Jason Paret, CEO of Catalina Island Health, told the Avalon City Council in January that the hospital was running out of money and might not be able to stay open past June, according to a Jan. 12 report from the Catalina Islander. (Cass, 4/11)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Anonymous FPPC Complaint Targets Palomar Health Management Agreement 
An anonymous complaint to the California Fair Political Practices Commission seeks to invalidate a recently approved management agreement between Palomar Health and a private not-for-profit corporation, alleging conflicts of interest and violations of the state public meetings law. (Sisson, 4/11)

CNN: Medicaid: 20 Million People Lost Their Coverage In The Last Year. Here’s What Happened To Them 
Justin Gibbs had finally gotten his high blood pressure under control with a combination of three medications. But after he had his Medicaid coverage terminated in December amid a nationwide eligibility review, he had to go without one medication for a week and a second for several days, sparking fears that the delicate balance would unravel. (Luhby, 4/12)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Physician Pay Needs Fixes, Senators Say
Doctors have long lamented that Medicare fails to pay enough to meet rising costs. Key members of the Senate Finance Committee said Thursday they agreed, and pledged to do something about it. "The way traditional Medicare pays physicians to manage and treat these conditions has not kept up with the times," Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said at a hearing on bolstering pay for treating chronic care. "It is now time to act once more." (McAuliff, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Benefit Cuts Possible Following Rate Reduction 
A modest cut to the base Medicare Advantage payment rate next year may compel health insurance companies to carry out threats to scale back benefits, hike premiums and reduce provider payments. Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized a 0.16% cut to the benchmark Medicare Advantage rate, which excludes risk adjustment payments, in 2025. It was the second consecutive year the agency reduced payments and the first time since 2018 that it didn't offer a higher rate in the final rule than it proposed. (Tepper, 4/11)

Axios: Medicare Floats Incentive For Hospitals To Offer New Sickle Cell Treatments
Hospitals within months could get extra federal money to administer pricey new gene therapies for sickle cell disease, including the first CRISPR-based treatment. The Medicare proposal would provide more incentive to offer the multimillion-dollar gene therapies when about half of those living with sickle cell are lower-income people on Medicaid. (Goldman, 4/11)

KVPR: The VA Has Its Fix For A Home Loan Debacle, But Many Vets Who Got Hurt Won't Get Help
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a long-awaited new program on Wednesday to help thousands of veterans who were left on the verge of losing their homes after a pandemic aid effort went awry. But it appears that many who were harmed financially won't qualify to get this new help. (Arnold and Lawrence, 4/11)

CIDRAP: CDC: Spike In Measles Cases Poses Threat To US Elimination Status 
A rapid rise in measles cases in the first months of 2024 threatens the United States' elimination status, a situation the nation hasn't faced since 2019, when prolonged outbreaks posed a similar problem, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today. CDC scientists from the group spelled out the warning today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). In their analysis of measles activity from January 1, 2020, to March 28, 2024, they said cases in the first quarter of 2024 have risen 17-fold compared to the mean first-quarter average from 2020 to 2023. (Schnirring, 4/11)

AP: US Measles Cases Are Up In 2024. What's Driving The Increase? 
Nationwide, measles cases already are nearly double the total for all of last year. The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention documented 113 cases as of April 5. There have been seven outbreaks and most of U.S. cases — 73% — are linked to those flare-ups. Still, the count is lower than some recent years: 2014 saw 667 cases and 2019 had 1,274. The 2019 measles epidemic was the worst in almost three decades, and threatened the United States’ status as a country that has eliminated measles by stopping the continual spread of the measles virus. (Shastri and Stobbe, 4/11)

Roll Call: CDC Moves Forward On Data-Sharing — Without Congress 
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s mpox outbreak, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen is updating the agency’s data-sharing strategy for the next two years — with a focus on what the agency can do without congressional help. (Cohen, 4/11)

CNN: Avian Flu: What To Know About The Bird Flu Outbreak In The US, According To A Doctor 
A worker on a dairy farm in Texas tested positive for the avian flu, only the second case of a person in the United States who has contracted the H5N1 influenza strain. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the person was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus and was recovering with mild symptoms. (Hetter, 4/11)

NPR: What Bird Flu's Spread Among Dairy Cattle Tells Us About Its Risk To Humans
The outbreak of bird flu in dairy cattle is still unfolding. Both North Carolina and South Dakota have detected the virus in dairy herds, bringing the total number of states affected to eight. The unlikely spread among cattle and one dairy worker has scientists looking through the data to better understand this spillover. They say the risk to humans hinges on whether the virus can evolve in key ways to better infect mammals. (Stone, 4/11)

USA Today: O.J. Simpson Died From Prostate Cancer: Why Many Men Don't Talk About This Disease
O.J. Simpson, the football star and actor whose life took a shocking turn when he was accused of stabbing to death his ex-wife and a man who was with her the night of the killings, died of prostate cancer at the age of 76. The news has come as a surprise to many, as Simpson kept his prostate cancer diagnosis out of the spotlight, even assuring his X followers his "health is good" in a video in February, his last post on the social media site before his death. According to men's health experts, it's common for men to struggle sharing their health problems publicly, in part, due to our culture's view of masculinity. (Trepany, 4/12)

Fox 13 News: How OJ Simpson’s Trial Changed Perceptions Around Domestic Violence
For a while, OJ Simpson seemed to have it all, but the double murder trial brought domestic violence out of the darkness as the nation learned details of years of abuse that his ex-wife suffered. Survivor advocates said it sparked conversations and changes that are present today.  (Arradondo, 4/11)

Spectrum Local News: Lead detective in O.J. Simpson case discusses domestic violence awareness
Tom Lange was the detective on the line with Simpson during the famous Bronco chase and is credited with talking O.J. out of taking his own life during that nationally televised chase. “This case hasn’t changed that there’s still domestic violence and people need to wake up to that," Lange said. “I am behind any movement that helps support the prevention of domestic violence. It’s a real thing and people should be aware of it.” (Wright, 4/11)

NPR: How The Comstock Act Could Be Used To Ban Abortion Nationwide 
According to legal experts, the Comstock Act could be used to stop virtually all abortion in the country, including in places it is currently legal. ... Here's what you need to know about the Comstock Act, and what the consequences would be if it is enforced the way some conservatives would like. (Kurtzleben, 4/10)

NBC News: Chlamydia Vaccine Shows Promise In Early Trial
An early-stage clinical trial yielded promising results for a chlamydia vaccine, researchers reported Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. There is currently no vaccine to protect against the sexually transmitted infection, which is the most common bacterial STI in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2022, there were more than 1.6 million cases. (Syal, 4/11)

CBS News: Hundreds Of Drugs Are In Short Supply Around The U.S., Pharmacists Warn
A growing number of drugs are in short supply around the U.S., according to pharmacists. In the first three months of the year, there were 323 active medication shortages, surpassing the previous high of 320 shortages in 2014, according to a survey by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and Utah Drug Information Service. It also amounts to the most shortages since the trade group started keeping track in 2001. (Gibson, 4/11)

NPR: Lung Cancer Survival Rates Are Up Thanks To Immunotherapy, Other New Treatments
Denise Lee grew up in Detroit in the mid-1970s and went to an all-girls Catholic high school. She smoked her first cigarette at age 14 at school, where cigarettes were a popular way of trying to lose weight. Instead, her nicotine addiction lasted four decades until she quit in her mid-50s. "At some point it got up as high as 2.5 packs a day," Lee, 62, recalls. (Noguchi, 4/12)

The Washington Post: Some Disney Fans Abused Disability Access To Skip Lines. Now Rules Are Changing.
Disney will soon change its policies for theme park visitors with disabilities, restricting eligibility for services that help some people avoid waiting in line for rides. The updates, which the company posted on park websites this week, have created a wave of uncertainty among fans, who are left wondering whether they’ll be able to continue using the disability access service known as DAS. The shift comes as Disney acknowledges that some customers have misused the program; the company has already taken some steps to crack down on abuse. (Sampson, 4/11)

Los Angeles Times: Eaze Cannabis Delivery Drivers Threaten Strike Ahead Of Annual Pot Day
California cannabis delivery company Eaze may face a work stoppage by April 20, a peak sales time for weed businesses. Nearly 600 cannabis delivery drivers and depot staff across California who work at Eaze and its subsidiary Stachs are represented by various locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. (Hussain, 4/11)

CalMatters: Prop. 1's Success Hinges On California Clearing The 'Human Logjam' In Its Mental Health System
The narrow passage of Proposition 1 showed that Californians are skeptical of expensive initiatives to fix homelessness. To make these investments work, the state needs to do more than just pay for new beds – it needs to change how people get into them. (Alex Barnard, 4/8)

CalMatters: California Audit Says Results On Homelessness Are Unclear. The Numbers Tell A Different Story
California has created many programs to battle the scourge of homelessness, but a new audit says the agency created to coordinate those programs has failed to do its job. (Dan Walters, 4/10)

Los Angeles Times: I Was Homeless In College. California Can Do More For Students Who Sleep In Their Cars 
California has an unhoused population of more than 181,000, many of them students. An estimated one in five of the state's 2 million community college students are unhoused; overall, students are more likely to experience homelessness if they are LGBTQ+, Black or Indigenous. Colleges here have grappled with how best to support students on campus who live in their cars. (Kate Gale, 4/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Brain Imaging Has Promise To Improve Mental Health Treatment For Kids. Here's Why. 
I am the director of San Diego State University’s Translational Emotion Neuroscience and Development (TEND) Lab. I am on the vanguard of a scientific movement to address this youth mental health crisis by leveraging brain imaging. (Jillian Lee Wiggins, 4/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: As A Doctor And TikTok Creator, I'm Torn Over The House Bill To Ban It
Two years ago, I decided to start a social media account with a medical school classmate to answer common questions we got from our patients. “Is my back pain from kidney disease? Should I worry about my cold lasting more than a week?” Our patients were finding medical information websites like WebMD more confusing and anxiety-provoking, often needlessly spending hours in waiting rooms to see us. TikTok quickly became our platform of choice. It was by far the easiest to record, edit and share our content. (Jason Bae, 4/8)

The Guardian: OJ Simpson Died The Comfortable Death In Old Age That Nicole Brown Should Have Had
Simpson died in bed, receiving medical care to make him comfortable, at the end of his natural life. He had reached old age; we can infer that when he took his last breaths, he was surrounded by well wishes and love. His was a very different death from the one he allegedly inflicted on his former wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman. They did not die in bed; they probably died screaming. And for Nicole, at least, her death was the culmination of a years-long campaign of terrorism that OJ had waged against her since they met; it was the moment their whole relationship had been leading to. (Moira Donegan, 4/12)