San Diego Union-Tribune: El Cajon Considers Charging Nursing Homes For Excessive 911 Calls 
As the ambulance crew rushed into the El Cajon nursing home in response to a 911 call about a medical emergency, they expected to find a person suffering a stroke, in cardiac arrest or bleeding and seriously injured. Instead, they found someone in need of a prescription refill. (Warth, 10/19)

Becker's Hospital Review: Prime's $375M Acquisition Would Bring Epic EHR System To 9 Illinois Hospitals
Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare plans to acquire nine Illinois hospitals and various post-acute facilities from St. Louis-based Ascension for a base purchase price of $375.8 million, a spokesperson for the health system confirmed to Becker's. "As part of this transaction, Prime has committed to maintaining high levels of charity care, community benefit programs and preserving these facilities' roles as essential community partners," the health system said in a statement. "Prime will invest $250 million to fund capital improvements, including technology upgrades and system enhancements, to ensure continued access to quality care for Illinois communities." (Condon, 10/18)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Replacing Karen Lynch With David Joyner Surprises Analysts
With Karen Lynch out and David Joyner up at CVS Health, Wall Street analysts expressed mixed sentiments about the company’s decision to promote internally but haven’t changed their long-term outlook on the healthcare giant. Lynch, whom Joyner replaced as president and CEO on Thursday, faced a deluge of challenges during her three-year tenure leading CVS Health. (Berryman, 10/18)

The New York Times: In L.A., Street Psychiatrists Offer The Homeless A Radical Step Forward
In a downtown Los Angeles parking lot, a stretch of asphalt tucked between gleaming hotels and the 110 freeway, a psychiatrist named Shayan Rab was seeing his third patient of the day, a man he knew only as Yoh. Yoh lived in the underpass, his back pressed against the wall, a few feet from the rush of cars exiting the freeway. He made little effort to fend for himself, even to find food or water. When outreach workers dropped off supplies, he often let people walk away with them. He could barely converse, absorbed by an inner world that he described in fragments: a journey to Eden, a supersonic train, a slab of concrete hanging in space. (Barry, 10/20)

KQED: SF Has Ramped Up Homeless Sweeps. This Nonprofit Sees Another Way
As he walks down Jones Street in the Tenderloin, Russell Roberts pauses to strike up conversation with a couple leaning against a corner apartment building and hands them some fruit snacks. “Do you all have housing?” he asks after a few minutes. Trisha and Jay tell Roberts, who is making his rounds as a community ambassador with the San Francisco anti-poverty nonprofit GLIDE, that they signed up a couple of weeks ago and were waiting for an update. They had been on a city program that provides cash assistance to low-income residents, they say, but Jay missed his most recent check-in, so he lost his eligibility. (DeBenedetti, 10/19)

Bay Area Reporter: Leader Of SF LGBTQ Senior Services Agency Departs
The leader of a San Francisco nonprofit that provides services to LGBTQ seniors has resigned after little more than three years in the job. The news comes as the agency's affordable housing development partner has been unable to secure the financing it needs to construct a new tower of apartments aimed at queer and trans older adults. When Openhouse announced the hiring of Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D., as its new executive director, it had highlighted her work in affordable housing, as the Bay Area Reporter reported in June 2021. Sullivan had relocated from Portland, Oregon with her wife in order to start in the position that July. (Bajko, 10/18)

Los Angeles Times: Judge Orders VA To Build Housing On UCLA Baseball Parking Lot
In a matter of months, if a federal judge’s order holds up, the parking lot for UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Baseball Stadium will be filled with modular housing. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to select a vendor within a week and have a contract three weeks after that. Thirty-two of them would occupy the parking lot of the baseball complex that Carter ordered shuttered in September and the rest would be placed on two other parcels of the VA’s West Los Angeles campus. (Smith, 10/21)

The New York Times: Veterans Dept. Investigating Acadia Healthcare For Insurance Fraud 
The Veterans Affairs Department is investigating whether Acadia Healthcare, one of the country’s largest chains of psychiatric hospitals, is defrauding government health insurance programs by holding patients longer than is medically necessary, according to three people with knowledge of the inquiry. The investigation, led by the agency’s inspector general, comes three weeks after Acadia told investors that it was facing scrutiny for its admissions practices from several other federal investigators, including prosecutors in Manhattan and a grand jury in Missouri. The company, which relies on government insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid for much of its revenue, said it was also expecting to receive inquiries from the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies. (Silver-Greenberg and Thomas, 10/18)

Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles Investigating Lead-Tainted Drinking Water
Days after the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency visited a Los Angeles public housing project with lead-contaminated water, the agency ordered drinking water systems nationwide to replace every lead pipe within 10 years. ... But in Los Angeles — where the discovery of contaminated water in public housing in Watts has shocked officials — the EPA mandate is unlikely to result in immediate change. (Briscoe, James and Plevin, 10/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Hospitals Report 58 Percent Increase In Border Wall Trauma Falls 
So far in 2024, severe injuries caused by falls from the U.S.-Mexico border wall are up 58 percent compared to 2023, and that number will increase, as the annual total for this year is not yet complete. These numbers come from Scripps Mercy Hospital and UC San Diego Medical Center. Together, the two Hillcrest hospitals provide trauma services for a 30-mile stretch of the border from the Pacific Ocean to Tecate. (Sisson, 10/20)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Archdiocese Has Spent $1.5 Billion Over Molestation By Priests
Clergy sex abuse scandals have rocked Catholic churches across the world, but few places have seen the financial toll of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. With a record $880-million settlement with victims announced this week, the Los Angeles Archdiocese has now paid out more than $1.5 billion. The bill reflects its rank as the largest archdiocese in the nation, with more than 4 million members, and a California law that gave accusers more time to file suit. (Winton and Fry, 10/19)

Los Angeles Times: Alternatives Emerge Amid Concerns Over Silicosis And Engineered Stone
Companies that manufacture slabs of engineered stone, a popular choice for kitchen and bathroom countertops, are developing and marketing new products amid mounting concerns about stonecutters being sickened with a deadly lung disease. The new alternatives boast reduced levels of crystalline silica, a mineral that can cause an incurable disease called silicosis if workers inhale tiny particles of dust from cutting and grinding stone. (Alpert Reyes, 10/21)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Whooping Cough Cases Reported At 2 Sonoma County High Schools 
A handful of high school students in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol have come down with or been exposed to whooping cough, which is at its highest level of infection since 2014. Two students at Montgomery High School contracted the highly contagious infection, a Santa Rosa City Schools official said. (Gutierrez, 10/18)

CIDRAP: CDC Reports Rising Levels Of Mycoplasma Pneumonia And RSV In Young Kids 
Though the nation’s respiratory disease levels remain low overall, with COVID levels declining and little sign of a flu uptick, illnesses caused by Mycobacterium pneumoniae are increasing, especially in children, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) levels are also on the rise, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in it weekly respiratory virus update. (Schnirring, 10/18)

CBS News: Mosquitoes That Transmit Yellow Fever, Zika Found In Contra Costa County
Yellow fever, dengue Fever, Zika, those are serious diseases that usually occur in far-away tropical environments, but Contra Costa County officials sounded the alarm that the mosquitoes that transmit these viruses have been found in the area. Now, they're preparing a major offensive to try to kill them before they begin hibernating for the winter. "We have found invasive mosquitoes in Antioch, and it's the species aedes aegypti, which is the yellow fever mosquito," said Contra Costa Vector Control District G.M. Paula Macedo. "This is not a mosquito that we've had here before." (Ramos, 10/20)

Los Angeles Times: As Bird Flu Outbreaks Rise, Piles Of Dead Cattle Seen In Central Valley
There’s a sickness hovering over Tulare County‘s dairy industry. On a recent 98-degree afternoon, dead cows and calves were piled up along the roadside. Thick swarms of black flies hummed and knocked against the windows of an idling car, while crows and vultures waited nearby — eyeballing the taut and bloated carcasses roasting in the October heat. Since the H5N1 bird flu virus was first reported in California in early August, 124 dairy herds and 13 people — all dairy workers — have been infected. (Rust, 10/20)

Fresno Bee: Avian Flu Spreads In California Dairies, Posing Potential Threat 
In California, the leading milk producer in the U.S., the insidious virus has hit hard, infecting 110 livestock herds, and 11 dairy workers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Rodriguez, 10/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Rural California Abortion Clinics Challenge State Reputation As Haven
In a state that presents itself as a safe sanctuary for abortion, the intensifying protests here are a prime example of how that image is not universal — especially in far-flung areas. And how it can be terrifying for women who see clinics like this as their only practical choice for abortion care. (Fagan, 10/20)

NPR: Biden Administration Proposes A Rule To Make Over-The-Counter Birth Control Free
The Biden administration is proposing a rule that would expand access to contraceptive products, including making over-the-counter birth control and condoms free for the first time for women of reproductive age who have private health insurance. Under the proposal by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor Department, and Treasury Department, which was announced by the administration on Monday, health insurance companies would be required to cover all recommended over-the-counter contraception products. (Duster, 10/21)

NPR: Why Catholic Bishops Are Donating Less To Oppose Abortion Rights Measures This Year 
The Catholic Church has long been one of the most powerful opponents of abortion in the United States. In fact, it’s one of the largest private entities bankrolling campaigns against abortion rights. But Catholic bishops are taking a very different approach this year, according to an analysis by NPR and Religion News Service. As voters in 10 states consider abortion-related ballot questions, Catholic bishops have spent millions less on donations to anti-abortion campaigns than in previous years, according to public financial documents. (Westwood and Jenkins, 10/20)

Newsweek: Abortion Overtakes Immigration In Voters' Minds 
Abortion has overtaken immigration to become the second most important issue for voters heading into the 2024 election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Newsweek polling suggests. Over the past 16 months, a series of polls conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies ahead of the November 5 election asked participants: "Which issues are most likely to determine how you vote in the November 2024 Presidential Election? You may select up to three." Only four issues out of 24 were repeatedly selected by more than two in five respondents: the economy, abortion, immigration and healthcare. (10/21)

Politico: The Voter Gender Gap Is Growing, And Harris' Abortion Rights Campaign Could Make It Even Wider
When one of Kamala Harris’ pollsters asked a small group of women in a focus group in February to describe Donald Trump’s position on abortion, most said they thought he was “pro-choice.” But then the pollster, working for Harris and President Joe Biden when he was still atop the ticket, played a clip of Trump saying “there should be some form of punishment” for women who have an abortion. (Schneider and Ward, 10/20)

Stat: RFK Jr. And Trump's 'Make America Healthy Again' Raising Alarm
One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s longtime dreams seems to be coming true: He’s on a potentially winning president’s team, and he’s pretty sure he’ll get a top-ranking job out of it. But his ascension in Trump’s orbit has triggered alarm from leaders in the industry and even from some former GOP health officials who fear that Kennedy’s history of vaccine skepticism could delegitimize Trump’s genuine health care goals — or eclipse his previous health care wins, like a record-breaking vaccine effort. (Owermohle, 10/18)

Politico: Trump, 78, Says He’s ‘Not That Close To 80’ As He Brags About WSJ’s Cognitive Praise 
Donald Trump is rounding down when it comes to his age. “I'm not 80, and I'm not that close to 80,” the 78-year-old former president said during a friendly town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. Trump made the comments after Right Side Broadcasting Network host Sage Steele asked him about his recent sit-down with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board. He called the resulting piece a “beautiful story” because it concluded he had zero signs of mental decline. (Leonard, 10/20)

Los Angeles Times: Harris Revives Attacks On Trump As Mentally Unfit
Entering the final stretch of the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris is focusing on a simple message that she believes will resonate with undecided swing state voters: that former President Trump mentally unfit for office. Her argument is partly that the 78-year-old Trump has lost mental acuity on account of his advanced age, as was the chief line of attack that pushed President Biden from the race. (Rector, 10/18)

The Washington Post: Serious Infections Linked To Dementia Risk, Study Shows
Getting sick feels bad in the moment and may affect your brain in the longer term. A new study published in Nature Aging adds to growing evidence that severe infections, including flu, herpes and respiratory tract infections, are linked to accelerated brain atrophy and increased risk of dementia years later. It also hints at the biological drivers that may contribute to neurodegenerative disease. (Sima, 10/18)

Fox News: New Alzheimer’s Research Reveals ‘Quiet’ Phase Of The Disease
New details have emerged about how Alzheimer’s disease affects the brain. Researchers led by the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle and University of Washington Medicine have identified cellular changes in the brains of people with the disease — and a timeline of when they occur. "Instead of looking at AD just through the usual lens of plaques and tangles, we focused on how specific cell types were changed in each phase," study author Dr. Kyle Travaglini, Ph.D., a scientist at Allen Institute, told Fox News Digital via email. (Rudy, 10/18)