CIDRAP: Avian Flu Infects 2 More Dairy Workers In California's Central Valley 
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today reported two more H5 avian influenza infections, both confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), raising the state's total to 15. ... The newly confirmed California cases raise the US number of human H5 infections this year to 27, which doesn't yet include four presumptive positive cases reported in poultry workers in Washington state. (Schnirring, 10/23)

VC Star: Bird Flu Hits Central Valley Poultry Farm As Dairy Outbreaks Continue. Here's What To Know
Bird flu has spread to a poultry farm in Tulare County and continues to hit more San Joaquin Valley dairies and dairy workers. (Pastis and Ward, 10/23)

Fresno Bee: Avian Flu Decimates Tulare County Chicken Operation As Thousands Of Birds Are Killed
An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza has led to the destruction of 786,600 broiler chickens at a Tulare County ranch, marking the second poultry outbreak in about a month in the Central Valley of California. (Rodriguez, 10/23)

Reuters: Exclusive: State And Industry Input Led US Farm Agency To Relax Bird Flu Testing Order For Cows 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture weakened an emergency order last spring designed to prevent the spread of bird flu among the nation's dairy cattle after pushback from state and industry officials, according to state and federal records seen by Reuters. (Douglas and Polansek, 10/23)

Becker's Hospital Review: Moody's Downgrades California System's Rating
Moody's downgraded Escondido-based Palomar Health's rating to "B2" from "Baa3." The downgrade reflects "very thin" cash balances, ongoing cash flow losses and Moody's expectation that June 30, 2024 covenants will be breached, the ratings agency said in an Oct. 22 report. (Cass, 10/23)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Graybill Medical Group Operations To Stay Put At Existing Locations 
Palomar Health Medical Group has dropped plans to take over operations at Graybill Medical Group locations in North County, but is mum on why the change occurred. (Sisson, 10/23)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Nurse Navigator Program Expands Throughout East County 
A program credited with reducing trips to emergency rooms and saving patients and emergency services more than $700,000 over the past 20 months is significantly expanding in East County. (Warth, 10/23)

Becker's Hospital Review: Hospital Teams Up With 'Sesame Street': 6 Things To Know
A California hospital's work with "Sesame Street" is helping advance digital health. ... Children's Hospital Los Angeles recently connected Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces "Sesame Street," with Augment Therapy, a digital health startup the hospital helped develop through its KidsX Accelerator program. (Bruce, 10/23)

Becker's Hospital Review: 82% Of Healthcare Leaders See AI As Vital Amid Burnout Crisis
Eighty-two percent of healthcare leaders see AI as vital to their operations, while 67% recognize its potential role in alleviating the worsening burnout crisis that continues to impact the workforce, an Oct. 23 report from Innovaccer found. Innovaccer released its research report, "The State of AI During the Great Burnout in Healthcare," which features insights from 568 healthcare professionals at 386 U.S. healthcare organizations. The report focuses on the increasing reliance on AI to address administrative challenges, enhance operational efficiency, and reduce clinician burnout. (Diaz, 10/23)

Becker's Hospital Review: The Cost Of Burnout In Hospital Pharmacies
Occupational burnout costs a hospital with 50 pharmacists an estimated $269,580 in turnover expenses, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' burnout calculator. The calculator estimates the cost of occupational burnout by considering the number of pharmacists within an organization, turnover and occupational burnout rates, average salary and turnover costs. (Twenter, 10/23)

Modern Healthcare: Change Healthcare Breach Affected 30% Of US Population
It's official: The massive cyberattack against UnitedHealth Group unit Change Healthcare was the biggest healthcare data breach in history. The ransomware incident in February affected 100 million people, or nearly 30% of the U.S. population, according to the Breach Portal maintained by the Office for Civil Rights at the Health and Human Services Department. That's consistent with what CEO Andrew Witty told a House subcommittee in May, when he testified that the breach ensnared about one-third of the country. (Berryman, 10/23)

Politico: Dozens Of Former Officials Chart Course For Next Administration’s Cyber Policies 
Dozens of former federal officials from the last five presidential administrations have a plan for how the next administration should address cybersecurity issues — regardless of who takes office in January. The suggested plan of action, obtained first by POLITICO, is composed of around 40 recommendations put together by officials on both sides of the aisle and is aimed at creating a pathway forward to expand the Biden administration’s cyber policy work. Cyber threats span every sector and are a rare subject where bipartisanship often prevails both on Pennsylvania Avenue and on Capitol Hill. (Miller, 10/22)

Becker's Hospital Review: Why Hospital IT Is Susceptible To 'Rage Deletion'
It's not just cyberattacks. Hospital IT leaders have to be on the lookout for another way they could lose their data: "rage deletion." That happens when a disgruntled, departing employee erases important company data on the way out the door. (Bruce, 10/23)

Axios: Ghost Networks Deny Americans Mental Health Care: Lawsuit
The push for more transparency in the health system is increasingly taking aim at "ghost networks" — the inaccurate health provider directories that critics say are keeping Americans from getting mental health care. A lawsuit filed against Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield this week comes as Congress and the White House are stepping up efforts to require insurers to accurately account for which providers are in network. (Reed, 10/24)

The Texas Tribune: Costly Psychologist License Exam Tossed After Texas Protest
A costly proposed national certification exam for psychologists has been scrapped for now after Texas’s licensing authority led the fight against it by considering crafting a cheaper alternative to alleviate the mental health provider shortage. (Simpson, 10/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Exclusive: Medicare Paid Insurers Billions For Questionable Home Diagnoses, Watchdog Finds 
Private Medicare insurers got about $4.2 billion in extra federal payments in 2023 for diagnoses from home visits the companies initiated, even though they led to no treatment, a new inspector general’s report says. The extra payments were triggered by diagnoses documented based on the visits, including potentially inaccurate ones, for which patients received no other medical services, the report says. Insurers offering private plans under Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage, are paid more when patients have costly conditions. (Weaver and Mathews, 10/24)

CBS News: Preventing Data Breaches Key To Stopping Medicare Fraud
For the past six months, the CBS News Texas I-Team has spoken with more than a dozen Medicare recipients who reported fraudulent activity on their accounts. According to a federal government report, an estimated $60 billion is lost annually to Medicare fraud. Earlier this year, Medicare suspended the accounts of 11 medical suppliers suspected of fraudulently billing the government for nearly $3 billion worth of urinary catheters. One of these companies listed its headquarters at an office in Grand Prairie, but by the time their account was suspended, those in charge had long disappeared. (New, 10/23)

Modern Healthcare: 2025 Medicare Enrollment Period Busier Than Usual For Brokers
Medicare marketers expect shifts in the Medicare Advantage market to prove lucrative as beneficiaries react to changing benefits and less competition in certain regions, even though insurers such as Centene and Aetna have cut back on commissions. “We haven't seen this much disruption in years, where you have a lot of consumers who need to shop and likely need to make switches,” GoHealth CEO Vijay Kotte said. “We’re feeling pretty good.” The Medicare annual enrollment period began Oct. 15 and ends Dec. 7. (Tepper, 10/23)

Forbes: Trick Or Treat: The Fuss Over Medicare Advantage STAR Ratings
In the midst of open enrollment, there’s a lot of consumer (and investor) focus on Medicare Advantage STAR ratings that were announced earlier this month. STAR Ratings seem simple enough on the surface. Plans are rated by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high) based on a basket of measures that capture a Medicare Advantage health plan’s clinical performance and member experience. (Jain, 10/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: As COVID XEC Variant Spreads, Bay Area Officials Urge Vaccines
As winter approaches, health officials in the Bay Area are strongly encouraging residents to get vaccinated soon against both coronavirus and influenza. This is the ideal time for people to roll up their sleeves and get the shots in light of an expected winter respiratory virus surge, particularly due to the emergence of the XEC variant. (Vaziri, 10/23)

USA Today: Pneumonia, COVID Vaccine Guidance Changes For Older Adults
On Wednesday, members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to lower the recommended age for the pneumococcal vaccine from 65 to 50 and older. ... ACIP members also voted to recommend adults 65 and older get a second dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine this fall. Eligible patients should ask their provider the best time to take an additional dose. Health experts say older adults are more likely to experience the worst consequences of the virus: They're more likely to develop more severe cases, be hospitalized and die. (Rodriguez, 10/23)

Voice of OC: Irvine Officials Approve Plans To Develop Homeless Shelter
Irvine officials have approved the initial step in building the first homeless shelter in town — a location. The council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to approve a $20 million purchase of two adjacent buildings in the Irvine Business Complex. The homeless shelter is expected to offer beds in addition to medical care, case management and other services. (Hicks, 10/23)

Voice of San Diego: The Mayor Is Still Saying He Increased Shelter Capacity By 70 Percent. He Still Hasn’t
As a central component of his re-election campaign, Mayor Todd Gloria continues to claim he’s increased homeless shelter capacity by 70 percent. That claim is no more true now than it was in June 2023, when Voice of San Diego first fact checked it. (Huntsberry, 10/23)

Los Angeles Times: What Should L.A. Do About Homelessness? Renters And Homeowners Answer Differently, Poll Finds
Poll after poll shows that just about everyone in Los Angeles believes homelessness is one of the biggest problems facing the region. But a key factor determining what Angelenos believe needs to be done about it is whether they’re homeowners, according to a new USC survey. (Dillon, 10/24)

The Washington Post: Trump, Allies Lean Into Anti-Transgender Message In Final Campaign Pitch 
Donald Trump and other GOP candidates are increasingly targeting transgender people in the election campaign’s closing days, invoking them at rallies and pouring millions into advertising tying Democrats to transgender rights. At a recent Trump rally in Reno, Nev., the Trump campaign played a video that included Rachel Levine, the highest-ranking transgender official in the Biden administration, wishing people a happy Pride Month. The crowd booed. When the screen cut to a TikTok video of a drag queen, the crowd booed even louder. (Caldwell, Goodwin and McDaniel, 10/22)

The New York Times: U.S. Study On Puberty Blockers Goes Unpublished Because Of Politics, Doctor Says 
An influential doctor and advocate of adolescent gender treatments said she had not published a long-awaited study of puberty-blocking drugs because of the charged American political environment. The doctor, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, began the study in 2015 as part of a broader, multimillion-dollar federal project on transgender youth. ... The researchers followed the children for two years to see if the treatments improved their mental health. An older Dutch study had found that puberty blockers improved well-being, results that inspired clinics around the world to regularly prescribe the medications as part of what is now called gender-affirming care. But the American trial did not find a similar trend, Dr. Olson-Kennedy said in a wide-ranging interview. (Ghorayshi, 10/23)

Time: What A Harris Win Would Mean For Abortion
Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has positioned herself as the reproductive rights candidate, vowing to restore reproductive freedoms and garnering endorsements from organizations like the Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF), the Committee to Protect Health Care, and Reproductive Freedom for All. She has promised to support a bill restoring Roe’s protections or veto any national abortion ban. (Lee, 10/23)

Time: What A Trump Win Would Mean For Abortion
Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to say if he would veto a national ban if it crossed his desk as President—a scenario that’s highly unlikely unless Republicans earn significant majorities in both chambers of Congress. The Trump campaign did not answer this question in its statement. (Lee, 10/23)

NOTUS (Allbritton Journalism Institute): It’s Possible To Track Someone’s Personal Phone To An Abortion Clinic. And It’s Legal Too. 
A company got access to a mobile phone-tracking tool used by law enforcement and U.S. government agencies across the country. They found significant privacy vulnerabilities. (Tau, 10/23)

The Oaklandside: Oakland Considering Smoking Ban For Apartments And Bar Patios
City Councilmember Dan Kalb is trying to stub out cigarettes before he leaves office in a few months. The District 1 councilmember introduced legislation yesterday that would prohibit smoking or vaping anything — tobacco or cannabis — on the patio of a bar in Oakland. His proposal would also ban smoking tobacco inside apartments and condos. (Orenstein, 10/23)

Los Angeles Times: A Wave Of Listeria Recalls Shows Food Safety Will 'Never Be Perfect'
Deli meats, grab-and-go salads and frozen meals are staples of the modern American diet — convenient and inexpensive options that shoppers readily toss into their carts during grocery runs. But after hundreds of those products were flagged in major listeria-related recalls recently, nervous consumers have been left to scour their refrigerators for potentially tainted food as government inspectors try to piece together how the problems began. (Chang, 10/24)

The Washington Post: Waffle Recall Over Listeria Concerns Expanded To Many Other Griddle Items
TreeHouse Foods has expanded an earlier recall of frozen waffles to include all its griddle products, including Belgian waffles and pancakes, over possible listeria contamination. Though no illnesses have been reported, TreeHouse Foods has previously said that the breakfast products were widely distributed throughout the United States and Canada, primarily as private-label offerings by Walmart, Target, Tops, Harris Teeter, Publix and other large merchants. (Gregg, 10/22)

Bloomberg: McDonald’s Supplier Taylor Farms Recalls Onions To Fight E. Coli Outbreak
McDonald’s Corp. supplier Taylor Farms is recalling some yellow onion batches produced in a Colorado facility in response to a deadly E. coli outbreak at the burger chain. Taylor Farms, which supplied onions to the McDonald’s restaurants impacted by a multistate health investigation, said it hasn’t found traces of E. coli yet, but decided to pull the products “out of an abundance of caution.” Another of Taylor Farms’ big customers, US Foods Holding Corp., also told at least one restaurant it supplies to destroy the onions. (Shanker and Sirtori, 10/24)