San Francisco Chronicle: California Grower Recalls Carrots After Reported E. Coli Outbreak
Grimmway Farms of Bakersfield has issued a nationwide recall of organic whole and baby carrots that may have been contaminated with E. coli. The carrots were no longer available in grocery stores as of Saturday but may still be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers, the company said. (Hernandez, 11/17)

Los Angeles Times: Dozens Sickened, 1 Dead After Eating Carrots Contaminated With E. Coli
An outbreak of E. coli has infected dozens of people who ate bagged organic carrots, and one person died from the infection. Altogether, 39 people were infected and 15 were hospitalized in 18 states after eating organic whole and baby carrots sold by Grimmway Farms, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday. Grimmway Farms, based in Bakersfield, has recalled the carrots. (Bussewitz, 11/17)

Becker's Hospital Review: Ex-California Hospital CEO Sentenced In Corruption Case
Tulare (Calif.) County Superior Court on Nov. 14 sentenced a former hospital CEO for public corruption crimes related to his time at Healthcare Conglomerate Associates. Yorai "Benny" Benzeevi, MD, former CEO of HCCA, was sentenced to $2.4 million in restitution, which must be paid to Tulare Local Healthcare District ($2 million) and Lone Pine, Calif.-based Southern Inyo Healthcare District ($400,000). (Condon, 11/15)

Becker's Hospital Review: Dignity California Hospital Nurses To See 22% Wage Increase: 4 Notes
Nurses and licensed professionals at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Calif., voted Nov. 7 to ratify a new labor contract that includes wage increases. ... Registered nurses and licensed medical professionals will see wage increases of at least 22%, according to a Nov. 7 statement from SEIU Local 121RN shared with Becker's. (Kuchno, 11/15)

Fresno Bee: How Safe Is Your Hospital? Only 1 Fresno City Hospital Earns 'A' In National Report Care
Only one hospital in the city of Fresno got a top grade for patient safety in a nationwide report card. (Montalvo, 11/16)

Becker's Hospital Review: Cedars-Sinai COO Reflects On Healthcare Tech Failures
Allen Voskanian, MD, chief operating officer of Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, shared his perspective on the future of healthcare technology after attending Becker's Healthcare CEO/CFO Roundtable. Dr. Voskanian emphasized that the future of healthcare lies in solving "real" problems that benefit both patients and clinicians. He argued that successful innovations must integrate seamlessly into the healthcare ecosystem, reducing inefficiencies, administrative burdens, and access gaps. He also added that technologies that increase costs, create barriers, or fail to address critical pain points are unlikely to succeed. (Diaz, 11/15)

The New York Times: ChatGPT Defeated Doctors At Diagnosing Illness 
Dr. Adam Rodman, an expert in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, confidently expected that chatbots built to use artificial intelligence would help doctors diagnose illnesses. He was wrong. Instead, in a study Dr. Rodman helped design, doctors who were given ChatGPT-4 along with conventional resources did only slightly better than doctors who did not have access to the bot. And, to the researchers’ surprise, ChatGPT alone outperformed the doctors. “I was shocked,” Dr. Rodman said. (Kolata, 11/17)

Axios: COVID-Era Telehealth Prescribing Extended Again
The Drug Enforcement Administration and Health and Human Services ended an impasse over the virtual prescribing of controlled substances that threatened access to drugs like Adderall by extending pandemic-era flexibilities through the end of 2025. Keeping the status quo leaves the question of whether to make controlled substances available without an in-person doctor's visit for the Trump administration to decide. (Bettelheim and Goldman, 11/18)

Modern Healthcare: PBM Bill May Pass Congress As Part Of Telehealth Extension 
Congress has tried for much of the last two years to pass legislation to rein in pharmacy benefit managers, only to have negotiations fall just short. With lawmakers back for a post-election lame duck session, analysts see one last chance — but also a likelihood the effort may wait until Republicans take control of Capitol Hill next year. (McAuliff, 11/15)

Modern Healthcare: Eli Lilly Sues HHS, HRSA Over 340B Drug Program 
Eli Lilly sued the federal government as the pharmaceutical manufacturer tries to limit the discounts it provides to hospitals. The company on Thursday sued the Health and Human Services Department and its subagency the Health Resources and Services Administration, claiming the government cannot dictate how it distributes 340 drug discounts. Under the 340B program, drugmakers must sell discounted outpatient drugs to hospitals and clinics that treat many low-income patients to stay enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. (Kacik, 11/15)

The Washington Post: Easing EMS Access To Blood Could Save 10,000 U.S. Lives, Surgeons Say 
Up to 10,000 lives could be saved each year by improving access to blood in the field, a group of surgeons said in a news conference last month. The event, which took place at an American College of Surgeons clinical conference in San Francisco, emphasized how faster access to blood could improve survival during emergencies. (Blakemore, 11/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Experts Say RFK Jr. Can’t Easily Halt Kids’ Vaccinations In California
Vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced Thursday by President-elect Donald Trump, sent waves of trepidation throughout public health experts in California — where years of advocacy by doctors have led to some of the strongest childhood vaccination laws in the country. Known for promoting the discredited link between autism and childhood vaccines, Kennedy could be in the position to push for radically different public health policies — whether by backing executive orders, installing political appointees whose decisions weaken access and funding for vaccines, or undermining public trust in vaccination. (Ho, 11/15)

The Washington Post: Global Health Experts Sound Alarm Over RFK Jr., Citing Samoa Outbreak
Health officials around the world are alarmed over the likely impact of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a longtime vaccine skeptic who was tapped for the health secretary role this week — on global health. Experts from Samoa have been particularly vocal in sounding the alarm, citing the destructive impact of Kennedy’s rhetoric on the tiny Polynesian island nation. Warning that Kennedy will empower the global anti-vaccine movement and may advocate for reduced funding for international agencies, Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma, the director general of health for Samoa’s Health Ministry told The Washington Post that Kennedy “will be directly responsible for killing thousands of children around the world by allowing preventable infectious diseases to run rampant.” (Westfall and Sun, 11/15)

Stat: At HHS, RFK Jr. Could Strip Vaccine Manufacturers Of Legal Protection
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, has criticized laws that provide companies that make vaccines with protections from lawsuits. If he takes office, he has broad power to strip those protections, experts told STAT. Most routine vaccines have had protections from lawsuits for nearly 40 years, and vaccines developed to address emergencies have enjoyed protections for 20. For the most part, the programs have been uncontroversial. (Zhang, 11/15)

Bloomberg: Caroline Kennedy Calls Cousin RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Views Dangerous 
US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy described her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on vaccinations as “dangerous,” the latest public rebuke by a senior member of the storied family against the man Donald Trump has tapped for a key Cabinet post. Ambassador Kennedy said Monday that her uncle, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, had spent 50 years “fighting for affordable health care” in the US Senate. “It’s something that our whole family is so proud of,” she said. “I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure, and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country, and Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views,” she added. (Westcott, 11/17)

CBS News: Dr. Deborah Birx Says She Is "Excited" For Data-Driven Discussions In RFK Jr.'s Confirmation Hearings 
Dr. Deborah Birx, former White House Coronavirus response coordinator, said Sunday she is "excited" for the data on key health issues that will surface in Senate confirmation hearings for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick for Health and Human secretary who has spread false information on vaccines and autism. "I'm actually excited that in a Senate hearing he would bring forward his data and the questions that come from the senators would bring forth their data," Birx said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. (Maguire, 11/17)

CalMatters: How California Health Care Could Change After Trump's Return
The last time Donald Trump was president, his health care policies chipped away at the Affordable Care Act and helped eliminate federal abortion rights, leaving states to fill the gaps. In his second term, experts predict Trump’s agenda to be similar and warn that health care will get more expensive and harder to access for millions of people. Congressional Republicans, newly empowered by Trump’s victory and the Senate moving to GOP control, have made it clear that they intend to try to implement long-standing conservative goals that include decreasing government spending on health care and further dismantling abortion rights, which are currently protected in about half of the country, including California. (Hwang, 11/18)

Modern Healthcare: How RFK Jr.'s HHS Might Run Medicare And Medicaid
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a famous name and infamous views on vaccines, COVID-19 and other health issues. But the would-be Health and Human Services secretary is a virtual stranger to the healthcare sector. The former independent presidential candidate is President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead a department that regulates every aspect of healthcare and distributes more than $1 trillion a year in payments to providers and health insurance companies. Yet Kennedy's views on Medicare, Medicaid, the health insurance exchanges and other crucial programs are mostly unknown. (Turner and McAuliff, 11/15)

Roll Call: Future Of Medicare Drug Price Negotiations Murky Under Trump 
The future of one of President Joe Biden’s key domestic policy achievements — getting Medicare to negotiate drug prices — could either become part of the Biden administration’s legacy, get rolled back by the incoming Congress or be weakened by President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Trump has remained relatively mum about the drug pricing provisions of the 2022 reconciliation bill and its future appears even murkier now that Republicans will control both the House and Senate. (DeGroot and Hellmann, 11/15)

The New York Times: RFK Jr.'s Vow To Take On Big Food Could Face Resistance 
Boxes of brightly colored breakfast cereals, vivid orange Doritos and dazzling blue M&Ms may find themselves under attack in the new Trump administration. In excoriating such grocery store staples and their mysterious ingredients, Robert F. Kennedy tapped into a zeitgeist of widening appeal for healthy foods to curb obesity and disease that helped propel President-elect Donald J. Trump to select him to oversee the country’s vast health agency. (Jewett and Creswell, 11/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Dentists In Fluoride-Free Davis Worry About The Trend Spreading
With President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, many Americans are wondering whether they’re in for a future without fluoridated water. Kennedy, who has widely spread falsehoods about vaccines causing autism and other false medical claims, has vowed that the Trump administration will “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water” as soon as the 47th presidency begins. One place in the country that can offer a glimpse of the fluoride-free life sits just outside the Bay Area: Davis. (Burke, 11/18)

CNN: Doctors Say RFK Jr.’s Anti-Ozempic Stance Perpetuates Stigma And Misrepresents Evidence
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to tackle high rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services. They’re goals that many in the public health world find themselves agreeing with — despite fearing what else the infamous anti-vaccine activist may do in the post. Just don’t suggest that he tackle those goals with medications like Ozempic. (Tirrell, 11/17)

The Washington Post: Trump Picks Brendan Carr As FCC Chairman 
President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday he was naming Brendan Carr as the next Federal Communications Commission chairman, positioning the regulatory agency to do battle against social media companies and TV broadcasters that Republicans portray as too liberal. ... One issue on which Carr has been out of step with Trump is TikTok, which the president-elect has said he will “save” from a looming nationwide ban. Carr, an outspoken China hawk, has repeatedly called TikTok a danger to national security and has supported banning the app. (Dou and Lima-Strong, 11/17)

Axios: Abortion Pills May Be FDA's First Test Under Trump
While the early focus on a Trump administration Food and Drug Administration has been on vaccine policy, one of its first moves could be overhauling the federal rules that have made it easier to access the widely used abortion pill mifepristone. Use of the drug has surged as states enacted near or total abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. But new agency leadership could quickly move to roll back some of the policies that were the focus of a closely watched Supreme Court case this year. (Reed, 11/18)

Very Well Health: Do Abortion Pills Expire? What To Know About Stockpiling The Drugs
Mifepristone has about a five-year shelf life, and misoprostol lasts about two years. While having this medication on hand is important for some people, stockpiling the pills can lead to shortages. (Brown, 11/15)

CalMatters: DACA Immigrants Can Use Affordable Care Act. Will Trump Deter Them?
For the first time since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children can purchase subsidized health plans through Covered California, the state’s insurance marketplace. This move is expected to provide relief to thousands of so-called Dreamers, especially those who are freelancers, self-employed or have no other means of health coverage. (Ibarra, 11/18)

The Washington Post: Millions May Not Have Health Coverage If Subsidies Return To Pre-Biden Level
But eliminating the subsidy increase poses political risks. If subsidies fall to their pre-2021 level, experts say, many new subscribers would choose not to renew their coverage — the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that 3.4 million more people would become uninsured — and many of them live in states that lean heavily Republican. Health policy research organization KFF said that if the subsidy expansion expires, premiums would more than double in 12 heavily Republican states — including Texas, West Virginia and Alaska — while rising less sharply in many blue states. (Weil, 11/17)

Stat: Hospitals And Insurers Are Optimistic Republicans Will Extend ACA Subsidies
Enhanced tax credits that help millions of middle-income Americans afford health plans on the ACA’s individual marketplaces, signed into law by President Biden, expire at the end of 2025. Conservatives have railed against those subsidies as wasteful spending, but millions of people now depend on them: More than 21 million people had an ACA plan this year, compared with 12 million in 2021, when the enhanced subsidies started rolling out. And executives are banking on President-elect Trump and congressional Republicans not wanting to take the blame if millions of people who currently get these subsidies — many of whom live in red states — suddenly find themselves with coverage they can’t afford. (Herman, 11/18)

CBS News: The Social Security Fairness Act Is Now In The Hands Of The Senate. Here's What Could Happen Next. 
Efforts to get the Senate to vote on a bill to expand Social Security benefits are intensifying, as the House-passed Social Security Fairness Act enjoys rare bipartisan support but has only a short window of time — six weeks — to be passed. Decades in the making, the legislation would eliminate a provision that reduces Social Security payments to some retirees who also collect a pension from jobs that aren't covered by the retirement program, such as state and federal workers including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. It would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers' surviving spouses and family members. (Gibson, 11/15)

Los Angeles Times: Transgender Care In California Could Be Affected Under Trump
When Mars Wright saw that Donald Trump had been elected again as president, the 29-year-old Los Angeles artist and streetwear designer felt relieved he had already undergone surgeries for his gender transition. Wright, a transgender man, has chronicled his medical journey online, flexing and dancing to show how his body transformed after a masculinization procedure he nicknamed “Dorito chip” for the way it altered his shape. His surgery was covered under an L.A. Care plan he obtained through Covered California, the marketplace set up under the Affordable Care Act for Californians to purchase insurance. (Reyes, 11/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Cupertino Parents Demand Pronoun Curriculum Go 'Back In The Closet'
The last person to take the mic during public comment at the most recent Cupertino Union school board meeting came with an admonishment: Respect the families you are serving, she advised teachers and administrators. And if you disagree, keep it to yourself, said the woman, a parent in the school district, at the Nov. 7 meeting. She then encouraged the school board to pass a policy to “keep teacher’s individuality in the closet when it comes to age-appropriate sensitivity and controversial issues that don’t sit well with parents with young children.” (Allday, 11/18)

Voice of OC: Santa Ana To Consider Cracking Down On Homeless Encampments
Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua is calling on her colleagues to take stronger action against homeless encampments with a new ordinance – potentially joining a host of cities who have bolstered anti-camping laws in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year. ... The request comes months after the Supreme Court overturned a case that required cities to offer shelter to homeless people before they were allowed to clear them off the streets. (Elattar, 11/18)

Bay Area News Group: These Bay Area Counties Will Launch Mental Health 'CARE' Courts. Can They Help Solve Homelessness?
Statewide, most counties must launch CARE courts — conceived of by Gov. Gavin Newsom as part of a broader update to California’s mental health system — by Dec. 1. Some counties, including San Francisco and San Mateo, already have the new civil court process up and running. But so far, relatively few people have gone before a judge. (Varian, 11/18)

The New York Times: Liberal Berkeley’s Toughened Stance On Homeless Camps Is A Bellwether 
Berkeley, Calif., long associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, has a reputation for erring on the side of compassion when it comes to addressing drug use and homelessness. The city is such a liberal outlier that Vice President Kamala Harris downplayed her origins there as she tried to appeal to moderate American voters this year. So it came as a shock to Californians when Berkeley joined the scores of cities that have decided to tighten enforcement on homeless camps this year. In the coming weeks, Berkeley authorities plan to target two sprawling encampments that for years have generated waves of rats, fires, complaints and police calls. (Hubler, 11/16)

Voice of San Diego: San Diego’s District Attorney Is Ready To Fill Drug Courts
San Diego’s top prosecutor says her office is ready to start enforcing a new crime-fighting ballot measure that California voters overwhelmingly approved this month. “I met with my police chiefs and sheriffs to discuss how this would work and how to implement it with the intent that it has, which isn’t just to add numbers of people going to jail, but … to have leverage,” San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan told me in an interview last week. That leverage is not just stricter theft penalties, but options for fighting drug crimes; the new measure will push more defendants into drug courts, where they can get treatment instead of prison sentences. (Sullivan Brennan, 11/15)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Walking Pneumonia, Whooping Cough Surge In San Diego County 
San Diego County’s public health department warned local doctors Friday that the region is in the midst of a significant increase in walking pneumonia cases, especially among children age 2 to 4, echoing a national trend recently observed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this surge has not arrived alone. Whooping cough is also making a significant appearance this fall. (Sisson, 11/17)

Los Angeles Times: Wildfire Retardant Is Laden With Toxic Metals, Study Finds
The U.S. Forest Service and other agencies each year drop tens of millions of gallons of fire retardant, mostly an ammonium phosphate-based slurry called Phos-Chek, around wildfires to coat vegetation and slow the spread of flames. But a new study by researchers at USC has found that a popular variety is laden with toxic metals, and estimates retardant use has released 850,000 pounds of these chemicals into the environment since 2009. The results suggest the ecological consequences of retardant use merit further study, and that finding a cleaner product is probably worthwhile, said Daniel McCurry, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at USC and one of the study’s authors. (Wigglesworth, 11/16)

Los Angeles Times: O.C. Firefighter Who Feared He Was Paralyzed In Crash Walks Out Of Rehab
An Orange County firefighter who suffered spinal cord injuries in a September freeway rollover was released from a Colorado rehabilitation facility Friday. Firefighter Andrew Brown, who had feared being permanently paralyzed when his crew truck crashed returning from a wildfire, walked off a plane at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana to applause and cheers from family and fellow firefighters. (Ryan, 11/16)