Bay Area News Group: Santa Clara County Leaders Warn Of Disastrous Impacts If Massive Cuts Are Made To Medicaid
In California, nearly 15 million residents rely on Medicaid — referred to as Medi-Cal in the state — and in Santa Clara County, one out of every four residents is enrolled in the program. Nationally, more than 70 million Americans are covered by Medicaid. (Hase, 3/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: GOP Congressman Deflects On Medicaid Cuts, As Democrats Pounce
With billions in potential cuts to Medicaid and other social services about to come before Congress, California House members are trying to rally their constituents against the cuts — or explain them away. And as the forces align, there are early signs that floundering Democrats could be able to leverage the proposed cuts that will fund a massive tax cut for wealthy Americans to their political advantage. (Garofoli, 3/18)

Los Angeles Times: After Rift On Shutdown, California Democrats Refocus Budget Fight On Medicaid
After a bruising Washington battle that averted a government shutdown but broke their party in two last week, leading California Democrats are trying to project a unified front on a central issue in the next big budget fight: Medicaid. Republicans have already signaled their intention to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from the healthcare program for low-income residents, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich, the Democrats said — and must be stopped. (Rector, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Site Neutral Policies Emerging As Way To Fund Trump Tax Cuts
While congressional Republicans hunt for hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare cuts, an old, bipartisan idea seems poised for a comeback: "site-neutral" Medicare reimbursements for outpatient care. This policy, which the hospital sector opposes and health insurers endorse, would require health systems to charge the same prices for services whether they are performed in a hospital or another location. (McAuliff, 3/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Weighing Major Cuts To Funding For Domestic HIV Prevention
The Health and Human Services Department is weighing plans to drastically cut the federal government’s funding for domestic HIV prevention, according to people familiar with the matter. The plans could be announced as soon as within a day, the people said, but they haven’t been finalized and could be pulled back or adjusted. (Essley Whyte, Mosbergen and Rockoff, 3/18)

AP: Amid Elon Musk's DOGE Cuts, EPA Plans To Cut Scientific Research Program
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research office and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists — 75% of the research program’s staff — could be laid off, according to documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. (Daly, 3/18)

The New York Times: Elon Musk’s Role In Dismantling USAID Likely Violated Constitution, Judge Finds
Efforts by Elon Musk and his team to permanently shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development likely violated the Constitution “in multiple ways” and robbed Congress of its authority to oversee the dissolution of an agency it created, a federal judge found on Tuesday. The ruling, by Judge Theodore D. Chuang of U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, appeared to be the first time a judge has moved to rein in Mr. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency directly. (Montague, 3/18)

The New York Times: Judge Blocks Policy That Would Expel Transgender Troops 
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from banning transgender people from serving in the military. In a forcefully written opinion that rebuked the president’s effort, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued an injunction that allows trans troops to keep serving in the military, under rules that were established by the Biden administration, until their lawsuit against the Trump administration’s ban is decided. (Philipps, 3/18)

CBS News: FDA To Increase Testing For Heavy Metals In Infant Formula, RFK Jr. Says 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will step up its testing for heavy metals in infant formula and review nutrients required in the products used to feed millions of babies, the agency and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on Tuesday. The development came as Consumer Reports shared results on Tuesday of tests by the group that found found potentially harmful chemicals in roughly half of 41 infant formula products, including acrylamide, arsenic, BPA, lead and PFAS. The remaining products were found to have low levels of, or no, concerning chemicals. (Gibson, 3/18)

Los Angeles Times: California Puts $25 Million Toward Worker Safety Outreach After Fires
California officials on Tuesday announced $25 million in funding to help community organizations educate workers about their rights and workplace safety. Los Angeles area organizations were prioritized for a chunk of the funds — $6 million — to support workers involved in cleanup and rebuilding efforts after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires. California’s Department of Industrial Relations will allocate funds to 89 community organizations across the state, with some 21 in Los Angeles. The funding is part of a program called the California Workplace Outreach Project, first launched in 2021 to address COVID-19-related workplace risks. (Hussain, 3/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Are Republicans Cooling On Attaching Strings To California Fire Aid?
Two and a half months after wildfires ravaged Altadena and Pacific Palisades, political tempers have cooled and the appetite for conditioning federal aid to California has waned along with it. How long it could take for additional funding to come for the costliest natural disaster in state history, however, is still unclear. Gov. Gavin Newsom requested $40 billion in disaster funding for recovery from the Los Angeles County fires nearly a month ago, but little movement has been made. (Stein, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Psychiatric Hospital Plagued By Deaths. California Won't Help
For nearly a decade, Santa Rosa Behavioral employees and patients have pleaded for the California Department of Public Health to better protect the thousands of people treated inside the facility each year. The agency, which licenses hospitals and responds to patient and worker complaints, has documented dozens of violations at Santa Rosa Behavioral since it opened, many of them tied to understaffing. The failures have contributed to a litany of assaults, sexual abuses and potentially preventable deaths. (Palomino and Dizikes, 3/19)

Voice of San Diego: County’s Top Behavioral Health Official Resigns
San Diego County’s top behavioral health official is resigning amid significant uncertainty around federal funding and the rollout of a slew of major initiatives. Luke Bergmann, who has served as the county’s behavioral health services director for about six years, notified the county he “is leaving county service,” a county spokesperson confirmed late Tuesday. (Halverstadt, 3/18)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sonoma County Supervisors Approve New Health Services Director 
Sonoma County’s new health services director will step into his role April 1, leading one of the county’s largest and most embattled departments. (Murphy, 3/18)

Becker's Hospital Review: The 37 Health Systems Optum Recommends For Cancer Care In 2025
There are 37 health systems and medical centers [six in California] that Optum refers its payer and employer clients to for oncology care. Optum’s Centers of Excellence networks recognize providers that are clinically superior and offer cost-effective care for cancer, bariatric surgery, congenital heart disease, infertility, and transplants. The company conducts an annual evaluation process alongside a national panel of industry experts to assess providers across the country, which offers patients a wide range of benefits, including more accurate diagnoses, higher survival rates, and lower out-of-pocket costs. (Emerson, 3/18)

Becker's Hospital Review: Physician Compensation Reform Gains Steam
Physician compensation is due for transformation as the traditional models based on fee-for-service payments and work relative value units misalign incentives and add unnecessary complexity. “[Fee for service] remains the dominant system in the U.S. paying physicians and hospitals a set fee for each healthcare service provided. This approach rewards volume of services rather than quality and clinical outcomes,” Stephen Parodi, MD, executive vice president of external affairs, communications and brand of The Permanente Federation and The Permanente Medical Group based in Oakland, Calif., told Becker’s. “Unfortunately, the current approach is leading to higher costs and worse outcomes.” (Dyrda, 3/18)

VC Star: Ventura Receives Nearly $10 Million In Grant Funds To Address Homelessness
Ventura was awarded nearly $10 million in grant funding to address homelessness through the state's Housing and Community Development Encampment Resolution Funding Program. (Woods II, 3/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. To Stop Providing Free Foil And Pipes To Drug Users
The days of San Francisco service providers handing out free foil and pipes to drug users on the sidewalks may soon be over. Mayor Daniel Lurie is taking a new approach to addressing San Francisco’s drug crisis by going after a longstanding, but increasingly polarizing, city strategy focused on reducing the harms of drug use rather than pushing solely for abstinence. (Angst, 3/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Latest S.F. Data Shows More Drug Users Arrested Than Dealers This Year
The number of people in San Francisco arrested or cited for petty drug crimes — but not drug dealing — has jumped this year amid Mayor Daniel Lurie’s push to squash the city’s drug markets, new data from the San Francisco Police Department shows. A Chronicle analysis of police incident data comparing January and February of 2025 to the same periods in 2023 and 2024 found that arrests or citations for suspected drug violation incidents increased by almost 40% this year, from 692 arrests in 2024 to 963 in 2025. (Vainshtein, Echeverria and Angst, 3/18)

AP: OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma And Sackler Owners Submit New Settlement Plan
Purdue Pharma asked a bankruptcy judge late Tuesday to consider the latest version of its plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin, a deal that would have members of the Sackler family who own the company pay up to $7 billion. The filing is a milestone in a tumultuous legal saga that has gone on for more than five years. (Mulvihill, 3/19)

Bay Area News Group: Flu Deaths Continue To Climb In California, But Show Signs Of Slowing
The influenza virus has walloped the country this winter, causing twice as many deaths in California since the respiratory virus season began in July as the final tolls from the past several seasons. (Rowan, 3/19)

CNN: Multistate Measles Outbreak Climbs To 321 Cases 
Three hundred and twenty-one cases have been reported in the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, the states said Tuesday. This is an increase of 25 cases since an update on Friday. (Mukherjee, 3/18)

The New York Times: RFK Jr.’s Prescription For Bird Flu On Farms: Let It Spread
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has an unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip. Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,” Mr. Kennedy said recently on Fox News. (Mandavilli, 3/18)

CNN: As Bird Flu Continues To Spread, Trump Administration Sidelines Key Pandemic Preparedness Office 
The Trump administration has not staffed an office established by Congress to prepare the nation for future pandemics, according to three sources familiar with the situation. The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy was established by Congress in 2022 in response to mistakes that led to a flat-footed response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The office, called OPPR, once had a staff of about 20 people and was orchestrating the country’s response to bird flu and other threats until January 20, including hosting regular interagency meetings to share plans. (Goodman, 3/17)

Orange County Register: California Pet Food Maker Recalls Raw Chicken Meals That Might Carry Bird Flu 
El Cajon-based Savage Pet Food is recalling boxes of raw chicken food that possibly contain the “highly pathogenic” H5N1, also known as the bird flu virus. (Gowen, 3/18)

NBC News: California Lawmaker Moves To Phase Out Ultra-Processed Foods From Public Schools
A California legislator plans to unveil a first-of-its-kind bill Wednesday that would phase out certain ultra-processed foods from meals served in public schools statewide. If enacted, Assembly Bill 1264 would direct state scientists to identify what the legislation refers to as “particularly harmful” ultra-processed products. The bipartisan bill proposes removing such ingredients from public schools starting in 2028, with the goal of eliminating them entirely by 2032. (Chuck, 3/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: EPA Stands Firm: It Will Not Review Tijuana River Estuary For Superfund Status
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not reconsider its denial to investigate whether the Tijuana River Estuary qualifies as a Superfund site, a designation given to the most contaminated places in the country needing long-term cleanup. (Murga, 3/18)