Fresno Bee: Fresno County In-Home Caregivers To Receive Pay Increase, Union Says
After two years of negotiations, thousands of Fresno County in-home care workers are poised to secure a pay bump and increased medical benefits. The union that represents more than 500,000 caregivers across California announced a tentative contract agreement with the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. (Montalvo, 4/15)

Voice of OC: Orange County’s Community Health Clinics Begin Feeling Federal Cuts
Orange County’s community health clinics are getting downsized as their funding dries up, with plans to cut half of the medical services it offers for residents by the end of June. The services in question all come from the county’s clinic on 17th Street in Santa Ana, which will no longer offer emergency dental services, a children’s clinic or a family planning clinic according to county spokesperson Ellen Guevara. That means services like physicals for kids, infected teeth removals and vaccines will no longer be available by July. (Biesiada, 4/16)

CalMatters: Kaiser Strike By Mental Health Workers Drags On, Sets US Record
Nearly six months into their labor union dispute against Southern California Kaiser Permanente, eight mental health care workers banded together last week in an organized five-day hunger strike to highlight their cause. “Kaiser’s trying to starve us out, that’s clear — so, give them what they want,” said Adriana Webb, a member of the National Union of Healthcare Workers who chose to subsist solely on water and electrolytes from Monday morning through Friday evening. “I feel hungry for equity. I feel hungry for change. How is this any different?” (Garcia, 4/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Surgeons Continue To Mistakenly Leave Objects In Thousands Of Patients
A patient finishes surgery with an object unintentionally left inside their body at least once a day in an average year, a Hearst Newspapers investigation of cases from the last decade found. Surgeons inadvertently forget sponges, wires, needles, drill bits, instruments, broken tool fragments and other surgical materials inside patients. Some are quickly removed without lasting harm, while others linger causing infection, pain, further surgeries and even death. (Munson and Darwiche, 4/16)

Military Times: VA Plans To Cut Hundreds Of Payroll Jobs At Regional Medical Sites
Veterans Affairs leaders plan to cut hundreds of payroll workers in coming months as part of efforts to downsize the department’s workforce and increase efficiency in agency operations. The moves, outlined in an internal memo signed by VA Secretary Doug Collins earlier this month, would shutter payroll offices at nearly 50 VA medical centers spread throughout the country, which employ around 600 staffers. (Shane III, 4/15)

Military.com: Misdated PACT Act Disability Decisions Costing Government, Veterans Millions
A sampling of disability claims filed under the 2022 PACT Act found that roughly one-quarter listed incorrect start dates, resulting in improper payouts of about $6.8 million to some veterans and shortchanging an estimated 2,300 others, the Department of Veterans Affairs' internal watchdog found. In a report released Tuesday, the Veterans Affairs Officer of Inspector General concluded that the legislation's complexity, along with inadequate guidance from the Veterans Benefits Administration, led claims adjudicators to assign the wrong "effective date" to an estimated 26,000 claims, resulting in overpayment by the government in the first year of the legislation. (Kime, 4/15)

Bloomberg: Newsom Defends California Pollution Plan In Face Of Trump Attack
Governor Gavin Newsom is seeking to extend California’s key pollution-reduction program even as President Donald Trump ramps up attacks on the state’s climate efforts. The cap-and-trade program, currently set to expire in 2030, places annual emission limits on companies and allows them to buy permits if they exceed their limit. The program has funded $28 billion in investments across California as of last year, the governor’s office said in a statement Tuesday. (Clanton, 4/15)

Times of San Diego: Supervisor Wants To Restrict Border Crossings During Sewage Spills
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond called Tuesday for restrictions on border crossings into San Diego in response to sewage flow from Tijuana. ... Desmond called on the federal government to limit cross-border travel and restrict the export of potable water into the Tijuana during any health-related threats declared by the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health. (Jennewein, 4/15)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Will Set Aside $3 Million To Help Owners Of Fire-Damaged Homes Test Soil For Lead
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will allocate $3 million to help homeowners near the Eaton burn area test for lead contamination, after preliminary tests found elevated levels of the heavy metal on homes standing after the fire. Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath proposed the motion after preliminary test results released last week by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health showed lead levels above state health standards in as many as 80% of soil samples collected downwind of the Eaton burn scar. (Purtill, 4/15)

Los Angeles Times: Altadena Residents With Standing Homes Fear Long-Term Health Effects
On Jan. 7, two residents on opposite sides of Altadena — Francois Tissot, a Caltech professor who studies the geology of ancient Earth and our solar system, living in the east side of town; and Jane Potelle, an environmental advocate living in the west side — fled the intensifying red glow of the devastating Eaton fire. The inferno devoured home after home, unleashing what experts estimate to be tons of dangerous metals and compounds, from lead to asbestos to the carcinogen benzene. Carried through the vicious winds, the toxins embedded deep into the soil, seeped into the blood of first responders, and leaked into structures in the area that hadn’t burned down. (Haggerty, 4/16)

Los Angeles Times: 911 Logs Show Calls From West Altadena Before Eaton Fire Evacuations Ordered
Long before the evacuation order came, law enforcement officers knew fire was spreading in west Altadena. ... And yet, the first evacuation order for west Altadena did not come until 3:25 a.m., after dispatchers had received at least 14 reports of fire in the area, according to 911 logs from the Los Angeles County Fire Department obtained by The Times. (Ellis, Martínez, Nakajima and Greene, 4/16)

MedPage Today: Best Time Of Day For Asthma Inhaler?
For mild to moderate asthma, mid-afternoon dosing of inhaled beclomethasone suppressed nocturnal lung function worsening compared with other dosing strategies, a small open-label trial showed. ... An afternoon dose also yielded significantly better overnight (10 p.m. to 4 a.m.) suppression in blood eosinophil counts as a marker of airway inflammation compared with the other two groups, although overall asthma control remained comparable across chronotherapy groups. (Phend, 4/15)

Voice of San Diego: Midway Shelter Caught In City, County Funding Dispute
A long-simmering city and county battle over their respective roles addressing the region’s homelessness and behavioral health crises just got hotter. At the center of the latest battle: the future of a 150-bed Alpha Project shelter serving homeless San Diegans with behavioral health conditions outside the county’s Midway District health complex that could now be forced to close. (Halverstadt, 4/15)

Los Angeles Times: Homeless Man Wins $2.4-Million Wrongful Termination Lawsuit But He's Nowhere To Be Found
Eight years ago, Daniel Ridge launched a legal battle against his former employer for dismissing him from his job at a county morgue while at the same time fighting his own mental health demons. The 49-year-old won a stunning victory last month when an Alameda County Superior Court jury awarded him $2.4 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit against his former employer, Alameda Health System. (Vives, 4/16)

Fresno Bee: Was Fresno Unprepared For First No-Camping Prosecution Of A Homeless Man? 
The Fresno City Attorney’s Office last week lost its first case against a homeless man set for prosecution under a tightened no-camping ordinance that has netted hundreds of arrests since last year. In a case that spanned six months from arrest to the charge being dismissed, the loss raised a question: Was the Fresno City Attorney’s Office uncoordinated and unprepared for a spotlighted case against someone who decided to challenge the no-camping ordinance in court? (Galicia, 4/16)

CBS News: CDC Weighing End To Universal COVID Vaccine Recommendations
A majority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work group on COVID-19 vaccines now supports ending the agency's pandemic-era recommendation for virtually all Americans to get vaccinated against the virus each year, officials said Tuesday. Instead of the agency's longstanding "universal" recommendation, most of the CDC's advisers and health officials favor shifting to guidance based on people's individual risk of more severe disease. (Tin, 4/15)

Stat: Vaccine Advisory Panel Meets, Avoiding Conflict With RFK Jr.
A  meeting of vaccine advisers long targeted by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unfolded Tuesday seemingly without fireworks or interference, although the new administration’s imprint could be seen from the start, when staff for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gutted by layoffs, struggled to get a livestream running. (Mast, 4/15)

Stat: RFK Jr. Plans Changes To Vaccine Injury Reporting System
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he plans to roll out changes to the vaccine injury monitoring system that would automate and increase data collection as well as look for negative impacts of the shots. (Payne, 4/15)

CBS News: Large Number Of Measles Cases Being Missed, CDC Says
A large number of measles cases are being missed by health authorities, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Tuesday, as the agency is now struggling to keep up with requests for support from states responding to outbreaks. "We do believe that there's quite a large amount of cases that are not reported and underreported," said Dr. David Sugerman, senior scientist for the CDC's measles response this year. (Tin, 4/15)

USA Today: RFK Jr. Claims 'Leaky' Measles Vaccine Wanes Over Time. Scientists Say He's Wrong.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the measles vaccine is "leaky" because its effectiveness wanes over time, something medical experts dispute. Kennedy's remarks came during a press event Tuesday with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz. The event, titled Make Indiana Healthy Again, touted steps the state was taking to improve health. (Alltucker, 4/15)

Stat: Trump Targets Health Care Costs With Executive Order On Drug Price Negotiations, Hospital Payments
President Trump unveiled a wide-ranging executive order on Tuesday that aims to lower drug prices, boost transparency into fees charged by middlemen, and limit Medicare payments for outpatient services provided by hospitals. Much of the order would require further rulemaking or other actions to have any effect. (Bannow and Oza, 4/15)

Axios: Trump Administration Moves To Limit Trans Care In ACA Plans
The Trump administration is seeking to limit coverage of gender-affirming care for adults and minors in Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance plans beginning next year. Why it matters: The rule, if finalized, would not ban marketplace plans from covering gender-affirming care services. But it could raise out-of-pocket costs for patients, add administrative burdens for insurance companies and inject confusion into state operations, health policy experts say. (Goldman, 4/15)

ProPublica: Glenmark Recalls 24 U.S. Drugs Made At A Troubled Indian Factory
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has recalled two dozen generic medicines sold to American patients because the Indian factory that made them failed to comply with U.S. manufacturing standards and the Food and Drug Administration determined that the faulty drugs could harm people, federal records show. In February, the FDA found problems with cleaning and testing at the plant in Madhya Pradesh, India, which was the subject of a ProPublica investigation last year. (Callahan, 4/16)

The New York Times: Autism Rate Continues To Rise Among Children, C.D.C. Reports
The percentage of American children estimated to have autism spectrum disorder increased in 2022, continuing a long-running trend, according to data released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among 8-year-olds, one in 31 were found to have autism in 2022, compared with 1 in 36 in 2020. That rate is nearly five times as high as the figure in 2000, when the agency first began collecting data. (Ghorayshi, 4/15)

The Hill: High Levels Of Toxic Chemicals Found In Paper Receipts
New research has found that paper receipts from major retailers in the United States have a high level of bisphenol S, which has been linked to cancer and reproductive problems. Some receipts reportedly have such a high level of bisphenol S that holding one for 10 seconds can cause the skin to absorb the toxic chemical and violate California’s safety threshold. (Perkins, 4/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Health Alert Issued For Name-Brand Soups Due To Possible Contamination
A public health alert was issued for a range of pre-packaged soups and bowl meals this week after federal inspectors discovered possible contamination linked to cilantro used in the products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the alert affecting items distributed across multiple states. Brands impacted include Campbell’s, Molly’s Kitchen, Verve, Life Cuisine, Sysco, and others. (Vaziri, 4/15)