Bay Area News Group: Santa Clara County Hit With Second Lawsuit Over Allegedly Failing To Reimburse Hospitals For Health Care Services
For the second time in less than a month, Santa Clara County and its health insurance plan are facing a lawsuit for allegedly failing to pay out reimbursements to hospitals providing care to their members. (Hase, 8/13)

Becker's Hospital Review: 'We're Going To Have To Transform': How NorthBay Is Growing Amid Industrywide Uncertainties
Fairfield, Calif.-based NorthBay Health is pressing forward with a $250 million ambulatory network strategy, aiming to open 10 clinics over the next five years to bring care closer to home for patients. Since launching the plan in 2024, NorthBay has opened three neighborhood clinics in 2025, with one more set to open before year’s end and three others slated for 2026. The expansion has added nearly 45 new primary care physicians and advanced practice providers, President and CEO Mark Behl told Becker’s. (Kuchno, 8/12)

Becker's Hospital Review: Prime's Illinois Expansion, Hospital Performance Drives Credit Rating Boost
Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare has received a credit rating upgrade from two major agencies following the integration and improved performance of several recently acquired hospitals in Illinois. ... Fitch Ratings upgraded Prime’s senior secured notes to “B+,” while Moody’s raised its corporate credit rating to “B2.” S&P Global Ratings affirmed the company’s current rating and revised its outlook to positive. The moves follow Prime’s acquisition of eight Illinois hospitals from St. Louis-based Ascension in March. (Condon, 8/12)

Modern Healthcare: Nonprofit Hospitals See Improved Credit Ratings In 2025: Fitch
Credit ratings for nonprofit hospitals and health systems are looking stronger in the first half of 2025, following downgrades in recent years. The gap between credit upgrades and downgrades has nearly closed this year, with nine upgrades and eight downgrades from January through June, according to data from credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings. As of one the largest agencies, Fitch rates more than 250 nonprofit hospitals, including children’s hospitals. (Hudson, 8/12)

Becker's Hospital Review: The Toughest Calls Hospital CEOs Made This Year
Hospital and health system CEOs face a number of decisions as they navigate their organizations through evolving industry challenges. At times, this may involve a calculated risk or an uncomfortable situation, but at their core, the decisions are designed to be meaningful and may provide valuable lessons. Several CEOs recently shared the toughest decision they had to make in the last year. (Gooch, 8/12)

Stat: Inside The AMA's New, Louder Voice In Washington 
At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates in June, the mood was tense. Hundreds of physicians had congregated in Chicago to vote on the organizations’ key policies. The AMA is the largest professional association for physicians, as well as a political lobbying group with a strong, if waning, presence on Capitol Hill. (Gaffney, 8/13)

Bloomberg: Hims CEO Dudum Reports $33 Million Sale In Largest Insider Trade
Hims & Hers Health Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Dudum sold more than $33 million worth of company stock in the biggest insider transaction since the San Francisco-based company went public four years ago. Through a family trust, Dudum sold 660,000 of his company’s shares on Aug. 7 in what’s known as an open market transaction, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The sale comes halfway into the third quarter and wasn’t triggered by price changes as dictated in Dudum’s preestablished trading plan. (Muller, 8/12)

Becker's Hospital Review: 'Feeling Of Being Stuck': How CEOs Manage Burnout In 2025
Burnout among health system CEOs is nothing new, but it has shifted in the past year amid industrywide uncertainties and heightened financial pressures. A May survey of CEOs across U.S. industries found that 71% experience burnout, with 7% facing it nearly every day. Thirty-nine percent reported occasional burnout or emotional exhaustion in the past 12 months, while 25% said they felt it frequently. Becker’s spoke with seven health system CEOs about how the phenomenon has changed and how they avoid it — including strategies for disconnecting on PTO. (Kuchno, 8/12)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Executive Retirements Jump As Succession Planning Lags
A growing number of health system CEOs are planning to retire or leave their organizations, exposing gaps in succession planning that could dent provider finances. Health systems are ramping up searches for the next generation of leaders, prioritizing a chief executive’s ability to navigate financial uncertainty brought about by the new tax law, grasp digital and data trends, work with policymakers and have a systemwide strategic vision, provider executives said. (Kacik, 8/12)

Bloomberg: AI Eroded Doctors’ Ability To Spot Cancer Within Months In Study
Artificial intelligence, touted for its potential to transform medicine, led to some doctors losing skills after just a few months in a new study. AI helped health professionals to better detect pre-cancerous growths in the colon, but when the assistance was removed, their ability to find tumors dropped by about 20% compared with rates before the tool was ever introduced, according to findings published Wednesday. (Black, 8/12)

MedPage Today: White Coat Or Casual? Here's What Patients Prefer
Physician attire -- namely, white coats -- affected patients' perceptions of professionalism, trust, and communication, a systematic review indicated. However, patient preferences for such attire depended on clinical environment, medical specialty, physician gender, and the context of care, including the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Bo-Young Youn of Hwasung Medi-Science University in Hwaseong-si, South Korea, and colleagues in The BMJ. (Henderson, 8/12)

Fierce Healthcare: New CMS Data Suggest Future ACA Market Turmoil
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this week released new data fueling a narrative of rampant broker fraud on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. Plans received data finding 23% of enrollees did not have a claim in 2019. That number jumped sharply to 35% last year. (Tong, 8/12)

CNN: Republicans Are Quietly Rolling Back Obamacare. Here’s How
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are no longer promising to repeal Obamacare, but that doesn’t mean they have given up efforts to take down the landmark health reform law. Unlike in 2017, when the late GOP Sen. John McCain’s dramatic thumbs-down dashed his caucus’s hope of overturning the Affordable Care Act, Republicans barely mentioned Obamacare as they swiftly pushed Trump’s massive domestic agenda package through Congress this year. Instead, they focused their talking points on eliminating fraud in Medicaid and protecting the program for the most vulnerable. (Luhby, 8/12)

NPR: The Hidden Costs Of Cutting Medicaid
With the passage of the big Republican tax and spending bill, the federal government is poised to reduce support for Medicaid and the insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that these cuts could cause 10 million Americans to lose health insurance by 2034. Lawmakers have justified these cuts as a necessary step to address the bigger budget deficit exacerbated by tax cuts and other spending increases in the big bill. However, that doesn't capture how these cuts will send costs spilling out around society, to be paid by hospitals, clinics, individuals and then in the end, back to the federal government. (Crawford, 8/12)

LAist: To Help More Unhoused Patients, LA Street Medics Push To Change State Law
A proposed bill in California’s state Legislature would expand the services street medicine programs can offer unhoused people. Advocates say the reforms are badly needed — street medics are currently blocked from providing key primary care services such as specialist referrals and access to medical supplies like wheelchairs due to insurance requirements. (Offner and Schrank, 8/13)

Voice of San Diego: The Faster, Cheaper Way Homeless People Are Getting Housed
For the first time in nearly three years, San Diego had more people exit than become homeless – advocates are crediting diversion as the reason why. ... Diversion is an approach that focuses on helping people come up with solutions to their own homelessness. It is often coupled with financial assistance to help resolve a one-time expense. People who have recently become homeless and have a job, a car or relatives who could take them in are ideal candidates. (Balc, 8/13)

AP: Silicon Valley Lawmakers Want To Decriminalize Homelessness
As cities across California ban homeless encampments and Gov. Gavin Newsom encourages more sweeps, San Jose lawmakers are standing up against criminalizing homelessness. State Sen. Sasha Perez along with Assemblymembers Ash Kalra, Alex Lee and Matt Haney have co-authored a bill that would make it illegal for cities to prohibit organizations or people from helping homeless residents. Senate Bill 643 has passed the Senate and is being considered in the Assembly. (Chu, 8/12)

Reveal: Trump’s Homelessness Crackdown Has Been Tried Before. It Didn’t Work.
This week, President Donald Trump announced that his administration will remove homeless encampments from Washington, DC. It came at a press conference in which he declared a public safety emergency in the nation’s capital, despite violent crime numbers hitting a 30-year low. But the announcement also illustrated something else: The way the country approaches homelessness is rapidly changing. In July, Trump issued an executive order that not only makes it easier for cities and states to eliminate homeless encampments, but also directs authorities to involuntarily commit unhoused people struggling with mental health issues or substance abuse. (Sanburn, 8/13)

The Oaklandside: Rape Survivors Relied On BRAVE Bay Area. Whistleblower Documents Claim It Was Destroyed From Within
Two government agencies opened investigations into BRAVE, formerly Bay Area Women Against Rape, last year. Current and former employees describe an organization in free fall. (Romero, 8/12)

Bay Area News Group: Three New Senior Centers Aim To Support The East Bay’s Aging And Vulnerable 
Three recently opened East Bay senior centers offering all-inclusive care programs aim to bring peace of mind to families balancing their loved one’s independence with the need for more hands-on care. (Lopez, 8/13)

Voice of OC: Is Orange County Prepared To Get Old?
One in three Orange County residents will be older adults in the next few decades, a demographic change that county officials are struggling to address. Those changes are expected to play out not only in the county’s urban core in cities like Santa Ana but in South County cities like Rancho Santa Margarita. Later this month, county officials will be releasing a Master Plan for Aging – a road map of sorts for public investments to address the challenges facing older adults living in Orange County. (Taylor, 8/13)

NBC News: CDC Director Tells Staff 'Misinformation Can Be Dangerous' In Agency Meeting
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Susan Monarez, warned staffers about the dangers of misinformation during an agencywide meeting, the first since last week’s shooting at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta, which left one police officer dead, according to a transcript of her remarks obtained by NBC News. ... She said the agency has taken steps to bolster security and expand mental health sources for employees. (Lovelace Jr., 8/12)

Stat: Challenges Mount For Kennedy And MAHA 
A deadly shooting at one of the public health agencies that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vilified during his rise to power is proving to be a unique test of his leadership, at a time when fractures are emerging in his Make America Healthy Again movement. (Cirruzzo and Payne, 8/12)

CIDRAP: Virologist Network Reaffirms Support For MRNA Vaccine Platform
An international virologist group representing more than 80 research labs across more than 40 countries yesterday reaffirmed their support for the continued development and deployment of mRNA vaccines, a statement that came in response to the United States’ top health agency announcement earlier this month that it was scrapping further work on projects involving the mRNA vaccine platform. (Schnirring, 8/12)

The Hill: Second MAHA Report's Release Delayed
The anticipated release of the second report by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission has been delayed as the White House says scheduling will take some time. The second MAHA report was expected to be released this week, but the White House said the paper would be submitted by its Aug. 12 deadline, with some scheduling still needing to be coordinated. (Choi, 8/12)

MedPage Today: Former FDA Chief Wants The Agency To Focus On Refined Carbohydrates
Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, MD, says his citizen's petition to the FDA to remove refined carbohydrates from the market unless the food industry can show they're safe is "remarkably simple." "Diet is the primary culprit behind this epidemic of chronic disease and metabolic harm," he told MedPage Today in a phone interview. "And these refined carbohydrates, these ultraprocessed foods, these are the main drivers." (Frieden, 8/12)

Axios: MAGA Rails Against "Pothead" Culture As Trump Weighs Weed Reform
Prominent MAGA leaders are urging President Trump to back off his plans to review federal restrictions on marijuana, warning of a one-way ticket to societal ruin. Reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug would open the door to expanded research and deliver a major boost to the legal cannabis industry, which is currently constrained by a patchwork of state laws. (Axelrod, 8/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: U.S. Alcohol Consumption Drops To A 90-Year-Low, Gallup Poll Finds
The percentage of Americans who report drinking alcohol has hit a 90-year low, according to a recent Gallup poll. The results of Gallup’s annual Consumption Habits survey, released Wednesday, revealed that only 54% of U.S. adults reported drinking alcohol in 2025. This figure represents a three-year decline from 67% in 2022, and falls below the previous record low of 55% in 1958. (Lander, 8/13)

ABC News: Autism Diagnoses Happening Earlier For Boys But Many Girls Still Wait Years, Analysis Finds
Autism is being diagnosed earlier in young children, especially in boys, according to a major new analysis of medical records published on Tuesday. Conducted by Epic Research -- the data and analytics arm of the electronic health record software company, Epic Systems -- the analysis also found that many girls still face years-long delays in receiving a diagnosis and an increasing share of women are not diagnosed until adulthood. (Monsalve, 8/12)