Fresnoland: Just Over Half Of Fresno County Residents Affected By Medicaid Cuts
In Fresno County, about 52% of residents — more than half a million people — rely on Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. According to a Fresnoland review of state health data, Fresno has the third-highest Medi-Cal enrollment rate out of all 58 California counties. California and the federal government have approved major health care cuts that could reverse more than a decade of expanded coverage, hitting low-income, immigrant and rural communities hardest. (Medina, 8/14)

AP: Judge Halts Access To Personal Information Of 79M Medicaid Enrollees
A federal judge ordered the nation’s health department to stop giving deportation officials access to the personal information — including home addresses — of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first handed over the personal data on millions of Medicaid enrollees in a handful of states in June. After an Associated Press report identified the new policy, 20 states filed a lawsuit to stop its implementation. (Seitz and Kindy, 8/14)

Los Angeles Times: California Valley Fever Cases Hit Record Highs Again In 2025
The latest California numbers suggest 2025 will be another record-smashing year for valley fever, the illness linked to drought and precipitation and spread by fungal spores. There were 6,761 cases reported through the end of July, according to state health officials — a significant increase over the 10-year average of 3,833 for that same time period and a slight jump from last year’s total of 6,364. The 10-year low was in 2016, when there was less than a quarter of what there is now. (Rust, 8/15)

Bay Area Reporter: SF Mpox Cases Rising, Most Cases Among Those Vaxxed
Cases of mpox are rising again in San Francisco, according to an announcement from the city’s public health department August 14. Most are in people who have gotten vaccinated against the virus and their symptoms are mild, reported local health officials. “Since late June 2025, 14 San Francisco residents have been diagnosed with mpox, which is an increase from an average of ~1 diagnosis per month from January-May 2025,” an email stated. “A summer and fall increase in mpox cases has occurred in San Francisco since 2022, which may be associated with larger events and summer and fall gatherings.” (Ferrannini, 8/14)

Capital & Main: Measles Is Making A Comeback — And California Isn’t Immune
Measles, a disease so effectively treated that the U.S. declared it eliminated from our country 25 years ago, is making a grim comeback. And despite California’s status as a comparatively well vaccinated state, residents here won’t be spared — and lower-income families and communities, as always, will be most vulnerable to its spread. That concern has been real enough all year, even though the number of officially confirmed cases nationally — 1,356 as of Aug. 5, the most recent reporting period — would strike many people as miniscule in a country of 340 million. (Kreidler, 8/15)

AP: Drinkmate Recalls Over 100,000 Carbonation Bottles Due To Explosion Risk
More than 100,000 Drinkmate carbonation bottles are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada because they can explode during use, with several consumers reporting cuts and other impact injuries. According to a Thursday notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the recall covers certain “Drinkmate 1L Carbonation Bottles” sold individually or as part of the sparkling water maker’s “OmniFizz” starter kits. That includes about 106,200 bottles in the U.S., the safety regulator noted, as well as 5,000 in Canada. (8/14)

Bloomberg: FTC Probes Complaints About Hims & Hers’ Ads, Cancellation Practices
For more than a year, the Federal Trade Commission has been investigating Hims & Hers Health Inc.’s business practices, including whether it has made it too hard for customers to cancel subscriptions, according to people familiar with the probe. The company, which hasn’t been formally accused of wrongdoing, didn’t respond to a Bloomberg request for comment. Hims House, a Hims investor community, said in a post on X that it received an official statement from the company saying the inquiry was previously disclosed. (Muller and Nylen, 8/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: The Strategies Health System Leaders Are Using To Boost Workforce Resilience
As hospitals and health systems face industrywide pressures, workforce resilience is coming into sharper focus. But building resilience is not the result of a single decision or strategy, leaders have said. “It’s the result of many actions working together, and its not easy in today’s challenging health care environment,” Kimberly Hartz, CEO of Fremont, Calif.-based Washington Health, told Becker’s. (Kuchno, 8/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: Stanford Health To Create AI Agents Through Partnership
Stanford (Calif.) Health Care and experience management company Qualtrics are expanding their partnership to develop AI agents aimed at improving patient experience. The AI agents, built on the Qualtrics XM platform, are designed to translate predictive insights into timely, targeted actions to ease administrative and coordination burdens for care teams. The tools will be embedded into operational workflows to improve access, care coordination and patient engagement, according to a news release. (Jeffries, 8/14)

Stat: Eli Lilly Says It Will Raise Drug Prices In Europe To ‘Make Them Lower’ In U.S.
Eli Lilly said Thursday that it would increase the prices of medicines in Europe and other developed markets “in order to make them lower” in the U.S., an apparent response to the Trump administration’s calls to do so. It singled out the list price of its popular weight-loss drug in the U.K. as part of that effort. (Chen and Payne, 8/14)

The Washington Post: HHS Revives Childhood Vaccine Safety Panel Sought By Anti-Vaccine Activists
The Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday it is reviving a long-defunct task force aimed at improving the safety of childhood vaccines, fulfilling a demand of anti-vaccine activists. The resurrection of the panel appears to be the first concrete step to achieve HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s longtime goal of upending the current childhood immunization schedule, which recommends which shots children receive and when. (Roubein and Sun, 8/14)

The Hill: Veterans May Be Denied Food Stamps Under Trump’s New Tax Law
Veterans will no longer be exempt from work requirement rules for food stamps under President Trump’s “big, beautiful” spending and tax law, leaving many worried about how they will find employment. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is the federal aid program formerly known as food stamps, currently allows work exemptions for veterans, but that will soon end under legislation signed into law last month. (Samee Ali, 8/14)

The Hill: Judge Blocks Donald Trump's Birth Control Mandate
The Trump administration’s religious and moral carve-outs to an ObamaCare requirement that all employer health plans cover contraception at no cost were blocked on Wednesday by a federal judge. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia issued a summary judgment that the rules were arbitrary, capricious and an overreach of the authority of the agencies that wrote them in 2017. Under the rules, essentially any for-profit or nonprofit employer or insurer was allowed to exempt themselves from following the birth control mandate on moral and religious grounds. The rules also let publicly traded companies obtain a religious exemption, but not a moral one. (Weixel, 8/14)

Military.com: Caregivers Sue VA Over Denial Of Benefits
Two survivors of veterans who died from military-related illnesses are challenging the Department of Veterans Affairs' practice of dropping family caregiver application appeals once a veteran passes away. The daughter of an Army Vietnam veteran who cared for her father in his final years and the wife of a separate Vietnam-era veteran filed a potential class-action suit Monday in federal court arguing that their cases should still be considered by the Board of Veterans Appeals even though their veterans had died. (Kime, 8/14)

Fierce Healthcare: Trump's HHS Just Embarked On A Thorny Journey In Health IT
As the Trump administration tries to make Medicare more modern through the use of digital health apps, it faces a horde of unresolved policy issues that could present challenges to its stated goal to "stop theoretical debates and start delivering real results." On July 30, 60 healthcare and tech companies committed to engage in a Health Tech Ecosystem Initiative led by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS') Administrator Mehmet Oz, M.D. The CMS will create an app store of vetted digital health solutions, require apps to use modern identity solutions and integrate AI chatbots to give beneficiaries information about healthcare access. (Beavins, 8/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune: $80 Million Federal Grant Bolsters Research At UCSD
Announced Thursday morning, it is the fourth consecutive Clinical and Translational Science Award received by the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute at UCSD and the largest such award to date. Translational science is a relatively new discipline that attempts to speed up the process of using new discoveries to treat patients. (Sisson, 8/14)

Sonoma Index-Tribune: Sonoma County, Other California Fire Agencies Scrambling To Find New Health Insurance After Coverage Canceled 
Six Sonoma County fire agencies are among about 40 fire districts statewide that are searching for new employee health insurance coverage after the consortium that has provided their medical benefits opted to end its health care program due to higher-than-anticipated premiums for the coming year. (Beer, 8/14)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Cloverdale Schools Rebuke Pleas For Stronger Safe Haven Policy For Immigrants
Although the group packed the Cloverdale High School library on Wednesday, the board was unswayed, approving only a minor change to the policy that will do little to quell parents’ fears about the increased pace of immigration raids throughout California and the nation. (Windsor, 8/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Berkeley Cut Junk Food From Grocery Checkouts. Results Were Striking
A first-in-the nation ordinance adopted by Berkeley to limit sugar and sodium in food and drinks sold near grocery checkout lines appears to be working, according to a new study by UC Davis researchers. Berkeley in 2021 enacted a policy that requires checkout products at large food stores to contain no more than 5 grams of added sugar and 200 milligrams of sodium — effectively replacing soda and candy with healthier foods like nuts, fruit, vegetables and unsweetened drinks near checkout lines, where shoppers often make impulse purchases. (Ho, 8/15)

CNN: New Blood Pressure Guidelines Recommend Skipping Alcohol And An Earlier Start To Treatment 
The next time you get your blood pressure checked, expect your medical provider to be a bit more aggressive about high levels. And if you like a glass of wine with dinner or a cocktail on the weekends, brace yourself: New guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology released Thursday suggest you abstain. (Christensen, 8/14)

Los Angeles Times: The Heat-Safety Law Isn't Enough. Farmworkers Are Still Dying Every Summer 
It’s an all-too-familiar old problem in California. Nearly 20 years ago, in the shadow of four farmworker funerals — Arvin, Fresno County, Kern, Imperial Valley — California enacted the nation’s first heat rules for basic worker safety: water, shade, rest. Mercies you’d think needed no law. (Dean Florez, 8/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune: In San Diego, Routine Care Is Increasingly Hard To Find
I tried to schedule a doctor’s appointment in San Diego last month, just something routine — a check-in for the kind of persistent, shapeless ache you’re told not to ignore. It wasn’t urgent, not yet, but it wasn’t nothing either. I called my provider’s office, gave my ID number, waited on hold and was told with a practiced politeness that the next available date was in mid-November. (Caitlin H. Morrison, 8/12)

Times of San Diego: Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Puts Community Health At Risk
Imagine a San Diego where a mother can’t get prenatal care, a diabetic skips vital checkups, a farm worker goes without treatment for tuberculosis, and a child misses vaccinations because the only clinic they can afford has cut services or closed its doors. That is not a hypothetical; it is exactly what is going to happen because Congress passed H.R. 1, President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” and slashed Medicaid funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers such as Vista Community Clinic. (Fernando Sañudo, 8/13)

The Mercury News: I Lived In An RV. Don't Destroy The Unhoused's Last Remaining Refuges.
As the cruelty of the second Trump administration continues to come to bear, the recent executive order directing states to states to criminalize unhoused people and institutionalize those with mental health disabilities creates an interesting dilemma for Sacramento politicians. Over the past few months, legislators have been pushing Assembly Bill 630, legislation that would facilitate the towing, dismantling and essentially the destruction of many RVs statewide under the guise of health and safety. (Sean Geary, 8/13)