Modern Healthcare: Calif. Minimum Wage Hike Will Impact 444,000 Health Care Workers
California Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign legislation as soon as Friday that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022, increasing pay for more than 440,000 healthcare workers in the state. The proposed hike, which passed the General Assembly Thursday, will impact 5.6 million California workers, 8% of which are part of the healthcare industry, according to a UC Berkeley Labor Center report. (Castellucci, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Theranos Devices Often Failed Accuracy Requirements
The blood-testing devices that Theranos Inc. touted as revolutionary often failed to meet the company’s own accuracy requirements for a range of tests, including one to help detect cancer, according to a federal inspection report. A redacted version of the report was released late Thursday. A full version was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The 121-page document details deficiencies found by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during its inspection of the closely held company’s Newark, Calif., laboratory last fall. (Carreyrou and Weaver, 3/31)

The New York Times: Report Shows Theranos Testing Plagued By Problems
Among other findings in the report, which ran 121 pages, the company used unqualified or inadequately trained personnel and stored samples in freezers that were not at the proper temperature. It also failed to ensure that the quality control for an important blood-clotting test was acceptable before reporting results for patients. (Pollack, 3/31)

Reuters: U.S., Canada Issue Joint Alert On 'Ransomware' After Hospital Attacks
The United States and Canada on Thursday issued a rare joint cyber alert, warning against a recent surge in extortion attacks that infect computers with viruses known as "ransomware," which encrypt data and demand payments for it to be unlocked. The warning follows reports from several private security firms that they expect the crisis to worsen, because hackers are getting more sophisticated and few businesses have adopted proper security measures to thwart such attacks. (Finkle, 3/31)

The Los Angeles Times: Could Mammograms Detect Clogged Arteries As Well As Breast Cancer? Yes, Says New Research
A woman's routine mammogram is a bulwark against dying of breast cancer, which strikes 1 in 8 women over a lifetime. But new research suggests that, with little extra cost or effort, a woman's mammogram could also tell whether she is being stalked by a far more dangerous killer of women - coronary heart disease. (Healy, 3/31)

In other women's health news —

The San Francisco Business Times: SheKnows Media To Acquire HelloFlo
SheKnows Media this week announced that it will acquire HelloFlo, a women’s health startup known for its lighthearted (and viral) educational videos “ First Moon Party” and “ Camp Gyno.” SheKnows has a reach of 81 million unique visitors per month through various online channels and 275 million social media fans. When the deal closes in April, HelloFlo will become SheKnows’ first women’s health channel. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. (Wylie, 3/31)

Eyewitness News: Kern County Ranks Low In California Women's Well-Being Index
Kern ranks as the fifth worst county in the "California Women's Well-Being Index," released this week by theCalifornia Budget & Policy Center in partnership with the Women's Foundation of California. The study takes into account women's overall well-being and addresses issues that relate to women and their families, including their health, personal safety, employment and earnings, economic security and political empowerment. (Hall, 3/31)

The San Francisco Business Times: Meet The Bay Area Woman Bringing Whoopi's Weed Dreams To Life
Entertainment icon Whoopi Goldberg announced she’s getting into the medical marijuana game with her new company, Whoopi & Maya, co-founded with cannabis industry veteran and Bay Area resident Maya Elisabeth. Whoopi & Maya products, available later in April, are intended to relieve menstrual cramps and period pain for women in California. The product line includes THC-infused bath solution, topical rubs, tinctures and cannabis edibles, which is where Elisabeth’s expertise comes into play. (Wylie, 3/31)

The Associated Press: 7 Dead, 21 Sick After Taking Street Painkillers
Northern California health officials say two more people have died in the last week after taking street drugs believed to contain a powerful painkiller, raising the total to seven. Sacramento County health officials say 21 other people have been sent to hospitals since March 24 after likely taking tablets or capsules containing fentanyl. (3/31)

The San Francisco Chronicle: 7th Death In Sacramento County Linked To Painkiller Overdose
In the new Sacramento County outbreak, fentanyl was found in fake Norco pills. Norco is a common prescription painkiller that contains hydrocodone and acetaminophen, but tests on tablets that were found on people who had overdosed showed neither of those drugs — just fentanyl. The first Sacramento overdoses were reported March 24, and the most recent patient was treated Thursday at UC Davis Medical Center, which has seen 17 cases. In one 48-hour period last weekend, 12 people suffered overdoses after ingesting tablets they’d purchased on the street or received from friends. (Allday, 3/31)

The Desert Sun: Dementia Care: When Staying Home Is No Longer An Option
Eight years ago, with her mother diagnosed with Alzheimer's and her father in worsening health because of stress, Kae Hammond went searching for a new home for both parents, a place that could care for them more than she could on her own. Hammond made some calls and arranged to see five homes in person. The first one struck Hammond as a poor fit for her style-continuous mother, Shirley. The Indio home's dark interior and leather living-room furniture weren't surroundings that would put Shirley at ease. (Newkirk, 3/31)

The Associated Press: Anti-Abortion Movement Unified In Swift Rebuke Of Trump
Trump soon backtracked from Wednesday's comments, but not before anti-abortion leaders forcefully repudiated him. "There was no time to get on the phone and compare talking points, but all the comments were consistent," said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. "The foundational premise of the pro-life movement is to protect both the mother and the unborn child. We don't leave one of them behind." The anti-abortion movement is by no means monolithic — there are sometimes sharp splits over political tactics and the question of whether abortion bans should make exceptions for rape and incest. But there is common ground around the belief that life begins at conception, and a consensus that this belief takes precedence over short-term political calculations. (3/31)

The Associated Press: Trump Says Abortion Comments Were Taken Out of Context
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump now says his contentious comments on abortion were taken out of context. Trump was answering questions during an MSNBC town hall taping Wednesday when he said there should be "some form of punishment" for women who get abortions if the procedure is outlawed. He later reversed his position in a statement. In an interview Thursday night on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," Trump blamed the flub on a "convoluted" interview. (3/31)

The New York Times: Donald Trump Acknowledges Misstep On Abortion Question
Donald J. Trump on Thursday allowed that he might have misspoken on the topic of abortion when he told the MSNBC host Chris Matthews that women who have abortions should face some form of punishment if the procedure is banned. But he insisted the media attention to a misstep — amid the volume of questions he answers — gets outsize attention. “If you answer one question inartfully or incorrectly in some form, or you misunderstood it or you misspoke, it ends up being a big story,” he said. “That doesn’t happen with other people.” (Haberman, 3/31)

In other news, The Washington Post fact checks Carly Fiorina's portrayal of Hillary Clinton's abortion stance —

The Washington Post's Fact Checker: Fiorina’s Claim That Hillary Clinton Supports Abortion ‘Up Until The Moment’ Of Birth
Former GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina, now a supporter of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), appeared on Fox to make the case that front-runner Donald Trump had fishy credentials as an opponent of abortion rights, even before Trump caused new controversy for saying women who get abortions should be punished. But we were also interested in her attack on Hillary Clinton’s abortion position. Is it correct that Clinton supports abortion up to the moment of birth? (Kessler, 4/1)

Los Angeles Times: Enough Grandstanding On Fetal Tissue
It is illegal in the U.S. to sell body parts. So the release of undercover videos last summer purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials negotiating fees for tissue from aborted fetuses launched a flurry of federal and state investigations into the healthcare provider. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives was the fourth congressional entry into this overcrowded field, but its mandate is far broader than just looking into Planned Parenthood — it can investigate the entities that procure fetal tissue and look into federal funding and support for abortion providers. It is also authorized to scrutinize the providers of second- and third-term abortions (even though later-term abortions are already highly regulated). (3/30)

The Sacramento Bee: Overdoses Reveal Scary New Chapter In Opioid Epidemic
For anyone who still believes that addiction to opioid painkillers is no big deal in Sacramento, the events of the past several days should should serve as a serious wake-up call. Since Thursday, at least 28 people have overdosed on a dangerous cocktail of street drugs in what the county’s top health officer, Dr. Olivia Kasirye, is calling a public health emergency. Six have died so far. Some were found unresponsive in their homes. The rest have been hospitalized. (3/29)

The Oakland Tribune: CDC Taking First Step To Stem The Abuse Of Opiods
For too many Americans, doctor's orders pushed them toward a deadly addiction. Overdoses of prescription opioids and heroin reached record numbers in 2014, killing 28,647 users, ravaging families and ruining lives. The numbers continue to grow. But finally the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stepped up and told doctors to end the madness. (3/29)

The Los Angeles Times: New Obamacare Surprise: New Customers Look Just Like Average Americans
The reason that new enrollees tend to be sicker than the previous pool of patients in the individual market, and consequently are using more services and costing insurers more, is that sick people were systematically excluded from the individual insurance market prior to 2014. The mechanism was exclusions for pre-existing conditions, which were outlawed by the ACA. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/30)

The Los Angeles Times: Block Grants Are Just Budget Cuts In Disguise — And The Targets Are Antipoverty Programs
Donald Trump's healthcare plan includes block-granting Medicaid to the states: "The state governments know their people best and can manage the administration of Medicaid far better without federal overhead." (We think he means "oversight," not "overhead," but let it go.) "States will have the incentives to seek out and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse to preserve our precious resources," he continues. Ted Cruz wants to block-grant federal education funding to "return education to those who know our students best: parents, teachers, local communities, and states." (Michael Hiltzik, 3/25)

The Los Angeles Times: The Supreme Court Floats A Contraception Compromise
Washington lawyers and journalists are scratching their heads — and spinning scenarios — after a surprise order from the Supreme Court in what is popularly known as the Little Sisters of the Poor case. (Michael McGough, 3/29)

Orange County Register: Fate Of Contraception Case Uncertain Before High Court
Once more, the Supreme Court has before it a case involving the contraceptive mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but this time the court should follow the vast majority of courts across the country and rule in favor of the ability of women employees to receive contraceptive coverage. Zubik v. Burwell was heard by the court March 23, and it raises important questions about the meaning of free exercise of religion and when it is impermissibly burdened. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 3/31)

Los Angeles Times: Prudential Pulls A Fast One On Long-Term Care Insurance Policyholders
Buying long-term care insurance isn't an easy decision. It's an increasingly pricey product that requires you to look way down the road, to the possibility of shelling out big bucks for a nursing home or some other form of assisted living. The last thing you want to worry about is having your insurer pull a fast one on you after you sign up for coverage. But that's what Prudential has done, making a sneaky change to policyholders' long-term care coverage. (David Lazarus, 4/1)

The Los Angeles Times: Why Are We Wasting Future MDs' Time And Money With This Pointless Test?
Every physician who wishes to practice medicine in this country must pass a test most Americans have never heard of: Step 2 Clinical Skills. Approximately 20,000 medical students from U.S. and Canadian schools take it each year, paying hefty fees for a decidedly ineffectual exam. For anyone who wants to end waste in medical education, getting rid of Step 2 CS is a good place to start. (Christopher R. Henderson and Nathaniel P. Morris, 3/28)

The San Jose Mercury News: From The Tampon Tax To Donald Trump, Menstruation Talk Goes Mainstream
It has long been a nightmare moment for me, and probably a lot of women who still get their, uh, monthly visitors: I'm out in public rifling through my purse. I drop it, it falls open, and out flies my stash of tampons. (Martha Ross, 3/30)

The Los Angeles Times: Who Will Exercise The Right To Die?
As California's End of Life Option Act takes effect in June, data from states where aid in dying is already legal raises a question: Who will use the new law? In Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont, experience shows that participants will be few in number, well less than 1% of those who die each year. We also know, based on 18 years of data from Oregon, whose Death with Dignity Act was the first such law in the nation, that most of them will be older, white and well-educated. (Ann Neumann, 3/27)

The Visalia Times-Delta: Choice For Hospital Stay/Visit: Visalia Or An Hour Away?
I am local physician practicing in Visalia and I am voting YES on Measure H, which will fund a replacement acute care hospital for our community-owned Kaweah Delta. In the 16 years we have lived in Visalia, we believe the executive leadership of Kaweah Delta has consistently developed responsible actions to meet the hospitals’ mission, goals and strategies for the district. (Lechtman, 3/28)