Bay Area News Group: Bay Area Civil Rights Advocates Slam Newsom Over Support For Supreme Court Homeless Camp Appeal
Under recent federal court rulings, cities throughout the West Coast are expected to offer homeless people shelter or housing before clearing encampments. Bay Area civil rights groups are now urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the mandate in a case set for later this month that advocates worry could free officials to crack down harder on those living on the street. (Varian, 4/4)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Under Fire For Homelessness Plans, Gloria Shifts Gears To Propose 1,000-Bed Shelter In Empty Warehouse
San Diego plans to transform an empty warehouse near the city’s airport into a 65,000-square-foot homeless shelter with space for 1,000 people, showers, a kitchen, recreational areas and counseling services. (Garrick, 4/4)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Palomar Health Closing 12-Bed Behavioral Health Unit In June 
Palomar Health announced Thursday that it intends to close its lone remaining inpatient behavioral health unit on June 30. It said the move is intended to “allow the health system to focus resources” on building a new 120-bed mental health hospital on the campus of Palomar Medical Center Escondido. (Sisson, 4/4)

Becker's Hospital Review: After 3 Deals, California Has 7 Fewer For-Profit Hospitals
Seven California hospitals that were owned by two of the largest for-profit health systems in the U.S. are now in the hands of nonprofit systems. Six were owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare and the other was owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare.  (Cass, 4/3)

Modern Healthcare: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey Target Private Equity 
Federal lawmakers are pushing for more oversight of private equity investment in the healthcare industry, citing the ongoing financial struggles of Steward Health Care hospitals. The national for-profit system has been selling and closing hospitals since last year, this week shuttering New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Lawmakers worry more facilities will close as Steward’s outstanding rent and vendor payments pile up. (Kacik, 4/4)

KQED: Hope And Loss In Gaza: A Bay Area Doctor Reflects On His Aid Mission
At least 33,000 Palestinians — including an estimated 13,000 children — have been killed by Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza. The region’s health care infrastructure has been decimated, as a mere 12 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are considered operational. Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency room physician from the South Bay, recently returned from a volunteer medical mission to the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. In this episode, he talks about why he went, what he saw, and the people he met. (Montecillo, Esquinca, and Cronin, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization Standards Set For 2025
Regulators will enhance Medicare Advantage marketing, prior authorization and network adequacy standards for 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a final rule Thursday. The agency set fixed compensation for agents and brokers to prohibit them from steering patients to plans that don't best suit their health needs. But CMS increased the pay cap for initial enrollments into plans by $100, versus the $31 proposed in November. (Berryman and Tepper, 4/4)

LA Blade: CDC Reports Mpox Cases Are Rapidly Outpacing Last Year’s Numbers
Health officials report that over 570 cases of mpox have been detected in the U.S. so far in 2024, marking a significant increase compared to this time last year. ... Los Angeles County of Public health reports a total of 2,591 of mpox cases (includes Long Beach and Pasadena) since it began tracking infections. Two people have died in LA County. (Murillo, 4/4)

Stat: Avian Flu Expert Fouchier Not Convinced Threat To People Has Abated
News that H5N1 avian influenza has breached another mammalian species — this time dairy cows — has taken the flu science community aback. Though cows previously had been seen to be susceptible to human flu viruses, and could be experimentally infected with H5 in a lab, the absence of cow involvement until now in H5’s nearly 30-year history lulled scientists into thinking the species was outside the virus’s remit. Further elevating the concern this discovery has triggered is the fact that a dairy farm worker in Texas was infected with H5N1, though the unnamed individual’s only symptom was conjunctivitis. (Branswell, 4/5)

Reuters: Wider Bird Flu Spread Raises Concern For Humans, Animal Health Body Says
The spread of bird flu to an increasing number of species and its widening geographic reach have raised the risks of humans being infected by the virus, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Thursday. Monique Eloit's comments come after the U.S. government reported cases of the disease in dairy cows in several states and a person in Texas, which she said would only be a strong concern if there had been a transmission between cows, something the U.S. authorities are still investigating. (De La Hamaide, 4/4)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA To Drop Ban On Sperm Donations From Gay And Bisexual Men
The Food and Drug Administration is making plans to significantly expand the number of gay and bisexual men who could donate sperm anonymously. Longstanding agency rules ban anonymous sperm donations by men who acknowledged having sex with other men during the previous five years, to reduce the risk of spreading pathogens including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. (Essley Whyte and Dockser Marcus, 4/4)

LA Blade: Walt Disney Company Shareholders Reject Anti-Trans Policy
The annual Walt Disney Company shareholders meeting took on a contentious environment Wednesday as far right anti-trans activists attempted to push through a measure that would force Disney to pay for services for transgender people who choose to detransition. Anti-trans activist and California resident, 19-year-old Chloe Cole, who opposes gender-affirming care for minors and supports bans on such care following her own detransition and has traveled across the nation testifying in legislative hearings, addressed shareholders. (4/4)

Special to the LA Blade: UN Human Rights Council Adopts Intersex Rights Resolution
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a landmark resolution in support of the rights of intersex people. The first-of-its-kind resolution specifically targets discrimination, violence and harmful practices against those with innate variations in sex characteristics. The resolution received overwhelming support from member states, with none voting against it. (Laenen, 4/4)

Newsweek: Women More Likely To Expect Orgasms With Other Women
The orgasm gap between men and women may also be affected by the gender of their sexual partner, new research has found. ... Previous research has consistently shown that men are more likely to achieve orgasm during sexual activity compared to women. Now, according to a new paper in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, women are more likely to expect clitoral stimulation and orgasm when having sex with a woman than with a man. (Thomson, 4/4)

LAist: State Could Devote Millions To Student Abortion Pill Outreach After LAist Investigation
To raise awareness about access to abortion pills at California’s public universities, a state agency is calling for nearly $2.2 million in spending to address gaps on campuses identified in an LAist investigation. That investigation reported that more than a year after state law required public universities to provide the pills to students at campus health clinics, many were not letting the students know about them. LAist reporting identified numerous campuses that failed to provide information about medication abortions on their websites or list it anywhere as a service offered. (Fortiér, 4/5)

KVPR: California Colleges Provide Abortion Pills But Many Fail To Make Students Aware
Despite a law mandating that they offer the pills, many campus health clinics don't publicize that they have them, leaving students struggling to track them down off-campus. (Guzman-Lopez and Fortier, 4/4)

Reuters: CVS Caremark To Cover Perrigo's Opill In US At Zero Cost For Plan Sponsors
CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefit management subsidiary of CVS Health Corp (CVS.N) will add Perrigo's (PRGO.N) birth control pill to its preventive services oral contraceptives list and make it available at no cost for many plan sponsors, according to a pharmacy update on March 28. The U.S. FDA in July approved over-the-counter use of Perrigo's drug Opill, making it the first oral contraceptive in the country which can be purchased without prescription. (4/4)

Stateline: To Close Racial Gap In Maternal Health, Some States Take Aim At ‘Implicit Bias’
“The biggest thing is that they’re not being listened to,” said Sutton-El, founder of Birth in Color, a nonprofit that offers doula services to expecting Virginians. Doulas support and advocate for pregnant patients. ... As the United States contends with stark racial disparities in maternal health, experts are pushing states to mandate training for medical professionals to combat “implicit bias,” the prejudiced attitudes a person might hold without being aware of it. Lawmakers in more states are heeding that call. (Hassanein, 4/5)

The Hill: More Than 1 In 8 New Mothers Report Mistreatment During Childbirth: Study
As the U.S. grapples with a maternal health crisis, a new study shows more than 1 out of 8 new moms are shouted at, scolded or ignored by a healthcare provider during their deliveries. The study published in JAMA Network Open Thursday used data from the 2020 Postpartum Assessment of Health Survey, a large-scale data collection effort on the health and well-being of postpartum people conducted by Columbia University. (O’Connell-Domenech, 4/4)

Capitol Weekly: Special Episode: A Conference On Crime, Panel 2 – The Fentanyl Crisis 
This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at Capitol Weekly’s Conference on Crime, which was held in Sacramento on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Panelists: Sen. Dave Cortese; Sen. Kelly Seyarto; Gretchen Burns Bergman, Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing; Lt. Diane Goldstein (Ret.), Law Enforcement Action Partnership. (4/4)

The Hill: Border Patrol Must Care For Migrant Children It Locks Up, Federal Judge Rules
When the federal government locks migrants up, it’s responsible for them — regardless of whether they’ve been formally processed, a federal judge found Wednesday. As migrant crossings over the border between Mexico and Southern California have overwhelmed local detention facilities, thousands of people have been left to camp in the desert, often for days. (Elbein, 4/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Longer Bay Area Pollen Season Could Be Making Allergies Feel Worse
If you’ve been sneezing, sniffling, coughing or feeling fatigued from allergies lately, you’re not alone. The Bay Area is in the midst of what has traditionally been considered peak allergy season, March and April. But climate change is leading to higher pollen counts earlier in the year, and prolonging those periods of high pollen, according to allergists and recent research — offering one potential explanation for why seasonal allergy sufferers may feel crummier than usual. (Ho, 4/5)

Berkeleyside: Berkeley Fined $130,000 For For Air Quality Violations At Cesar Chavez Park
The city of Berkeley has agreed to pay $130,000 in fines for mismanaging its old landfill buried under Cesar Chavez Park, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced Thursday. The settlement, first reported by Berkeleyside on Feb. 9, covers seven air quality violations issued from 2019 to 2022. (Kwok, 4/4)

Axios: Eclipse 2024: Why Hospitals Are On High Alert
The public's massive enthusiasm for the upcoming total solar eclipse may only be matched by the anxiety felt by hundreds of hospitals in the path of totality. Why it matters: With millions of people flocking to big cities and small towns to witness Monday's eclipse, hospitals are on high alert for increased traffic accidents, the potential for mass casualty events and, of course, eye damage. (Goldman, 4/5)

Orange County Register: Total Solar Eclipse: Here’s How Visible It Will Be In Southern California
The Earth, moon and sun will align for a total eclipse in some areas of the world Monday, April 8. Californians will see a partial eclipse of about 50%.If you miss the total eclipse this time, you’ll have to wait two decades for your next chance in North America. The path of the total eclipse will start in Texas and end in Maine. It will last approximately from 11:27 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. Pacific time. In the path of the moon’s shadow, the maximum duration of totality will be 4 minutes, 28 seconds. (Snibbe, 4/4)

Sacramento Bee: Supreme Court Poised To Make Stunningly Cruel Decision In Criminalizing Homelessness
Can the government make it a crime for a person to be homeless? The answer should be obvious to all, but few believe that is the conclusion the Supreme Court will come to when it decides Grants Pass v. Johnson, which will be argued on April 22. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 4/4)

Sacramento Bee: California Cannot Shirk Its Duty Of Funding Youth Mental Health After Prop. 1 Passage
Public discussions on Prop. 1 have largely focused on how it will impact the adult homeless population; but one key aspect of the proposition has received less attention: funding for children’s mental health. (Lishaun Francis, 4/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Another Hopeful Zig-Zag On Homelessness In San Diego
A centrally located, permanent shelter with 1,000 beds and numerous on-site services seems like a good idea, given the breadth of San Diego’s homelessness problem. The question is whether the surprise proposal by Mayor Todd Gloria on Thursday for the city to enter into a long-term lease for such a facility in Middletown is too good to be true. (Michael Smolens, 4/5)

Fresno Bee: Ex-Valley Children’s Nurse Speaks On High Salaries, Low Pay 
Months before the earnings of Valley Children’s Hospital executives became public knowledge, a former nurse looked up the nonprofit’s tax returns on the investigative news site ProPublica. What Barbara found out proved detrimental to her health. (Marek Warszawski, 4/4)

Los Angeles Times: Hepatitis C Is Thriving In L.A.'s Jails. It Shouldn't Be
During my five years as a doctor in Los Angeles County’s jail system, I personally saw hundreds of patients with hepatitis C who were not being treated for the potentially deadly but curable disease. While hepatitis C treatment improved incrementally during my tenure, the system continues to fall woefully short of the sort of concerted effort that could dramatically reduce the toll of the infection within and beyond the jails. Hepatitis C, a viral, blood-borne liver disease, is very common in the jails. More than a third of inmates tested are positive. That suggests the number of people living with the virus in the nation’s largest jail system is likely in the thousands. (Mark Bunin Benor, 4/2)