- California Healthline Original Stories 1
- Feds Say California May Have Spent Nearly $1B On Ineligible Medi-Cal Beneficiaries
- Public Health and Education 3
- Health Officials Pinpoint California Farm That Is Likely Linked To Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak
- Data From Camp Fire Deaths Paint Grim Picture Of Age, Sickness And, In Some Instances, Stubbornness
- As City Competes For Money To Help Homeless, Leaders Seek Ideas On How To Spend It
- Around California 1
- Ex-Contractor For Contra Costa County Health Plan Who Was Indicted For Fraud Has Hundreds Of Members' Records
- National Roundup 3
- 'I Hate To Panic, But ...': Advocates Eye Tomorrow's Health Law Enrollment Deadline With Trepidation As Numbers Lag
- House Hearing On Fetal Tissue Research Gets Heated Amid An Ever-Intensifying Debate Over The Issue
- 7-Year-Old Guatemalan Girl Dies Of Dehydration And Shock After Being Taken Into Border Patrol Custody
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Feds Say California May Have Spent Nearly $1B On Ineligible Medi-Cal Beneficiaries
The potentially improper payments occurred in 2014 and 2015, when the state says it was under pressure from a massive influx of new applicants due to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. (Barbara Feder Ostrov, )
More News From Across The State
Health Officials Pinpoint California Farm That Is Likely Linked To Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak
Officials said a water reservoir at Adam Bros. Farms in Santa Barbara County tested positive for the bacterial strain and the owners are cooperating with U.S. officials. Officials from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not determined how the water reservoir — which is used to irrigate lettuce — became contaminated.
The Associated Press:
Tainted Romaine Lettuce Traced To At Least 1 California Farm
U.S. health officials have traced a food poisoning outbreak from romaine lettuce to at least one farm in California. But they cautioned Thursday that other farms are likely involved in the E. coli outbreak and consumers should continue checking the label before purchasing romaine lettuce. (Perrone, 12/13)
PBS NewsHour:
FDA Identifies A Farm Linked To The Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak
Adams Bros. Farms, the producer linked to the pre-Thanksgiving outbreak, has not shipped lettuce since Nov. 20 and has cooperated with the investigation, the FDA said in a statement. While this positive sample is a significant development in helping investigators explain the outbreak in part, the FDA said, “The outbreak may not be explained by a single farm, grower, harvester, or distributor.” In other words, the probe continues. (Santhanam, 12/13)
Data From Camp Fire Deaths Paint Grim Picture Of Age, Sickness And, In Some Instances, Stubbornness
Sixty percent of the Camp Fire victims who have been identified were in their 70s, 80s or 90s.
Los Angeles Times:
Many Victims Of California’s Worst Wildfire Were Elderly And Died In Or Near Their Homes, New Data Show
Rose Farrell is the oldest victim of the devastating Camp fire to be identified so far. She was 99, and she died inside her home on Herman Road in Paradise. Evva Holt, 85, died inside a pickup truck after she was evacuated from Feather Canyon Gracious Retirement Living. She made it only a mile. (Ganga, Newberry, St. John and Lin, 12/13)
In other public health news —
The California Health Report:
Carpets Cited As A Health Hazard, Especially For Children And Poor Communities
Many popular carpet brands, including those widely used in affordable housing projects, contain toxic chemicals that put people’s health at risk while in use and when the carpets are disposed of, according to a new report by three environmental advocacy groups. The findings are particularly worrisome given that babies and children often spend considerable time crawling and playing on carpets, and they are most sensitive to the potential health consequences from the toxins detected, said Monica Wilson, associate director of the Berkeley-based Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, which contributed to the report. Additionally, most carpets in the United States – including in California – are not recycled. That means many carpets end up in landfills and also incinerators, allowing toxins to be released into the air, she said. (Boyd-Barrett, 12/13)
As City Competes For Money To Help Homeless, Leaders Seek Ideas On How To Spend It
The ideas pitched to the Turlock City Council included providing the homeless with bathrooms, housing them in what are called tiny homes, an apprenticeship program to teach them job skills, and more.
Modesto Bee:
Bathrooms, Services, Shelters: Turlock Considers How It Can Help Its Homeless
The Turlock City Council has declared a shelter crisis, which means the city can compete for some of the $7.2 million in one-time state money to deal with homelessness in the area. ... The city’s homeless population is estimated at 250, while there are about 100 emergency shelter beds in Turlock. (Valine, 12/13)
In other news —
LAist:
An Emergency Homeless Shelter Is Officially Coming To Venice
The Los Angeles City Council greenlit the plan this week for a 154-bed bridge housing center, which will be built at a former Metro bus yard on Sunset Avenue between Main Street and Pacific Avenue. Because the construction site is in a coastal zone, the California Coastal Commission also had to sign off, which they did with a unanimous vote on Wednesday. (Fonseca, 12/13)
The contractor, Sonja Emery, was indicted in April in Michigan’s Eastern District Court on 11 felony counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, engaging in a corrupt endeavor to obstruct the IRS and tax evasion. The health plan is offering free credit monitoring and identity theft services to members whose information was accessed.
East Bay Times:
Contra Costa Health Plan Warns Of Possible Security Breach
Contra Costa County health officials are urging members of the county’s health plan to beware after learning that a former contractor indicted for fraud had access to hundreds of members’ records. In May, officials at the Contra Costa County Health Plan discovered that a contractor hired in 2014 to provide management assistance and consulting had falsified her identity to get the job, according to the county health department. A forensic audit conducted since then found that she had access to sensitive information about 862 members, but a spokeswoman for the health department said Thursday no evidence has yet been uncovered to indicate the contractor disclosed or used members’ information in an improper way. (Sciacca, 12/13)
In other news from across the state —
Orange County Register:
StubHub Center To Be Renamed Dignity Health Sports Park
AEG announced a partnership with Dignity Health that includes the naming rights to the StubHub Center, home of the Galaxy and Chargers. The partnership is a multi-year agreement. Effective Jan. 1, StubHub Center will be renamed Dignity Health Sports Park. Dignity Health will be the official health-care partner of the Galaxy. Dignity Health, with its headquarters in San Francisco, is one of the nation’s largest health-care systems. (Calhoun, 12/13)
Ventura County Star:
New York Man To Head Reorganized County Health Care Agency
A New York administrator has been named director of the Ventura County Health Care Agency in a reorganization announced this week by county officials.William “Bill” Foley, who oversees 11 acute-care hospitals in New York, replaces Johnson Gill as head of the county agency that provides health care through a network of hospitals, clinics and other programs. Gill is moving to a newly created position of administrator of ambulatory care and population health, areas he is “ideally suited” to manage, County Executive Officer Mike Powers said. (Wilson, 12/12)
Some experts, however, say that it's still too soon to say that fewer sign-ups this year mean fewer people will have insurance coverage in 2019. The unemployment rate fell from 4.1 percent to 3.7 percent over the course of 2018, and it's also hard to know how many people aren't showing up on enrollment tallies because they are just sticking with the plan they have.
NPR:
Enrollment In HealthCare.Gov Plans May Be Down For 2019
Former President Barack Obama released a video earlier this week urging people to hurry up and shop for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchange. "This year I'm giving it to you straight," Obama says in the video. "It's important to have health insurance in case, God forbid, you get really sick, or hurt yourself next year." (Kodjak, 12/14)
In other health law news —
Reuters:
U.S. Appeals Court Narrows Order On Trump Birth Control Rules
A federal appeals court on Thursday narrowed an order that had blocked President Donald Trump's administration from enforcing new rules that undermine an Obamacare requirement for employers to provide insurance that covers women's birth control. Last year two federal judges - one in Philadelphia and one in Oakland, California - had blocked the government from enforcing a new guideline allowing businesses or nonprofits to obtain exemptions from the contraception policy on moral or religious grounds. The Justice Department appealed both rulings. (12/13)
The Associated Press:
Court: Trump Can't Let Companies Deny Birth Control Coverage
Thursday's ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concerned changes to birth control coverage requirements under President Barack Obama's health care law that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued in October 2017. States were likely to succeed on their claim that those changes were made without required notice and public comment, the appeals court panel said in a 2-1 decision. (12/13)
House Hearing On Fetal Tissue Research Gets Heated Amid An Ever-Intensifying Debate Over The Issue
Since September, the Trump administration has been performing an audit on federally funded research that uses fetal tissue, which has reignited a debate on the issue that after simmering quietly on the back burner for months.
The Washington Post:
House Republicans Amp Up Pressure To Halt Funding For Research Using Fetal Tissue
House conservatives long opposed to medical research using fetal tissue applied fresh pressure on the Trump administration to end government funding for such work at a hearing Thursday spotlighting antiabortion scientists who contend alternatives exist. The hearing before subcommittees of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee grew testy at times over whether cells from sources other than aborted fetuses are as useful as fetal tissue in advancing therapies and possible cures for diseases from HIV to cancer. (Goldstein, 12/13)
In other national health care news —
The Wall Street Journal:
FDA Withdraws Proposed Rule That Would Have Exposed Generic-Drug Makers To Liability
The Food and Drug Administration gave a year-end gift to the generic drug industry by backing off a proposal that would have opened up generic companies to possible product-liability lawsuits over drug safety. The FDA had proposed a new federal rule in 2013 that would have allowed people to hold generic-drug companies legally liable for the side effects of medicines. Thursday’s action by the agency withdrew the proposed rule, and keeps generic companies largely impervious to lawsuits. (Burton, 12/13)
The New York Times:
N.I.H. To Scrutinize Private Donations To Scientific Research Projects
Six months after halting a study of moderate drinking that was underwritten by donations from the alcohol industry, the National Institutes of Health outlined a series of steps to prevent similar conflicts of interest and to safeguard the integrity of its research and its reputation. In a report issued on Thursday, N.I.H. officials said its 27 institutes must evaluate all current research projects that receive private donor support for conflicts of interest of the kind that compromised the alcohol trial. The institute directors are to report their findings to Dr. Francis Collins, director of N.I.H., early next year. (Rabin, 12/13)
The New York Times:
Mapping The Brain’s Genetic Landscape
For the past two decades, scientists have been exploring the genetics of schizophrenia, autism and other brain disorders, looking for a path toward causation. If the biological roots of such ailments could be identified, treatments might follow, or at least tests that could reveal a person’s risk level. In the 1990s, researchers focused on genes that might possibly be responsible for mental distress, but then hit a wall. Choosing so-called candidate genes up front proved to be fruitless. In the 2000s, using new techniques to sample the entire genome, scientists hit many walls: Hundreds of common gene variants seemed to contribute some risk, but no subset stood out. (Carey, 12/13)
CNN:
Restricting Abortion Access
Access to abortion services is a contentious issue in the United States. Clinics in many states are at risk of shutting down and operate with heightened security. Doctors can be hard to find in states with restrictive laws around abortion clinics, so some doctors travel in from out of state to provide care. (12/11)
CNN:
Gun Deaths In America Reach Highest Level In Nearly 40 Years, CDC Data Shows
Gun deaths in America have reached a record high. Nearly 40,000 people in the United States died by guns last year, marking the highest number of gun deaths in decades, according to a new analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's WONDER database. A similar analysis was first conducted by the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, a non-profit gun policy advocacy group. (Howard, 12/13)
The death of the girl comes amid intensifying scrutiny over the quality of care immigrants are getting when they enter into U.S. custody.
The Washington Post:
7-Year-Old Migrant Girl Taken Into Border Patrol Custody Dies Of Dehydration, Exhaustion
A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing from Mexico into the United States illegally with her father and a large group of migrants along a remote span of New Mexico desert, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday. The child’s death is likely to intensify scrutiny of detention conditions at Border Patrol stations and CBP facilities that are increasingly overwhelmed by large numbers of families seeking asylum in the United States. (Miroff and Moore, 12/13)
The Hill:
Government Shelters Now Housing Nearly 15K Migrant Children
Nearly 15,000 migrant children are being held at government shelters, putting the facilities nearly at capacity, NPR reported Thursday. The news outlet reported that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said its network of more than 100 shelters is 92 percent full. The influx of migrant children in recent months has prompted the department to weigh options for how to accommodate additional bodies. (Samuels, 12/13)
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
The Trump Administration Unveils A Stealth Attack On People With Preexisting Conditions
Trump administration officials apparently are prepared to go to their graves insisting that they did everything possible to protect Americans with preexisting medical conditions, even as they pull out the stops to undermine those protections. The latest example of this subterfuge came in late October, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new rules for states contemplating alterations in the Affordable Care Act. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/11)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Uprooting A Cause Of Homelessness — Racism
While black San Franciscans make up just 5.5 percent of the city’s general population, more than 40 percent of the city’s homeless population is black. Compare this to the proportion of white San Franciscans in the general population (48 percent) and in the homeless population (44 percent). We know that the black community is not alone in facing inequities in homelessness. (London Breed, 12/12)
San Jose Mercury News:
Kaiser Mental Health Workers Explain Current Strike
For us, the most difficult moments are often when we first see a person suffering from a debilitating depression or the parent of a child with severe anxiety. Finally, they have reason to think things might get better — until we tell them that their next appointment won’t be for at least a month. That’s the reality for thousands of Kaiser patients in the Bay Area and across California. (Clement Papazian, Marina Moliaris and Mickey Fitzpatrick, 12/13)
Los Angeles Times:
California College Students Who Want Abortions Were Slapped In The Face By Jerry Brown
How is it in the interest of public health to force pregnant college students to travel miles for two pills that they could easily pick up from their campus health center? More than half of UC and CSU students are considered low-income. Two thirds of UC students don’t have cars and one third of CSU students don’t. (Robin Abcarian, 12/11)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Gunshot Trauma Affects More Than The Victims. Caregivers Suffer Lasting Damage, Too.
Mass shootings may dominate the news, but two thirds of firearm deaths — 22,000 annually — are suicides. Nonfatal gun injuries deeply affect millions of caregivers, family members, friends, co-workers, teachers, schoolmates and others. While the NRA continues to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye, the rest of us need to open our eyes, ears, and hearts and grapple with our reality. (Laurie Barkin, 12/9)
San Diego Union-Times:
Why California Must Still Fight For Death With Dignity
So while we should rightfully celebrate the recent court decision protecting California’s EOLOA, we should also remember that Californians are still a long way from achieving the right to die with dignity now solidly embraced in countries like Switzerland, Denmark and our neighbor to the north, Canada.The easiest way to see the gap between these countries and California with regard to End of Life options is to think of a patient with advanced stage Huntington’s disease. (Barry L. Price, 12/12)
The Hill:
Preventing The Next Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak
After warning consumers to avoid eating romaine lettuce in late November, the FDA has sounded the all clear: As long as romaine doesn’t come from the summer growing regions in central or northern California, you can go back to eating it. Producers have voluntarily agreed to label bagged romaine now being harvested in winter growing regions — Arizona, southern California, Florida, and Mexico — to let you know where it is coming from. If the label says it was grown in one of these regions, you are not likely to encounter the virulent strain of E. coli that sickened 59 people across the United States and Canada. And if any of them are contaminated with anything else, it will be easier to track and avoid. But the new labels do not solve the bigger problems. (Jean Halloran, 12/14)