- California Healthline Original Stories 1
- New Southern California Medical School To Tackle Doctor Shortages
- Covered California & The Health Law 1
- Coalition Of State Attorneys General Sues To Block Association Health Plans Rule
- Coverage And Access 1
- Progressive-Favorite 'Medicare For All' Takes A Battering From Trump Administration Health Officials
- Sacramento Watch 1
- Bill Would Require On-Campus Health Centers To Make Abortion Pills Available To Students
- Public Health and Education 1
- Heat Wave In Sacramento Not Intense Enough To Open Cooling Centers For Homeless, Officials Say
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
New Southern California Medical School To Tackle Doctor Shortages
The Claremont Colleges plans to open a medical school in 2022, one of four to be announced or established in Southern California in recent years. It’s part of an effort to bring more physicians to underserved areas. (Anna Gorman, )
More News From Across The State
Covered California & The Health Law
Coalition Of State Attorneys General Sues To Block Association Health Plans Rule
The Trump administration says the regulation would help small businesses and self-employed workers to afford insurance, but the 12 Democratic state attorneys general, including California's Xavier Becerra, contend that the plans would undermine patient protections put in place by the health law.
Modern Healthcare:
Democratic Attorneys General Sue To Block Association Health Plan Rule
Twelve Democratic attorneys general sued the Trump administration Thursday to block a new rule making it easier for small firms and individuals to band together in association health plans free from many Affordable Care Act market rules. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleged the final rule issued by the U.S. Department of Labor last month violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. (Meyer, 7/26)
Boston Globe:
Healey Leads 12-State Lawsuit Against Department Of Labor For New Regulation
The complaint, filed Thursday in US District Court in Washington D.C., contends that the US Department of Labor’s regulation “would allow associations to market low-quality health care plans across the country and avoid the protections for consumers in the Affordable Care Act,” according to a statement from Healey’s office. (Cote, 7/27)
The Hill:
States Sue Trump Administration Over Expansion Of Skimpy Group Insurance Plans
Association health plans allow small businesses and other groups to band together to buy health insurance. The rule allows more groups to join together to form associations. The move is part of a broader Trump administration effort to open up skimpier, cheaper plans as an alternative to ObamaCare plans. (Weixel, 7/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Sues Trump Administration Over Small-Business Health Policy
The Labor Department said the plans will not deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or charge them more, and will help employers control health care costs. The 11 other attorneys general joining with California’s represent New York, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington state. (Ho, 7/26)
East Bay Times:
California, 11 Other States Suing Trump Administration Over ACA Restrictions
“This unlawful, irresponsible rule allows employers to offer their workers barebones health coverage,” Becerra said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “It would destabilize our insurance markets and put the health of working families nationwide at risk. This is yet another attempt by the Trump Administration to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. As the President continues to do all he can to make Americans uninsured and unhealthy again, we in California will continue to fight for affordable, quality care for all of us.” (Hurd, 7/26)
Progressive-Favorite 'Medicare For All' Takes A Battering From Trump Administration Health Officials
HHS Secretary Alex Azar criticized the plan only a day after CMS Administrator Seema Verma said that it would become "Medicare For None" if the system were enacted. “Medicare is running out of other people’s money, and those other people happen to be our children,” Azar said. The secretary also spoke about plans for overhauling the Medicare billing structure.
The New York Times:
Trump Officials Scoff At ‘Medicare For All’ Drive
The Trump administration is hitting back against advocates of “Medicare for all” even as the proposal gains momentum among left-leaning Democrats in this election year. Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, said on Thursday that the administration had a vision for “reforming the American health care system” that would shrink, not expand, the federal role. In a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Mr. Azar said that Medicare could barely afford to keep its current commitments. “Medicare is running out of other people’s money, and those other people happen to be our children,” he said. (Pear, 7/26)
KPCC:
Trump Administration Confirms California Lawmakers Were Right About Single Payer
Seema Verma eliminated any doubts that the Trump administration might allow California to move forward with plans for a single payer health care system. The head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spoke to the Commonwealth Club of California on Wednesday. (Faust, 7/26)
Modern Healthcare:
Azar Promises Continued Medicare Billing Overhaul, Regulatory Relief
HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday doubled down on promises to overhaul the Medicare billing structures to drive down government costs and vowed to put out new guidance for providers on the anti-kickback laws and HIPAA. HHS will write new guidance for laws that "stand in the way of healthcare providers" and hold back the healthcare system's transition to value-based care, Azar told a conservative audience at the Heritage Foundation. He also highlighted the CMS' new request for information on the Stark law and noted that additional requests are coming to prepare the administration as it overhauls anti-kickback and HIPAA rules. (Luthi, 7/26)
Bill Would Require On-Campus Health Centers To Make Abortion Pills Available To Students
Critics of the legislation say that lawmakers are going in search of a problem that doesn't exist, because there are facilities close to campus that will provide the medication.
CALmatters:
California May Soon Be First State To Require Public Universities To Offer Abortion Pills
A bill advancing in the Legislature would make California the first in the nation to require that abortion pills be available at on-campus health centers. The legislation, which has passed the Senate and is advancing in the Assembly, would mandate that all California State University and University of California campuses make the prescription abortion drug RU 486 available at their on-campus student health centers by Jan. 1, 2022. (Castillo, 7/26)
Sweeping Opioid Lawsuits Don't Even Get A Mention In McKesson's Earnings Call
The California-based drug distributor is facing so many other problems -- like a intense public and political anger over high drug prices -- that the opioid lawsuits didn't make a blip.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Drug Giant McKesson Has More Than Just An Opioids Problem
It’s been 18 months since McKesson, the San Francisco pharmaceutical drug distributor — and one of the largest public companies in America — was hit with a record $150 million in fines from the Drug Enforcement Administration for failing to report suspicious orders for controlled substances. ... You’d hardly know it judging by the company’s earnings call Thursday, when the opioids lawsuits — which legal experts say could rival the massive tobacco litigation of the 1990s in scope and settlement dollars — were not mentioned once. (Ho, 7/26)
Heat Wave In Sacramento Not Intense Enough To Open Cooling Centers For Homeless, Officials Say
Shelters are trying to do their best, but the sizzling temperatures are putting a strain on everyone seeking relief.
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Heat Wave: Homeless People Get Water, But No Cooling Centers
The city offered residents various tips for keeping cool in the coming days, including taking cold showers, limiting exposure to the sun, fleeing to malls or other indoor places or grabbing a bite to eat in “many of our farm-to-fork restaurants.” Those choices are pipe dreams for many who frequent Loaves & Fishes, which provides daytime meals and other services to as many as 800 people every day. (Hubert, 7/26)
In other public health news —
The California Health Report:
Minorities Much Less Likely To Access Mental Health Care, State Data Suggests
White people enrolled in Medi-Cal access mental health treatment at about twice the rate of other ethnic groups, even though they make up fewer than a quarter of plan enrollees, new state data suggests. Between July 2016 and June 2017, approximately 38 out of every 1,000 patients receiving mental health services through Medi-Cal managed care plans were white, a quarterly report released by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) shows. That’s almost 25 percent more than the number of black Medi-Cal enrollees who sought those services, and more than double the number of Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders who got mental health treatment, the report indicates. (Boyd-Barrett, 7/26)
There are reports of failed reunifications, though, that are raising questions about whether the deadline has indeed been met. Beyond that, there are hundreds of parents who have either been deemed ineligible or were deported without their children.
The New York Times:
Federal Authorities Say They Have Met Deadline To Reunite Migrant Families
The federal government reported Thursday that it would meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite the last “eligible” migrant families separated at the Southwest border, but hundreds of children remained in federal custody as a result of a contentious immigration policy that has drawn international condemnation. (Dickerson, Correal and Ferman, 7/26)
The Washington Post:
Hundreds Of Migrant Children Remain In Custody, Though Most Separated Families Are Reunited At Court Deadline
But 711 children remain in government shelters because their parents have criminal records, their cases remain under review or the parents are no longer in the United States, officials said. The latter group includes 431 parents. Chris Meekins, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services, which has led the reunification effort, told reporters that “hundreds of staff have worked 24/7” to meet the court’s 30-day deadline. Administration officials said they would work with the court to figure out how to return the remaining children, including those whose parents have been deported. (Miroff and Schmidt, 7/26)
The Wall Street Journal:
Government Rushes To Meet Family-Reunification Deadline
Several immigrant advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Kids in Need of Defense, said they remained concerned the government’s reunification efforts weren’t going far enough. Lee Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer handling the group’s lawsuit that prompted the reunifications, said his organization was still waiting for information about which parents and children had been brought back together and where they were. “The Trump administration is trying to sweep them under the rug by unilaterally picking and choosing who is eligible for reunification,” Mr. Gelernt said. “We will continue to hold the government accountable and get these families back together.” (Caldwell and Campo-Flores, 7/26)
The Associated Press:
US Government: Over 1,800 Migrant Kids Reunited By Deadline
Shy children were given a meal and a plane or bus ticket to locations around the U.S. as non-profit groups tried to smooth the way for kids reunited with their parents as a deadline loomed following their separations at the U.S. Mexico border. The Trump administration said Thursday that more than 1,800 children 5 years and older had been reunited with parents or sponsors hours before the deadline. That included 1,442 children who were returned to parents who were in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, and another 378 who were released under a variety of other circumstances. (7/27)
Reuters:
Reunited Family's Next Challenge: Fighting For U.S. Asylum
Maria Marroquin Perdomo fretted as she waited with her 11-year-old son, Abisai, in the New Orleans International Airport. A day earlier, the mother and son had been reunited in Texas after being separated by U.S. immigration officials for more than a month, an ordeal that followed a harrowing journey from Honduras. Now they awaited another reunion: With the father Abisai had not seen in person since he was an infant. (Thevenot and Elliott, 7/26)
In other news, a poll finds a stark communication barrier when Hispanic patients seek care —
The Associated Press:
AP-NORC Poll: Latinos Health Care Communication Woes
Nearly 6 in 10 Hispanic adults have had a difficult time communicating with a health care provider because of a language or cultural barrier, and when they do they often turn to outside sources for help, according to a new study conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (7/27)
Hospitals Are Often Skipping Easy Procedures That Could Drastically Cut Down On Maternal Deaths
The U.S. continues to fall behind other developed countries when it comes to maternal mortality. A USA Today investigation looks at how doctors and nurses are ignoring simple safety practices that could improve those numbers.
USA Today:
Hospitals Know How To Protect Mothers. They Just Aren’t Doing It.
Every year, thousands of women suffer life-altering injuries or die during childbirth because hospitals and medical workers skip safety practices known to head off disaster, a USA TODAY investigation has found. Doctors and nurses should be weighing bloody pads to track blood loss so they recognize the danger sooner. They should be giving medication within an hour of spotting dangerously high blood pressure to fend off strokes. These are not complicated procedures requiring expensive technology. They are among basic tasks that experts have recommended for years because they can save mothers’ lives. (Young, 7/26)
USA Today:
'Mommy Went To Heaven'
Like thousands of women facing childbirth emergencies every year, YoLanda Mention didn’t get the care recommended by leading experts for new mothers experiencing severe high blood pressure, according to court records. Now, her family goes on without her. (Young, 7/26)
USA Today:
Deadly Deliveries: How Hospitals Are Failing Mothers In 13 Graphics
The U.S. healthcare system is one of the most expensive in the world. Yet America’s maternal death rate is the highest among developed nations. (7/26)
USA Today:
Deadly Deliveries: “I Am One Of The 50,000” (Videos)
Women from across the country retell harrowing stories of surviving life-threatening complications during childbirth. (7/26)
People:
Woman Dies Days After Giving Birth As Medics Assumed She Can't Afford Ambulance Ride, Mom Claims
A mother of three from Florida died days after experiencing a stroke, and the four paramedics who arrived on scene have now been suspended after an investigation revealed they mishandled the response, PEOPLE confirms. In the early morning hours of July 4, Nicole Black found her daughter, 30-year-old Crystle Galloway, unresponsive in a bathtub just six days after she had given birth to a son via cesarean. When Galloway regained consciousness a short time later and complained about her head, Black quickly called emergency services and explained that her daughter was breathing but was “drooling from the mouth,” she told the Tampa Bay Times. (Hahn, 6/27)
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Sacramento Bee:
California: Stop Bogus Medical Exemptions To Vaccine Rules
Few pieces of legislation have made more of a difference to more Californians more quickly than the bill two years ago to tighten school vaccination laws. ...The new law has worked like a champ, raising dangerously low levels of immunity in California back up to the public health minimum, 95 percent of the population. But that’s a statewide number, and outbreaks, when they happen, do so locally. (7/23)
Sacramento Bee:
Universal Health Care Is Now The Law In California, More Or Less
A single-payer system assumes that the feds would agree to funnel their money through the state, including health care for federal and military retirees. It also would require new taxes of at least $100 billion a year to cover the remainder, while presumably relieving consumers and employers of their current costs and providing health coverage to several million Californians, especially undocumented immigrants, who still lack it. The new commission will probably reach much the same conclusion. (Dan Walters, 7/26)
Los Angeles Times:
Let's See How Many People Were Shot In America While I Was On Vacation
Today is my first day back at work after more than two weeks of vacation — my time off started July 4, fittingly enough (a few weeks of independence beginning on Independence Day). The news, of course, doesn’t go on holiday when we do (nor, evidently, do President Trump’s efforts to destabilize everything he comes in contact with). Now that I’m back, I thought I’d check in with the Gun Violence Archive to see whether gun violence took a holiday too. It didn’t, of course. Our fellow Americans continued to kill themselves and others with abandon, from toddlers shooting siblings to violent criminals killing police officers. In fact, from July 4 through Sunday night, the Gun Violence Archive recorded at least 1,930 shooting incidents in which at least 730 people died and 1,731 people were wounded. That’s an average of at least 38 people killed and 91 wounded per day. And it doesn’t include most firearm suicides, which rarely get mentioned publicly and so are aren’t picked up by the Gun Violence Archive from daily reports. (Scott Martelle, 7/23)
Sacramento Bee:
Migrant Kids Are Being Traumatized, Not Treated For Mental Health Needs
Held down, injected, drugged – this is how immigrant children in need of mental health support, but detained in government facilities, are being treated, according to a lawsuit filed in a California court in April. Children at the Shiloh Treatment Center in Manvel, Texas, were allegedly prescribed as many as 10 different shots and pills at a time and told they would never leave the center if they refused to take the medication. One plaintiff declared that staff members at Shiloh provoked the children to make then angry and justify giving them injections. (Lea Labaki, 7/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Why Did The Trump Administration Blow Its Family Reunification Deadline? Cruelty, Pure And Simple
The failure of the U.S. government to reverse the kidnapping of thousands of children from their parents has been chalked up to incompetence. People want to believe that this act of extraordinary cruelty — and the Trump administration’s inability to fix it — stems from our leaders’ lack of experience or common sense. But this too is a failure — of our collective imagination. The separation of children from their parents at the Southwest border is not simply a policy that has resulted in immeasurable harm, but a policy designed to inflict it. The government blew its Thursday deadline to reunite these families because it never intended to do so. (U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, 7/27)
Sacramento Bee:
To Overcome Opioid Crisis, California Needs Legislators Who Will Be Real Leaders
While legislation is important, we need leaders to be the voices that draw those suffering with addiction out of darkness and despair and into the light of needed, quality treatment. My organization fights for better treatment and more access, but faces a state Capitol that lacks leadership on the issue and a comprehensive approach to solving it. (Pete Nielson, 7/26)
Bloomberg:
California’s Ban On Soda Taxes Should Not Stand
The small but growing parade of cities battling obesity by imposing taxes on sugary drinks ran into a wall last month, when California outlawed the practice. But that wall, meant to stand until 2031, is already looking flimsy. Public health advocates are moving to bring it down in two years by persuading voters to pass a hefty statewide tax on soda. (7/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Safe Injection Site In SF Would Address Drug Use And Discarded Needles
One proposal is for safe injection sites — facilities where drug users can go to inject without fear of arrest, violence, robbery or other problems of living on the street. ...Reducing addiction, crime, taxpayer costs and public nuisance are positive goals. (John Maa and Steve Heilig, 7/22)
Los Angeles Times:
Dialysis Firms' Profits Are Obscene. What Will Happen If California Tries To Cap Them?
The two dominant for-profit dialysis firms, Denver-based DaVita and German-owned Fresenius, report pretax operating profits in the billions and margins of 18% to 19%. Proposition 8, an initiative appearing on California’s November ballot, would cap those profits at 15% over their direct spending on health services. (Michael Hiltzik, 7/20)
Orange County Register:
Overcharged In The Emergency Room
For patients who don’t have a health plan that negotiates lower rates with the hospital — either because the hospital was out-of-network or the patient was uninsured — the trauma activation fee can be a terrifying surprise that destroys a patient’s credit rating. While the abuse of “trauma fees” is scandalous, it’s also a drop in the bucket. (David Hyman and Charles Silver, 7/22)
San Jose Mercury News:
Trump Plan Would Damage California Women's Health
It’s appalling that this president wants to strip Title X federal funding from family planning clinics that provide abortions or refer patients to places that do. The direct attack on Planned Parenthood will have a negative impact on 850,000 women throughout California, most of whom are low-income and do not have the resources to go elsewhere. (7/20)