Los Angeles Times: Opponents Sue To Overturn California's New Aid-In-Dying Law
As a law went into effect Thursday allowing physicians to prescribe medicines to terminally ill patients to hasten their deaths, a group of doctors tried to overturn it in court. The Life Legal Defense Foundation, American Academy of Medical Ethics and several physicians have filed a lawsuit in Riverside County Superior Court claiming that the state’s new aid-in-dying law is unconstitutional. The End of Life Option Act allows patients with less than six months to live to obtain medicines from their doctor that would kill them. On Thursday, California became one of five states in the U.S. where the practice is legal. (Karlamangla, 6/9)

Bay Area News Group: Opponents Go To Court To Stop California's Right-To-Die Law
On the day California's controversial right-to-die law went into effect, opponents on Thursday headed to court to try to stop it. The day before, six doctors and the American Academy of Medical Ethics had filed a lawsuit in Riverside County challenging the state's new End of Life Option Act. (Seipel, 6/9)

KPCC: FAQ: California's End Of Life Option Act Goes Into Effect. Here's How It Works.
The new California law that makes it legal for doctors to prescribe life-ending medication to some terminally ill patients who request it takes effect Thursday. Supporters of the End of Life Option Act, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last fall, consider the law key to providing Californians more control over how they die. Opponents, many of whom view the law as religiously and ethically objectionable, argue that existing palliative care options can offer terminally-ill patients all of the comfort and peace they seek at the end of life. (O'Neill, 6/9)

California Healthline: California’s Aid-In-Dying Law Takes Effect
California on Thursday became the fifth state to allow terminally ill patients to legally obtain drugs that will end their lives. With the implementation of the End of Life Option Act, Californians with six months or less to live now can request a prescription for lethal medications from their doctors. But obtaining a prescription won’t be easy or quick, and some people may not meet the law’s many requirements. (Bazar, 6/9)

Meanwhile, The New York Times profiles those who are going to be affected by the legislation —

The New York Times: Who May Die? California Patients and Doctors Wrestle With Assisted Suicide
On Thursday, California became the fourth state in the country to put in effect a law allowing assisted suicide for the terminally ill, what has come to be known as aid in dying. Lawmakers here approved the legislation last year, after Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old schoolteacher who had brain cancer, received international attention for her decision to move to Oregon, where terminally ill patients have been allowed to take drugs to die since 1997. Oregon was the first state to pass an assisted suicide law, and was followed by Washington and Vermont. Under a Montana court ruling, doctors cannot be prosecuted for helping terminally ill patients die, as long as the patient makes a written request. With the California law, 16 percent of the country’s population has a legal option for terminally ill patients to determine the moment of their death, up from 4 percent. (Medina, 6/9)

The Orange County Register: Smoke Shops Roll Out Changes As Legal Smoking Age Officially Climbs To 21
California’s legal smoking age rose Thursday from 18 to 21 in a quickly rolled out change that public health officials said would save lives and health care dollars. (Perkes, 6/9)

The Fresno Bee: New Limits Set On Vapes, E-Cigs As Fresno-Area Businesses Adjust
Californians must now be 21 years old to purchase tobacco products or electronic smoking devices, which was previously legal at 18. (The law doesn’t affect active duty military personnel, whose minimum age remains 18.) Lawmakers also reclassified e-cigs and vapes as tobacco products, regardless whether they contain tobacco, nicotine or neither. (Maki 6/9)

The Los Angeles Daily News: California Snuffs Out Tobacco Sales To Teens, But Some Call New Law Unfair
When Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law in May, California became the second state in the nation, following Hawaii, to raise the minimum age for tobacco sales. The change also marked the first time the Golden State has raised the age of sale for tobacco since the law first took effect 144 years ago, said Dr. Karen Smith, director for California Department of Public Health. (Abram, 6/9)

Inewsource: Privacy Concerns Halt UCSD’s Posting Of Patients’ Physician Critiques
From airlines to restaurants today, it’s all about the customer experience. Were they treated respectfully and promptly, and did they get what they came for? That’s increasingly true for health care organizations, and UCSD San Diego Health is no different. The 500-physician hospital system is so set on improving its patients’ experience with their doctors that it was about to post on their physicians’ public profile pages critiques from patients about care they received — horrible to wonderful — along with star ratings indicating overall scores. (Clark, 6/10)

In other hospital news —

The Press Democrat: Santa Rosa Memorial And Petaluma Valley Hospitals Avert Strike
Hundreds of medical workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Petaluma Valley Hospital reached a tentative labor agreement with hospital administrators Wednesday evening, averting a one-day strike that had been planned for Thursday morning. Union bargaining committees at both hospitals, which are operated by St. Joseph Health, Sonoma County, unofficially agreed on a 3-year contract after meeting all day Wednesday, union officials said. The workers will meet in the next two weeks for a vote to ratify the contract. (Espinoza 6/9)

The Orange County Register: Two Area Doctors Disciplined By Medical Board After Criminal Convictions
Two Southern California doctors who were convicted of crimes have reached disciplinary settlements with the state medical board, according to documents released this week. Dr. Scott Richard Miller, a Cerritos psychiatrist who had sex with a patient, must refrain from treating females for two years as part of his seven years of California Medical Board probation. He pleaded no contest in 2014 to a misdemeanor count of unlawful sexual exploitation of a patient. Dr. Richard Michael Rucker, a Los Alamitos internist who was convicted of drunken driving in 2013, is barred from drinking alcohol or using controlled substances during his four years of board probation. (Perkes, 6/9)

The Desert Sun: Cahuilla Elementary Student Diagnosed With Active TB
A Cahuilla Elementary student has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, officials said in a news release Thursday. The student, who has not been identified, has been treated for the illness and is expected to recover. Staff, parents and students who may have been exposed to tuberculosis will receive a letter advising them to get tested, according to Riverside University Health System authorities. (Ferreira, 6/9)

The New York Times: Why Do Health Costs Keep Rising? These People Know
The Geisinger Health Plan, run by one of the nation’s top-rated health care organizations, foresees medical costs increasing next year by 7.5 percent for people buying insurance under the Affordable Care Act. So when Geisinger requested a rate increase of 40 percent for 2017, consumer advocates were amazed. And Kurt J. Wrobel, Geisinger’s chief actuary, found himself, along with other members of his profession, in the middle of the health care wars still raging in this political year. Actuaries normally toil far from the limelight, anonymous technicians stereotyped as dull and boring. But as they crunch the numbers for their Affordable Care Act business, their calculations are feeding a roaring national debate over insurance premiums, widely used to gauge the success of President Obama’s health care law. (Pear, 6/9)

In other national health care news —

The New York Times: Delay Pregnancy In Areas With Zika, W.H.O. Suggests
People living in areas where the Zika virus is circulating should consider delaying pregnancy to avoid having babies with birth defects, the World Health Organization has concluded. The advice affects millions of couples in 46 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean where Zika transmission is occurring or expected. According to a recent study, more than five million babies are born each year in parts of the Western Hemisphere where the mosquitoes known to spread the virus are found. (McNeil, 6/9)

The Associated Press: Investigator: FDA Still Taking Months To Recall Tainted Food
Federal health officials failed to force a recall of peanut butter and almond products for three months after advanced DNA testing confirmed salmonella contamination, government investigators reported Thursday. Despite new legal powers to compel recalls and sophisticated technology to fingerprint pathogens, the Food and Drug Administration allowed some food-safety investigations to drag on, placing consumers in jeopardy of death or serious illness, according to the inspector general's office at the Department of Health and Human Services. (6/9)

Reuters: FDA Seeks Suspension of 4,402 Illegal Prescription Drug Websites
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it, along with international authorities, has formally sought to suspend 4,402 websites that illegally sell potentially dangerous, counterfeit or unapproved prescription drugs to U.S. consumers. The move is part of a global effort being led by the INTERPOL, the world's largest police organization, to identify the makers and distributors of illegal prescription drugs. (Grover, 6/9)

The Los Angeles Times: Giving Patients Aid In Dying Is Compassionate Care
Thursday marks an historic day for Californians. For the first time, terminally ill patients in this state will be allowed to turn to their physicians for guidance and help on how to end their lives on their own terms. While many dying patients will not opt to take advantage of their rights under the End of Life Option Act, others facing a fatal prognosis from a brutal disease or condition will undoubtedly be comforted by the new law. (6/9)

The Sacramento Bee: Helping Their Patients Die Won’t Be Easy For Doctors
On Thursday, California’s End of Life Option Act [went] into effect, enabling doctors to help terminal patients legally end their lives. It will be a victorious day for advocates of physician-assisted death, who are on the march to have similar laws in place soon in more than half the states. But for California’s already harried physicians, it will be the first of many challenging days ahead. First, they will have to decide if they are willing to write life-ending prescriptions. Many may feel ill-equipped or disinclined. The promise to help cure patients’ diseases that drove many doctors to study medicine is not the same as the promise to help them end their lives. (Jason Doctor, 6/8)

The Los Angeles Times: As California's 'Death With Dignity' Law Takes Effect, What Can We Learn From Oregon's Experience With Assisted Suicide?
As California’s aid-in-dying law takes effect, a top Oregon health officer describes how terminally ill Oregonians use that state’s longstanding death with dignity law. Podcast. (Patt Morrison, 6/8)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: The Comfort Of A Humane, Caring End Of Life
In the end, the personal was political. What brought the 78-year-old California governor and former Jesuit seminarian to sign the law that will allow doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients was thinking about his own last days. “I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain,” wrote Jerry Brown, breaking a long silence on this issue. (Ellen Goodman, 6/8)

The Sacramento Bee: We Welcome But Don’t Cheer End Of Life Option Act
Starting Thursday, California [became one of] five states that permit people facing certain, painful and often undignified deaths to take control of their fate. We don’t celebrate this milestone. But we are thankful it has arrived. Gov. Jerry Brown last October signed legislation by Sens. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, and Bill Monning, D-Carmel, allowing doctors to voluntarily prescribe lethal doses of drugs to people who are of sound mind but are in their final days. (6/8)

The Los Angeles Times: Hospital Says It Will Comply With End-Of-Life Law — For Now
Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena will participate in California’s assisted suicide law when it takes effect Thursday. But that could change down the road. (David Lazarus, 6/7)

The Orange County Register: The Subtle And Damaging Power Of Painkillers
In a near-fatal horseback riding incident in the mid-’90s, my shoulder was dislocated and my left leg was all but severed. Orthopedic surgeons reconstructed my crushed bones with titanium rods and screws, vascular surgeons stitched a new map of veins and an artery, and a plastic surgeon brought skin together into an acceptable form. … But what I have never, ever written about – until now – is the ongoing misery that led to years of dependence on Vicodin and other pain medication, and the struggle I had to get off them. (Sam Dunn, 6/6)

The Los Angeles Times: Sorry, Conservatives: There's Still No Hard Evidence That Obamacare 'Forces' People To Be Part-Timers
I’ve found that it’s always wise to check the original paper when sites like these are echoing each other. That’s especially so when the claim that Obamacare has created a nation of part-timers has been heard so often, without evidence. You won’t be surprised to learn that the Goldman Sachs paper doesn’t say what they say it does (Michael Hiltzik, 6/9)

Los Angeles Times: Even If You Have Health Insurance You May Want To Pay Cash
Five blood tests were performed in March at Torrance Memorial Medical Center. The hospital charged the patient’s insurer, Blue Shield of California, $408. The patient was responsible for paying $269.42. If that were all there was to this -- which it’s not -- you’d be justified in shaking your head and wondering how it could cost more than $80 apiece for blood tests. These weren’t exotic procedures. The tests were for fairly common things such as levels of vitamins D and B12 in the blood. It‘s what happened next, though, that this makes this story particularly interesting. (David Lazarus, 6/10)

Bakersfield Californian: With The Right Skills, The Visually Impaired Can Offer So Much
Teachers of the Visually Impaired also collaborate with Orientation and Mobility specialists who teach safe white-cane travel skills at school and in the community. These are important skill which are critical to a person’s independence. This is just a short list of specific curriculum for the visually impaired call Expanded Core Curriculum. Its focus is to bridge the gaps that the vision loss has created. (Fendrick, 6/8)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Bottleneck Punishes Mental Health Patients
As a psychiatrist serving the community of Fallbrook for 30 years, I have often had to direct my patients in crisis to their nearest emergency room for lifesaving care — sometimes voluntarily, and sometimes with the assistance of local law enforcement and paramedics. Indeed, until its closure in 2014, these patients often arrived at Fallbrook Hospital, where I assisted emergency physicians as a consulting psychiatrist. (Timothy Murphy, 8/8)

The Los Angeles Times: How To Treat A Drug-Addicted Doctor
It wasn’t until the state police and the DEA were sitting in my primary care office that I finally stopped denying that I was hopelessly addicted to prescription opiates. The DEA agent said, “Doc, cut the crap, we know you’ve been writing bad scrips.” The windows in my office didn’t open, otherwise I might have jumped out and fled. As it was, I was charged with three felony counts of fraudulent prescribing. (Peter Grinspoon, 6/5)

San Diego Union-Tribune: California Law Says You Gotta Be 21 To Vape — You Mad?
A new California law, effective today, restricted the sale of tobacco and e-cigarettes to those 21 and older, unless you're in the military. While the law targets all tobacco products, including cigarettes, the targeting of e-cigarette products like vapes and "vape juice" is getting a lot of young people riled up. (Luis Gomez 6/9)