Becker's Hospital Review: Hospitals Warned Of Multi-City Terrorist Threat
The American Hospital Association and Health-ISAC are alerting hospitals to a social media post alleging plans for a coordinated, multi-city terrorist attack on hospitals in the coming weeks. In their joint bulletin, the organizations cited an X post made by user @AXctual that claimed the terrorist group ISIS-K (Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham–Khorasan Province) is actively planning simultaneous car bomb attacks on hospitals in the coming weeks. (Diaz, 3/20)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Planned Windsor Assisted Living Development To Include Town's First Memory Care Center
The Town of Windsor is slated to get its first memory care center as part of a new assisted living facility, but the project is still a considerable amount of time away from opening its doors. (Windsor, 3/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Homelessness Is Going To Get Worse 
The region’s overtaxed shelter system that ideally would be a bridge to permanent housing isn’t that for a lot of people. Some 40 percent of those who were able to find a shelter bed ended up back out on the street or living in their cars, according to a recent study by UC San Diego. (Smolens, 3/21)

LAist: Citing Incomplete Data, LAHSA Announces Drop In Homelessness As County Considers Taking Control Of Funding
Preliminary results of last month’s Los Angeles County homelessness count show a year-to-year drop in the number of people living outdoors, according to data released months earlier than usual.The data, from the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, is incomplete. It was distributed three months earlier in the process, as the agency faces an upcoming vote that could see the county take over direct oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars the county currently sends LAHSA every year. (Gerda, 3/20)

KQED: Three Months After Homeless Man Is Killed In City Clean Up, Vallejo Pauses Encampment Sweeps
In recent weeks, the public has learned that a 58-year-old man named James Oakley was crushed to death during a city-run trash cleanup on Christmas Eve, sparking outrage and shock among unhoused residents and advocates. Now, the city has put a temporary pause on encampment sweeps. (Guevarra, Rancaño, Kariisa, Velasquez and Montecillo, 3/21)

CalMatters: Mental Health Insurance Denials Shape New Bills In CA Legislature
Frustrated Californians have long complained that they can’t get their health plans to cover desperately needed mental health treatment. These days, state lawmakers appear to be hearing them—and trying to act. One bill introduced this session would require health plans to cough up more data on coverage denials—and penalize those that wrongfully deny claims most often. (Wiener, 3/20)

Stat: California Bill Targets Ultra-Processed Food In School Lunches
A new bill from California would seek to remove ultra-processed foods deemed “particularly harmful” to physical and mental health from school lunches by 2032, creating the first legal definition of ultra-processed foods in the U.S. and tasking state scientists and University of California experts with determining which additives pose the most risk in the process. (Todd, 3/19)

Times of San Diego: 'Not Only Dumb, But Cruel' – Critics Warn $1B Cut To HIV Funding Could Hurt LGBT Center
Recent threats by the Trump administration to cut more than $1 billion from HIV prevention funding would hurt vulnerable San Diego populations, Rep. Scott Peters said at a press conference Thursday. Peters warned that the loss of HIV prevention programs like the one at San Diego’s LGBT Community Center could erase two decades of hard work. “Not only is it dumb, it’s cruel,” he said. (Caspers, 3/20)

LAist: How Does Medi-Cal Work And How Might Potential Cuts Affect California? Here's What You Should Know
A budget proposal from House Republicans, if implemented, could mean cuts to Medicaid, according to analysts. California's Medicaid program is called Medi-Cal, and it provides healthcare for more than one third of Californians, according to the California Budget & Policy Center. With Medicaid and Medi-Cal in the news, LAist put together a Q&A about the program, how it's funded and who it serves. (Rainey, 3/20)

KQED: As Overdoses Climb, Lurie Orders Scaling Back Harm Reduction Programs
Mayor Daniel Lurie planted a flag in the overdose debate by ordering the San Francisco Public Health Department to scale back some harm reduction programs as part of efforts to address the city’s drug crisis. Lurie’s latest move, following the announcement of an upcoming behavioral health facility at 822 Geary for people experiencing a mental health or drug crisis, comes amid nighttime law enforcement raids targeting entrenched drug markets and a steady rise in overdose rates since October 2024, according to data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. (Johnson, 3/21)

Los Angeles Times: California School Vaccine Rates Fell; Some Students Are Vulnerable To Measles
Despite having some of the nation’s strictest school vaccination laws, California reported a decline last year in the share of kindergarten students who were immunized against measles, including in 16 counties where students no longer have herd immunity against one of the most contagious diseases. New data from the California Department of Public Health show that last year, 96.2% of California students in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella in the 2023-24 school year, down from 96.5% the year before. And 93.7% of kindergarten students were up to date on all their immunizations, down from 94.1% in the same period the previous year. (Wiley, Nelson and Nakajima, 3/19)

EdSource: Covid’s Long Shadow In California: Chronic Absences, Student Depression And The Limits Of Money
In March 2020, the Covid pandemic shut down schools, creating havoc, particularly among California’s most vulnerable children. Five years later, despite unprecedented funding from the state and federal governments, most districts continue to struggle to recover the ground they lost amid multiple challenges: more disgruntled parents and emotionally fragile students, a decline in enrollment, and uncertain finances. (Fensterwald, 3/20)

The New York Times: President Signs Order Aimed At Closing Education Dept.
President Trump on Thursday instructed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin shutting down her agency, a task that cannot be completed without congressional approval and sets the stage for a seismic political and legal battle over the federal government’s role in the nation’s schools. Mr. Trump said Thursday that the department would continue to provide critical functions that are required by law, such as the administration of federal student aid, including loans and grants, as well as funding for special education and districts with high levels of student poverty. The department would also continue civil rights enforcement, White House officials said. Mr. Trump called those programs “useful functions,” and said they’re going to be “preserved in full.” Higher education leaders and advocacy groups immediately condemned the executive order. “See you in court,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the trade union for educators. (Bender, Green and Blinder, 3/20)

NPR: How The Education Department Cuts Could Hurt Low-Income And Rural Schools
The administration has promised that "formula funding" for schools, which is protected by law, would be preserved. That includes flagship programs like Title I for high-poverty schools, and the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP), which sends money to rural and low-income schools. But nearly all the statisticians and data experts who work in the office responsible for determining whether schools qualify for that money will soon be out of jobs, making it unclear how such grants would remain intact. (Mehta, 3/21)

The 19th: ‘A Dark Day’ For American Children: Trump Issues Order To Kill The Department Of Education
The plan to dismantle the Department of Education is in Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump term drafted by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. While campaigning, Trump denied any connection to Project 2025, which faced heavy criticism, including for its goal to eliminate the sole federal education agency. Critics of closing the department say that it will hurt economically disadvantaged youth, children with disabilities and students who need financial aid for college since the agency administers funding to serve these groups. (Nittle, 3/20)

USA Today: Citing Trump Order, Justice Department Cuts Disability Guidance For Businesses
The Department of Justice this week announced the removal of 11 guidelines for businesses seeking to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Justice Department said removing the "unnecessary and outdated guidance" will help businesses comply with the federal disability law and eliminate unnecessary review. The agency cited a Jan. 20 executive order signed by President Donald Trump that called on federal agencies to take action to lower the cost of living. The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act extends civil rights protections to the estimated 1 in 4 U.S. adults with disabilities. (Alltucker, 3/20)

NPR: Trump Wants To Erase DEI. Researchers Worry It Will Upend Work On Health Disparity
Dr. Fola May studies diseases of the digestive tract, and runs a lab at the University of California Los Angeles looking for ways to detect disease earlier in various groups. For that work, she says her lab is "very dependent" on federal funds from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs. So as those agencies began canceling grants and programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, or "DEI," May worried: Would work like hers, looking at health disparities also get swept in? (Noguchi, 3/21)

Bloomberg: UnitedHealth Will Reimburse Pharmacies More For Brand-Name Drugs
UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s drug-benefits unit is starting to reimburse pharmacies more for dispensing brand-name medicines to address longstanding complaints that expensive prescriptions are losing money for drugstores. Pharmacy benefit managers have traditionally compensated pharmacists more for cheaper generic medicines to encourage their use, said Patrick Conway, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx unit. But generic adoption has plateaued, and Conway said the old system discouraged some pharmacies from stocking newer branded drugs like diabetes and weight-loss shots. (Swetlitz and Tozzi, 3/20)

Fierce Healthcare: Optum Rx To Overhaul Pharmacy Reimbursement Models
Optum Rx is shifting its payment models to better meet the needs of pharmacies and consumers, the pharmacy benefit manager announced Thursday. The company said it will shift to a cost-based model, which will better align with "the costs pharmacies may face due to manufacturer pricing actions." The PBM expects the change to be a positive one for the more than 24,000 independent and community pharmacies it works with, along with its members. (Minemyer, 3/20)

ProPublica: FDA Found Problems At Indian Drug Factory Linked To U.S. Deaths
The Food and Drug Administration has found problems at an Indian factory that makes generic drugs for American patients, including one medication that was manufactured there and has been linked to at least eight deaths, federal records show. The agency inspected the factory after a ProPublica investigation in December found that the plant, operated by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, was responsible for an outsized share of recalls for pills that didn’t dissolve properly and could harm people. (Callahan, 3/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Cut Medicaid And The Most Vulnerable Patients In San Diego Will Suffer
Medicaid is currently under threat of massive cuts to fund the Trump administration’s tax cut extensions. If implemented, these cuts would at minimum decrease the range of services covered by Medicaid, and at worst would cause millions of Americans to lose their Medicaid coverage. (Devesh Vashishtha, 3/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Dismissing Researchers And Scientists Makes Us Vulnerable. There Will Be Another Virus.
In March 2020, I wrote a commentary for The San Diego Union-Tribune. I described the early days of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic as an act of science, solidarity and love. Looking back, in this new moment of extraordinary upheaval and fear, it is once again those moments of care — the refusal to abandon our neighbors even when things are hard — that gives me hope for the future. (Rebecca Fielding-Miller, 3/21)

Times of San Diego: Veterans Nationwide Still Suffer From Asbestos-Related Cancer, But There's Help
Asbestos is still claiming the lives of many of our veterans nationwide. In the early 1920s, the U.S. Navy identified asbestos mineral fibers as a cost-effective substance for shipbuilding, among other purposes. Asbestos became of critical importance to the armed forces, especially during wartime years. (Cristina Johnson, 3/19)

CalMatters: Gov. Newsom's Budget Leaves California Vulnerable To Public Health Crisis Amid Trump Cuts
While Gov. Gavin Newsom efficiently rebuilds parts of Los Angeles damaged by wildfires, he is leaving the state unprepared for another potential crisis. (Flavis Mangan Colgan and Eric Schmeltzer, 3/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF’s Response To Drug Dealing Could Lead To More Overdoses
For the past several years San Francisco has tried to eliminate drug dealing on its streets in part by ramping up law enforcement, arresting dealers and seizing drugs. Last year, the city’s Drug Market Agency Coordination Center helped coordinate the impoundment of 147 pounds of fentanyl and 11 pounds of heroin. (Nuala Bishari, 3/19)