Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Hidden FDA Reports Detail Harm Caused By Scores Of Medical Devices
The Food and Drug Administration has let medical device companies file reports of injuries and malfunctions outside a widely scrutinized public database, leaving doctors and medical sleuths in the dark. (Christina Jewett, )
Good morning! Here are you top California health news stories for the day.
Almost 130,000 Kids Dropped Off California’s Medicaid Rolls Over The Span Of A Year: The significant decrease in the number of California kids enrolled in CHIP and Medicaid reflected a larger trend across the country—nationwide, nearly 600,000 children have fallen off the rolls. With a decrease of 130,000 children, California was second only to Texas for the number of kids dropped. California officials attributed the decrease to a strong economy, but the pattern is alarming to public health experts. “All kinds of warning lights are going off in my head,” said Tricia Brooks, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. Along with uncertainty surrounding the health law, some experts suggested that the crackdown on immigrants could be having a toll on the number. Undocumented immigrants whose American-born children would be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP might be unwilling to enroll them for fear of bringing federal immigration agents to their doorsteps. Read more from Stateline.
Sutter Health Posts $198 Million Financial Loss In Precipitous Decline From Previous Year: This is the first time Sutter has reported a loss since its merger with San Francisco’s California Healthcare System in 1995. Company leaders said that most of their financials stayed stable, but they didn’t get a boost from the stock market like they had the year before. Sutter also received a much-reduced payout from California in 2018 to help defray the cost of Medi-Cal patients. The loss comes as Sutter faces two high-profile lawsuits with the federal and state Justice Departments. Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
Inmates’ Overdose Deaths Highlight California’s Struggles To Curb The Flow Of Opioids In Its Prison System: Despite the fact that California has spent tens of millions of dollars to try to stem the flow of illegal drugs into its prison systems, inmates are still dying every year from overdoses. Last year, then-Gov. Jerry Brown pushed a new strategy that included a focus on treatment, as well as intensive searches, but it’s currently in its pilot program stage. Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget does not include a specific proposal on ways to reduce inmate overdoses. Read more from KQED.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
PolitiFact California:
Have Fatal Shootings By Police In California Dropped 40 Percent Since 2015?
Senate Bill 230, sponsored by state Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, would require police agencies to create guidelines that include alternatives to deadly force. It doesn’t change the standard for when officers can use it. But in the midst of the calls for reform, are fatal police shootings actually on the decline in the state? That’s the contention by Protect California, a nonprofit law enforcement-backed group that supports SB 230. (Nichols, 3/7)
Capital Public Radio:
With No Charges In Stephon Clark Shooting, Activists Switch Focus To Changing California's Use-Of-Force Laws
The decisions not to charge the two Sacramento police officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark are pushing activists to focus on a changing California's use-of-force laws. While it may be the demand activists are most likely to achieve, they may need to be willing to compromise. (Adler, 3/7)
The Hill:
House Dems Renew Push For Funding Gun Violence Research At CDC
House Democrats are poised to approve new funding for gun violence research in the face of what they say is a “public health emergency” killing thousands of Americans every year. If successful, it would be the first time in nearly 20 years that Congress has funded gun violence research after an amendment passed in the 1990s discouraged federal agencies from studying the issue. (Hellmann, 3/7)
Capital Public Radio:
UC Davis Chemists Tested 'Microdoses' Of Psychedelic Drugs On Rats (And It Kind Of Worked)
A team of chemists at UC Davis wanted to know if tiny doses of psychedelic drugs — also called microdoses — could have benefits for rats, without making them hallucinate. The answer is yes, according to research published Monday.“If we really don’t need the hallucinogenic effects to produce therapeutic effects, then that might suggest that psychedelics could be used kind of as lead structures to develop safer alternatives,” said lead researcher David Olson. Olson and his team gave rats DMT — a compound that’s structurally similar to LSD — every few days for two months. But they only administered a tenth of a hallucinogenic dose. It’s called “microdosing,” and some humans do it to reduce anxiety or improve focus. It hasn’t been proven safe or effective. (Caiola, 3/7)
East Bay Times:
Santa Clara Public Health Department Campaign Aims To Raise HIV Awareness
The Santa Clara County Public Health Department and the Getting to Zero Santa Clara County-Silicon Valley initiative launched a campaign Thursday at the Valley Health Center that aims to reduce HIV stigma and increase education about HIV treatment. Called the Undetectable Equals Untransmittable campaign, or U=U, it will run from March to June throughout the county. Banners with pictures of HIV positive community members and the words “I became untransmittable” will appear on buses, light rail, and at restaurants, bars and clubs. (Santoro, 3/7)
Capital Public Radio:
'Re-Imagining Paradise' — Making Plans To Rebuild A Town Destroyed By Wildfire
Last fall's deadly Camp Fire has brought renewed questions about whether towns in high risk areas like Paradise, Calif., should even be rebuilt.Barry Long tried to squash those immediately recently, as he kicked off a crowded town hall meeting at the Paradise Alliance Church. "One of the first questions we get is, 'are they really going to rebuild Paradise?'," Long says. "And we say that's not a question, [the city] council made an immediate decision [that] we're going to rebuild Paradise." (Siegler, 3/7)
The Hill:
Dem Leaders, Progressives Struggle Over Medicare For All
Democratic leaders in the House are offering warnings about the high cost of Medicare for all, underscoring concerns in the party about moving forward with the single-payer healthcare proposal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an interview with Rolling Stone published last week said moving to a single-payer health system was the simplest way to bring about universal healthcare, but then noted an estimated $30 trillion cost. (Sullivan, 3/8)
CNN:
Anti-Vaxers' Adult Son Gets Measles; Now, He Has This Message For The World
Three years ago, Joshua Nerius, a 30-year-old software product manager in Chicago, developed a high fever and a rash. Doctors prescribed antibiotics, but Nerius just got sicker and sicker. Joshua went to the emergency room, where a doctor said it looked a lot like the measles. Had he been vaccinated as a child? Nerius texted the question to his mother. She sent back a thumbs-down emoji. (Cohen, 3/8)
The Hill:
Trump Administration Asks Pentagon To House Up To 5,000 Migrant Children
Pentagon officials on Thursday confirmed that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has asked the Department of Defense (DOD) for space to house up to 5,000 immigrant children through the end of the fiscal year. HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan on Tuesday “requested DOD support to identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied alien children on DOD installations, if needed, through September 30, 2019,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jamie Davis said in a statement. (Mitchell, 3/7)
The Washington Post:
Health Advocates Worry About An FDA Without Scott Gottlieb
Scott Gottlieb, one of the most activist Food and Drug Administration commissioners in recent years, pushed ideas such as banning menthol in cigarettes and packaging opioids in small blister packs to prevent overuse. Those ideas seemed more startling because he was part of an anti-regulatory, pro-business administration. Now, with his surprise resignation, public health advocates are anxious about the fate of some of his more ambitious initiatives, whether his successor will embrace them — and whether the agency will get a permanent successor at all. (McGinley and Bernstein, 3/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Administration Weighs Publicizing Secret Rates Hospitals And Doctors Negotiate With Insurers
The Trump administration is sounding out the medical industry on requiring hospitals, doctors and other health-care providers to publicly disclose the secretly negotiated prices they charge insurance companies for services, a move that would expose for the first time the actual cost of care. Mandating public disclosure of the rates would upend a longstanding industry practice and put more decision-making power in the hands of patients. Hospitals and insurers typically treat specific prices for medical services as closely held secrets, with contracts between the insurers and hospital systems generally bound by confidentiality agreements. (Armour and Wilde Mathews, 3/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Indian Health Service Head To Face Questions On Failure To Stop Doctor Who Abused Patients
Lawmakers summoned the U.S. Indian Health Service’s leader to answer for the agency’s failure to stop a pediatrician from sexually abusing his child patients and a slate of longstanding problems with the quality of the agency’s care, according to a letter from the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. The letter, sent Thursday, asks Rear Adm. Michael Weahkee, the IHS’s acting leader, to brief committee staff on the failures. Members of the committee, which oversees the IHS, said in interviews they expect to hold oversight hearings on the agency later this year. (Weaver and Frosch, 3/7)
The New York Times:
Facebook Announces Plan To Curb Vaccine Misinformation
Facebook announced Thursday its first policy to combat misinformation about vaccines, following in the footsteps of Pinterest and YouTube. The social network is adopting an approach similar to the one it uses to tackle fake news: The company will not remove incorrect content, but it will aim to reduce the reach of that content by making it harder to find. “Leading global health organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have publicly identified verifiable vaccine hoaxes,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president for global policy management, said in a statement Thursday. “If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we will take action against them.” (Caron, 3/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Martin Shkreli Steers His Old Company From Prison—With Contraband Cellphone
From a top bunk in a 12-person prison cell in Fort Dix, N.J., Martin Shkreli is at work on a big second act. Wielding little more than a contraband smartphone, the disgraced pharmaceutical executive remains the shadow power at Phoenixus AG, the drug company that became a national lightning rod for jacking up the prices of rare drugs under its former name, Turing Pharmaceuticals AG. Mr. Shkreli still helps call the shots. A few weeks ago he rang up his handpicked chief executive during a safari vacation—to fire him, according to a person familiar with the exchange. This is the secret life of inmate 87850-053, 16 months into a seven-year sentence for securities fraud. (Copeland and Hope, 3/7)
Reuters:
Senator Blumenthal Seeks Criminal Investigation Of Shoddy Military Housing
U.S. senators demanded accountability for slum-like housing conditions on military bases across the country Thursday, with one calling for a criminal investigation of private landlords granted vast power over tenant housing. "There are clear indications of fraud," Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, drawing applause from the crowd. "I would recommend that these issues be referred to the United States Department of Justice." (3/7)
San Jose Mercury News:
Refusal To Vaccinate Children Is Irresponsible
It’s bad enough that anti-vaxxers ignore sound science and put the lives of their children at risk. But it’s unacceptable that their actions also threaten the lives of those who are too young to be vaccinated or can’t receive the preventive treatment for medical reasons. (3/8)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump’s Changes To Title X Put The Health Of Low-Income Women In Danger
The Trump administration has a message for American women: Your health doesn’t count. The Department of Health and Human Services recently finalized a set of onerous restrictions on clinics that participate in the federal Title X program, which funds free and low-cost family planning services. (Jack Lienke, 3/6)
San Jose Mercury News:
Medicare For All Needs Stronger Financial Story
However laudable the goal might be, any proposal must address political reality: The United States will never move toward a single-payer health care system unless it makes good business sense. Any viable plan must achieve the co-equal goals of driving down costs while improving health care outcomes for all. (3/3)
Sacramento Bee:
STIs: Time To Address California’s Worst Public Health Crisis
California has long been a leader on forward-thinking policies, but the state is falling behind in addressing a major public health crisis: the continuing spread of HIV, hepatitis C (HCV), and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In recent years, California has seen a record rise in cases of STIs and a spike in the number of stillbirths caused by syphilis. (Scott Weiner and Todd Gloria, 3/8)
Los Angeles Times:
How Badly Are We Being Ripped Off On Eyewear? Former Industry Execs Tell All
Charles Dahan knows from first-hand experience how badly people get ripped off when buying eyeglasses. He was once one of the leading suppliers of frames to LensCrafters, before the company was purchased by optical behemoth Luxottica. He also built machines that improved the lens-manufacturing process.In other words, Dahan, 70, knows the eyewear business from start to finish. And he doesn’t like what’s happened. (David Lazarus, 3/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Is Gulping Soda As Bad As Smoking? California Seems To Think So
In California, soda is the new tobacco — at least from a public policy point of view. Adopting some of the same methods that have been employed to reduce smoking, California legislators have put together an ambitious package of bills aimed at curbing consumption of sodas, energy drinks and other beverages that have added sugar. (3/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Bad Press About Genetic Engineering Could Scare Off Those Who Would Benefit Most
When the reports came out last year that a Chinese scientist had altered the genome of human twins in utero, scientists and ethicists around the world were rightly horrified. The experiment was denounced as wildly unsafe, medically unnecessary and a clear moral violation. Tinkering with the DNA of embryonic cells (some of which will develop into reproductive cells capable of passing the mutation on to future generations) is roundly condemned, and the idea of designing babies to order raises a host of ethical dilemmas. But the bigger tragedy will be if the glaring lack of judgement shown by one overly ambitious (and improperly mentored) scientist taints all research into the gene-altering method used in the experiments, which is relatively simple and hugely promising. (Usha Lee McFarling, 3/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Sac RT Parking Lot Could Provide Temporary Homeless Shelter
My colleagues on the City Council and I have asked for staff and community proposals to address this humanitarian and public health emergency. Addressing the problem requires finding suitable and safe places to shelter people while securing permanent housing and addressing the root causes of becoming homeless. (Jay Schenirer, 3/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump Hates Science. Sad!
As I’ve written about before in the Los Angeles Times, I underwent the standard healthcare regimen for my condition (surgery, chemo and radiation), but the cancer metastasized anyway and I was given a “yearish” to live. Then, in July of 2015, I became a human science project, a participant in clinical trials at UC San Francisco, one of the top cancer research centers in the world. Today, I’m well past my overdue date, as are many of the other Stage 4 cancer patients, thanks to breakthroughs in immunotherapy and cutting-edge treatments that arrived courtesy of tenacious researchers, the lives of many mice and the evidence-based, peer-reviewed work of medical science. All this is to explain my ever-increasing alarm at the level of scorn the findings of science now attract in the realm of public policy. (Melinda Welsh, 3/4)