The Associated Press: Bill Mandating Rape-Kit Data Clears California Assembly
The California Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a proposal requiring local police departments to report how many rape kits they collect and give a reason for every kit that goes untested in an effort to reduce the accumulation of untested DNA samples taken in sexual assault cases. Under the proposal from Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, law enforcement agencies would tell the state Department of Justice the number of DNA samples they collect in sexual assault cases. They would be required to give a reason for every kit not sent to a crime lab every four months they are not tested. (Noon, 5/12)

Capital Public Radio: Thursday Bill Round-Up: Fitbits, Emissions Fines, And Rape Kits
The Assembly passed measures on Thursday to protect health information, increase data about rape kits, and crack down on polluters after the Volkswagen emissions scandal. When police departments investigate rape, the legislation would require them to track the number of rape kits in their custody and report it to a federal database. Departments would also need to specify a reason for each kit that hasn’t been tested. ... Bracelets and key fobs that track heart rate, distance traveled—even sleep patterns—have gone from non-existent a few years ago to a billion dollar industry. California lawmakers are looking to add rules about what happens to the data they collect. (Bradford, 5/12)

Modern Healthcare: Scripps Begins To Stabilize As It Undertakes Restructuring
Scripps Health's operating performance is starting to stabilize as the San Diego-based system takes steps to get its costs under control. The four-hospital group is restructuring and plans to eliminate about 100 jobs. Scripps CEO Chris Van Gorder notified employees in a memo earlier this year that the job cuts will come mostly from management and administration. The system spent nearly $2.4 million on restructuring costs in the quarter ended March 31, according to its quarterly earnings report. (Kutscher, 5/12)

The Sacramento Bee: Sutter Hospice Faulted In Care Of Former California Health Care Leader Jerome Lackner
A state investigation into the death of Jerome Lackner, an iconoclastic California health care leader who served as a physician for Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr., has found that Sutter VNA & Hospice provided his caregivers with excessive amounts of morphine that, if administered, may have contributed to his death or killed him. The report by California Department of Public Health investigators faults the Sutter hospice for continuing to provide morphine to Lackner’s lay caregivers, despite nurses’ concerns that he was being overmedicated. It notes that during one nine-hour period, he was given morphine at almost double the maximum dosage prescribed. (Piller, 5/12)

KQED: San Francisco Soda Tax Proponents Scrambling — Signatures Submitted Day Late
Soda tax proponents in San Francisco said at a City Hall press conference this morning that they had gathered twice the number of signatures needed to place a penny-per-ounce soda tax on the November ballot. Just one problem — the deadline to submit the signatures was yesterday at 5 p.m. “The code is clear, the petition shall be void,” John Arntz, San Francisco’s director of elections, told me. But proponents are undeterred by what they are calling a “technical error.” (Aliferis, 5/12)

The Los Angeles Times: You Asked, We Answered: The Best From Our Reddit Q&A On OxyContin
Our Los Angeles Times investigation found that OxyContin’s stunning success masked a fundamental problem: The drug wears off hours early in many people, exposing them to painful symptoms of withdrawal and an increased risk of addiction. We hosted a Q&A on Reddit on May 11 and received thousands of questions for reporter Harriet Ryan and editor Matt Lait. Here’s a selection of those questions and answers, lightly edited for length and clarity. (Zu, 5/12)

The Orange County Register: Grand Jury: Orange County Is Failing Foster Children With 'Insufficient And Unsuccessful' Efforts
Separating children from their families and placing them in the care of strangers “leaves a bloody scab on the psyche that may never quite heal,” wrote researcher Waln Brown, once a foster child, in a work poignantly quoted by the Orange County grand jury in a new report. And Orange County’s most vulnerable children may fare worse, according to the highly critical probe released Wednesday. The grand jury found the county’s child welfare agency fails “to provide safe, nurturing and permanent homes for those children who are considered ‘hard to place,’” including teens and children with serious medical and psychological needs. (Sforza, 5/12)

Bay Area News Group: Postpartum Depression: Advocate Didn't Get Help Until She Considered Throwing Herself, Son In Front Of Bus
When Paige Bellenbaum's son was born 10 years ago, things just didn't feel right. She spent her days crying, stopped talking to friends and, at one point, wore the same outfit for two weeks. When another new mom, sitting on a park bench and bouncing a happy baby on her knee, turned to her to ask, "Isn't this wonderful?" Bellenbaum paused for a second, then replied honestly: "No. Sometimes it feels like the worst thing I've ever done." (Wessel, 5/12)

The San Francisco Business Times: Why Practice Fusion's New CEO Is Looking Forward To The Future – And Profitability
Tom Langan stepped in as interim CEO of electronic medical records company Practice Fusion in August 2015, after the board made co-founder and former CEO Ryan Howard the company’s chairman. That followed long delays in taking the 10-year-old company public. Three months later, Langan won the permanent CEO title. (Rauber, 5/13)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Aging Population Caused By Lower Fertility, Longer Lives
The population worldwide is aging rapidly, according to a new study, and the trend is playing out in San Diego County as well. According to the U.S. Census, the global phenomenon is caused by declining fertility rates and increased life expectancy. By 2050, the world's 65-and-older population will increase to almost 1.6 billion people. (Gilchrist, 5/12)

The Associated Press: Judge Sides With House Republicans Against Health Care Law

The New York Times: Judge Backs House Challenge To A Key Part Of Health Law

USA Today: Federal Judge Strikes Down Obamacare Payments

The Washington Post: Judge Strikes Down Obama Health Law Insurance Subsidy In Victory For House GOP

Los Angeles Times: Federal Judge Rules Obamacare Is Being Funded Unconstitutionally

Politico: House GOP Wins Obamacare Lawsuit

The Wall Street Journal: Obama’s Health Law Wrongly Repaying Funds to Insurers, Judge Says

Politico: Insurers Could Face Financial Blow If Obamacare Subsidies Struck Down

The Wall Street Journal: House Passes Bills To Combat Opioid Abuse In U.S.
The House passed several bills Thursday to combat the country’s growing problems with painkiller abuse and heroin use, which health officials say are now causing more Americans to die from drug overdoses than traffic accidents. The bills, approved with broad bipartisan support, provide for substance abuse treatment, education and law enforcement efforts to tackle the opioid epidemic, among other provisions. They join related bills passed earlier in the week. (O'Keeffe, 5/12)

The Associated Press: House, Senate Hope To Craft Quick Anti-Drug Abuse Compromise
Congress is ready to start crafting compromise legislation addressing the nation’s opioid abuse crisis, which should be an easier lift than other issues facing lawmakers. The reason: Both parties have an election-year incentive to show they’re tackling a problem that’s killing people in America’s biggest cities and smallest towns. The House approved three bills Thursday setting up federal grants and taking other steps to battle the drug epidemic, the last of 18 measures on the issue the chamber overwhelmingly passed this week. Members of both parties hailed the measures, though Democrats complained that none provided any money for the programs and anti-drug advocates called the bills a needed but modest first step. (Fram, 5/13)

Los Angeles Times: Lawmaker Calls For Scrutiny Of Drug Makers' Role Amid Opioid Abuse Epidemic
As Congress showed bipartisan support for legislation to address the nation's opioid abuse epidemic, a lawmaker urged colleagues Thursday to look closely at the role of pharmaceutical companies, citing a Los Angeles Times investigation into the manufacturer of OxyContin. In remarks on the House floor, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) called the marketing of painkillers by drug companies "the root cause of the problems." (Ryan and Levey, 5/12)

Meanwhile, senators have broken their deadlock over Zika funding —

The Washington Post: Senate Reaches Deal On Zika Funding, Will Vote Tuesday
The Senate on Thursday reached a bipartisan deal that would provide $1.1 billion in funding to fight the Zika virus, breaking a months-long standoff over how much spending is needed to address the growing public health threat. The funding package was introduced as an amendment to a spending bill that is expected to be considered next week. Senators will also have the opportunity to vote on an option that would fully fund White House’s $1.9 billion request and a separate GOP-backed proposal that would use $1.2 billion in cuts to an Affordable Care Act program to offset the cost of $1.1 billion in Zika spending. (Snell, 5/12)

The Los Angeles Times: Your Vanishing Health Coverage: Employers Are Cutting Retiree Health Benefits At A Rapid Rate
The shrinkage of employee retirement resources in the U.S. has been well documented, as employers shift more risk onto their workers. Less so is the rate at which employers have been eliminating healthcare benefits for retirees. As the Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported, retiree health coverage is becoming an endangered species. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/11)

The Los Angeles Times: The GOP'S Scorched-Earth Approach To Obamacare Finally Pays Off – Except For The Poor Of Course
Six years after losing the battle in Congress over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans haven't stopped fighting to reverse the results. They've had little or no luck on Capitol Hill, even though they now control both the House and the Senate. On Thursday, however, they won a skirmish in court when a federal judge canceled funding for the subsidies that help millions of poor people pay the out-of-pocket costs of doctor visits, outpatient care and hospitalizations. The GOP win, if upheld, is a loss for many of their constituents. (5/13)

The Sacramento Bee: California Consumers Get New Warnings On Food, Drink Containers
Beginning Wednesday, Californians started seeing new warnings about a chemical, Bisphenol A, when they buy food at the grocery store. Known as BPA, it has long been used in a wide variety of products, including the linings of food and beverage cans and bottle and jar lids to extend shelf life and prevent bacterial contamination. In recent years, however, questions have come up about BPA’s potential toxicity. The Legislature passed a law in 2011 banning BPA in bottles or cups designed for use by children 3 years or younger. (Matthew Rodriquez and Lauren Zeise, 5/11)

The Los Angeles Times: Privacy Unprotected After Security Breaches
The most common response when a corporate database gets hacked is for the business to offer a year of free credit monitoring -- a better-than-nothing measure that will alert people to suspicious activity involving their credit files but will do nothing to prevent fraud, identity theft or other mischief. West Los Angeles resident Jairo Angulo and his wife were among nearly 80 million current and former Anthem health insurance policyholders whose personal information was reported hacked last February. (David Lazarus, 5/10)

The Sacramento Bee: Time For California School Kids To Get Breakfast After The Bell
It may come as a shock, given California’s place as a world food supplier, but millions of children in this state come to school hungry every day. Though the federal government subsidizes school breakfasts for students from low-income families, only about a third of the state’s 3.3 million eligible kids actually use the program. Some cannot get to school early enough to make the cafeteria deadline. Others are embarrassed to accept a subsidized breakfast. Still others skip the most important meal of the day assuming they’ll snack on junk food later. (5/8)

The Bakersfield Californian: Want Unqualified Eye Surgeons? SB 622 Is For You
We rely on our eyes almost every moment of our waking hours. Unfortunately, a dangerous piece of legislation in Sacramento, Senate Bill 622, would allow optometrists across California to perform surgical procedures on the eye and surrounding tissues with a trivial amount of training and a handful of practice procedures — procedures that should be reserved for those with proper education and experience. (Ronald Morton, 5/8)

The Los Angeles Times: There's No Place For Rampant Capitalism In Treating The Sick
A good friend of mine recently found herself between jobs, with a gap in her health insurance and a recurrence of her kidney stones. What she needed were fluids and pain relief, fast. I'm a gastroenterologist, and hoping to minimize the financial impact, I went with her to our local ER and had a conversation with the attending physician. Maybe we could pass on the CT scan and extraneous lab work? (Michael Jones, 5/8)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Can Public Health Agencies Do Nuance On E-Cigarettes?
I've wanted to blog about the reasons for the differing public health policies that Britain and the United States have adopted over electronic cigarettes. But Sarah Zhang of Wired has already done so, and nicely too. I do have a few more points to round out the picture, hence this post. (Bradley Fikes, 5/7)

The Press Democrat: Lowering Health Costs By Raising The Smoking Age
Governors commonly include a message when signing or vetoing significant legislation. But Gov. Jerry Brown gave no explanation on Wednesday when he approved a bill raising the legal age to buy tobacco for smoking and vaping in California from 18 to 21. (5/6)

The Orange County Register: Lawmakers Blowing Smoke On Vaping
California state and local governments continue to try to crack down on e-cigarettes, or vaporizers, and regulate them like cigarettes, yet mounting data show that the devices are far safer to users – and those around them – and have been proven effective at providing smokers an alternative to help them quit or significantly reduce their tobacco smoking. (5/6)

Los Angeles Times: Why Many Hospice Doctors Like Me Won't Participate In Legal Physician Assisted Suicide
On June 9 California will join four other states — Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — in allowing physician-assisted suicide. Meanwhile, my state, Arizona, and a dozen or so others are considering their own “right to die” laws. As a hospice physician, about twice a year I am asked by a patient to prescribe a lethal dose of a medication. Oncologists throughout the country report that up to half of their patients at least ask about it. But even if it were legal in Arizona, and I knew a patient met all the criteria established by law, I would still not hasten his or her death. That would be my right as a doctor, and it will be the right of doctors in California as well. (Ann Marie Chiasson, 5/12)