San Francisco Chronicle: Trump Administration May Hit S.F. With A $140 Million Bill.
The Trump administration could claw back about $140 million in federal funding that San Francisco already received to cover costs the city incurred during the pandemic, the Chronicle has learned. San Francisco spent well more than $400 million to shelter vulnerable homeless people in hotels to protect them from COVID-19 after the virus began spreading five years ago. After the city applied for reimbursement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency under former President Joe Biden sent $148 million — and the city was expecting even more money. (Morris, 5/29)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Trump’s Proposed Budget Cuts Threaten North Bay Meals On Wheels Services
Coastal Seniors is one of a handful of nonprofits serving North Bay’s seniors, which comprise around 25% of Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino county’s population. That percentage is expected to grow over the next five years in what service providers and policymakers have dubbed the “silver tsunami.” (Windsor, 5/29)

Berkeleyside: How The Trump Administration’s Vow To Revoke Chinese Student Visas Could Hurt California Universities
The Trump administration’s latest vow to “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas could affect as many 50,000 students in California, a population larger than Palm Springs. Sending those students home would have far-ranging financial impacts. Foreign students not only pay higher tuition than in-state students, but they also feed local economies with the dollars they spend with local businesses. There are intangibles as well: Many of these international students have remained in the US after graduation, with some becoming famous scientists or business leaders. (Echelman, 5/29)

CNN: Trump Administration’s MAHA Report On Children’s Health Filled With Flawed References, Including Some Studies That Don’t Exist 
The first report from the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again Commission, released last week, appears to be rife with errors, including some studies that don’t exist. Touted by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a milestone, the report lays out the government’s priorities for addressing chronic health problems in children, which it ascribes to poor diet, lack of exercise, stress, overprescribing of drugs and exposure to environmental chemicals. (Goodman, Howard and Klein, 5/29)

NPR: Deaf Advocacy Group Sues The White House For Lack Of ASL Interpreters
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has filed a federal lawsuit against the White House over a lack of American Sign Language interpreters at media briefings. The NAD says the White House abruptly stopped providing ASL interpreters during press briefings and other public events when President Trump returned to office for a second term. (Wright, 5/29)

Stat: ACA Reforms In The GOP’s Tax Bill Were Little-Noticed. That Might Change
Enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplace health plans has more than doubled since 2020, and most of that growth has been in states won by President Trump. House Republicans’ legislative agenda could cut that by one-third and make the insurance more expensive. (Wilkerson, 5/30)

Politico: Dr. Oz Pushes Back On Criticism That GOP Is Cutting Medicaid
President Donald Trump’s favorite celebrity doctor is standing behind his new boss on an issue that has sparked opposition even among some Republicans.Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Trump-appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, ... argued in an interview on The Conversation with Dasha Burns that the Medicaid work requirements in the sprawling legislation will “future proof” the program — in line with administration goals to protect social services. (Svirnovskiy, 5/30)

Stat: Medicare Plots Ambitious Tech Modernization Agenda
Two agencies in the federal health department are plotting what officials say will be an ambitious tech modernization push to promote better care for people on Medicare and beyond. And they’ve tapped some veteran technology entrepreneurs to lead the charge. (Aguilar, 5/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Resident With Measles May Have Exposed Others To The Virus
A Bay Area resident with measles may have exposed others to the virus this month, health officials from Alameda and Santa Clara counties said Thursday. The person, an adult, tested positive for measles after returning from international travel and passing through a U.S airport where they may have been exposed. Officials did not specify which airport. The person was not hospitalized and is recovering at home. The last time a Santa Clara County resident reported measles was in 2019. (Ho, 5/29)

Los Angeles Times: Valley Fever Cases Are Expected To Spike In California. Here's How To Avoid It
For the second year in a row, California is on track to have a record-breaking number of valley fever cases, which public health officials say are driven by longer, drier summers. There have been more than 4,000 cases of valley fever reported statewide from January to April, an increase of more than 3,000 cases compared with the same period in 2024 and 2,000 more cases than in 2023, according to the California Department of Public Health. Last year’s recording breaking number of cases reached a total of 12,605; in 2023 there were more than 9,000 cases. (Garcia, 5/29)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Variant NB.1.8.1 Spreads As Trump Pivots Away From Vaccines
A new, highly transmissible COVID subvariant has been detected in California — heightening the risk of a potential summer wave as recent moves by the Trump administration threaten to make vaccines harder to get, and more expensive, for many Americans, some health experts warn. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced this week that he was rescinding the federal government’s recommendation that pregnant women and healthy children get immunized against COVID, effective immediately. (Lin II, 5/30)

CIDRAP: Prior COVID Vaccination Produces Immune Response Against New SARS-CoV-2 Strains, Study Finds
Receiving a prior COVID-19 vaccine did not prevent the immune system from producing protective responses to either Delta or Omicron virus strains, according to a new study in Nature Immunology. The findings are promising and suggest that, despite a drop in antibodies for mutated parts of the virus, vaccination offers ongoing protection from severe disease. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and their US colleagues, could help better inform booster strategies in the face of an ever-changing virus, the authors said. (Soucheray, 5/29)

MedPage Today: These Two Stimulants Should Be Contraindicated During Pregnancy, Group Says
Consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen is sounding the alarm about potential risks for birth defects associated with modafinil (Provigil) and armodafinil (Nuvigil), two stimulants commonly prescribed during pregnancy. The group argued that animal toxicity studies and post-marketing observational studies have turned up sufficient evidence to justify additional precautions for pregnant patients. (Robertson, 5/29)

CBS News: Hormel Recalls 256,000 Pounds Of Canned Beef Stew Over Wood Fragments
Hormel Foods Corporation is recalling over 256,000 pounds of canned beef stew nationwide due to potential contamination with wood fragments, according to federal health officials. In a recall notice posted Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said the 20-oz. metal cans containing "Dinty Moore Beef Stew" were shipped to retail locations nationwide. (Soucheray, 5/29)

California Healthline: American Doctors Are Moving To Canada To Escape The Trump Administration
Canada has seen a surge of American doctors seeking to move north in the months since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. (Kelman, 5/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: Kaiser Permanente Reports Network Disruption
Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente experienced a brief network interruption on May 28, preventing access to some website features including e-visits, billing, the message center and records. Some members experienced delays to lab and pharmacy services at certain medical offices because of the network interruption. ... Technical teams resolved the issue within hours. (Dyrda, 5/29)

Modern Healthcare: Physicians In Private Practices At The Lowest Level Since 2012
Private practice is slowly fading as a way to do business, going the way of landline phones,  bank deposit slips and fax machines. An analysis by the American Medical Association found the percentage of physicians in a practice wholly owned by physicians last year to be at the lowest level since the survey began in 2012. The AMA examined data from its biennial Physician Practice Benchmark Survey, most recently conducted in 2024. (Broderick, 5/29)

Fierce Healthcare: Healthcare Execs Gear Up For Policy, Business Volatility
Healthcare C-suite leaders are trying to keep pace with rapid changes in U.S. economic and regulatory policies in the first four months of the second Trump administration. Among 700 business executives across six industries, nearly half (48%) of business executives rank economic policy among the top three factors driving strategic change over the next one to two years, according to a new PwC May pulse survey. (Landi, 5/29)

Modern Healthcare: Private-Equity Deals Leave Some Physician Practices Skeptical
Private equity-backed companies promise to ease physicians’ administrative workloads, but doctors say many of those pledges have fallen short. Specialists are increasingly joining management services organizations, which are often funded by corporate investors such as private equity companies. Part of the sales pitch typically includes a competitive compensation package, as well as a commitment to take purchasing, billing, regulatory, technology and other day-to-day administrative tasks off physicians’ hands. (Kacik, 5/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: Mayor Lurie To Alter How Millions In SF Homeless Funding Is Spent
Nearly seven years after San Francisco voters passed a tax on the city’s wealthiest companies to fund homeless services, Mayor Daniel Lurie is looking to shake up how the money is spent. Under the measure passed in 2018, at least 50% of the funds raised must go toward permanent housing, at least 25% for mental health services, up to 15% for homelessness prevention, and up to 10% for shelter and hygiene services. But in his upcoming budget proposal, Lurie will propose eliminating those parameters to use future funds raised by the tax, as well as about $90 million in unspent funds and interest, in the best way his administration sees fit to tackle the city’s behavioral health, homelessness and drug crises, according to sources familiar with the matter. (Angst, 5/29)

Los Angeles Times: West Hollywood Shopping Center Installs Device To Discourage Camping
Some customers walking out of the West Hollywood Trader Joe’s wear an annoyed look on their face, and it has nothing to do with rising grocery prices. The source of the irritation is a small blue box installed in a stairwell leading to the market, the latest tactic used by property owners to deter unhoused people from camping out in the area. The motion-activated device chatters like a loud, anxious cricket as people pass by the shopping center. (Solis, 5/29)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Doctor Pleads With Authorities To Address Rooftop Homeless Camp
For the last three years, an unknown number of homeless people have been living on the rooftop of Tahani Soliman’s medical practice in the city of Huntington Park, the doctor says. The group, she says, has caused fires, damaged the roof and taken apart air-conditioning units for parts, all of which she’s had to repair or replace, costing her nearly $100,000. (Vives, 5/30)

Los Angeles Times: Pushing More Americans Into Homelessness Is No Way To Revitalize Downtowns
The country has its highest number of homeless people since tracking began, and House Republicans just voted to cut safety programs. It’s as if those Reagan years taught them nothing about cause and effect. Yes, we have a $36-trillion national debt, and Moody’s just downgraded our credit rating. We have to draw in the purse strings for the sake of our fiscal stability. But it matters where you make the cuts. Creating a scenario that could increase poverty and homelessness is wildly counterproductive. (LZ Granderson, 5/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: MediCal Expansion A Huge Success, Too Much So For Republican Lawmakers
One recent morning, I visited a McDonald’s and a cauliflower field in the Salinas Valley to talk to a dozen farmworkers. ... The workers had one thing in common. They all reported feeling much healthier than they had in years. I’m hearing the same thing from other undocumented workers. For this improved health, they can thank a smart California policy: the expansion of Medi-Cal, the Golden State’s version of Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor. It now covers all Californians, regardless of immigration status. (Joe Mathews, 5/25)

Times of San Diego: Trump's Budget Won't Be 'beautiful' For Medicaid Recipients
Last week the House passed President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts, including tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and will result in $700 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years to offset the costs. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the cuts will result in 8.6 million Americans losing their health insurance. Republicans claim that the savings are only coming from “waste, fraud, and abuse” and they are generating savings by imposing new work requirements for Medicaid eligibility. But don’t be fooled. (Flavia Mangan Colgan, 5/29)

Capital & Main: Ambulance Chaser: Can Gov. Newsom Siphon Off Medi-Cal Funding To Balance Budget?
When it was placed before voters last November, California’s Proposition 35 sounded straightforward enough: It would use billions of dollars in taxes collected from health insurance plans to increase payments to doctors and others who care for the state’s low-income patients. In reality, Prop. 35, approved in a landslide, is a remarkably complicated piece of legislation. Rather than fortify important components of Medi-Cal, it has served so far to expose the fissures among factions of the state’s sprawling health care system — and to highlight some of their irritation with Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Mark Kreidler, 5/29)

San Diego Union-Tribune: California Prostate Cancer Screening Guidelines Are Outdated 
Subsequent to the task force’s recommendations about screening, several studies revealed concerning findings including increased rates of advanced prostate cancer at presentation. Our local San Diego study, published in 2016 in the New England Journal of Medicine, revealed worrisome, more aggressive prostate cancer pathology at the time of prostate cancer diagnosis. (Franklin D Gaylis, Paul E Dato, and Christopher J Kane, 5/28)

East Bay Times: Sugar Is Making Our Kids Sick. Why Are Schools Serving It?
The Universal Meal Program provides at least two free meals per day. These free meal programs have helped to reverse the rise in childhood obesity. These meals follow strict nutrition rules and are often healthier than food kids eat at home. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed an executive order to take a closer look at processed foods in schools. That’s a great step forward. But there’s still work to do. (Jennifer Woo Baidal and Sharad Wadhwani, 5/29)