Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Startup Seeks To Hold Doctors, Hospitals Accountable On Patient Record Requests
Despite laws requiring that health care providers hand over copies of patient records in a timely fashion, many people have trouble getting theirs. Ciitizen, a Palo Alto, Calif., company that helps cancer patients with the task, recently published a scorecard that rates hospitals, doctors and clinics on their compliance with records requests. (Lori Basheda, )
Two Students Dead, Three More Victims Wounded At California High School In Latest Mass Shooting: A student pulled a gun from his backpack and opened fire at a Southern California high school Thursday, killing two students and wounding three others before shooting himself in the head on his 16th birthday, authorities said. The attacker was hospitalized in critical condition, officials said, and investigators offered no immediate motive. The gunfire began around 7:30 a.m. at Saugus High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita. Authorities estimated that the suspect took just 16 seconds to pull out the weapon, shoot five classmates and turn the gun on himself. At the time, students were “milling around” and greeting each other in an outdoor quad area, sheriff’s homicide Capt. Kent Wegener said. Surveillance video showed the shooter standing still while “everyone is active around him.” Though investigators were searching the teen suspect’s papers and computer hard drives for any clues as to his motive, none immediately emerged, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. Read more from Marisa Gerber, James Queally, Hannah Fry and Sarah Parvini of the Los Angeles Times.
‘We are one of those schools now’: At least 30 shooting attacks on school grounds have occurred in 2019 resulting in deaths or injuries, according to gun safety group Everytown. Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, a non-profit founded in 2006, tracks incidents of gun violence across the United States. Included in its count of gun violence on schools are any incident in which a live round is fired inside or into a school building or on a school's campus. The group says there have been a total of 84 incidents of gunfire on school grounds in 2019. There were 104 in 2018. In an evacuation and reunification zone set up for the students, an evacuee in a Saugus dance T-shirt tried to come to grips with what had happened. “We are one of those schools now,” she said. “Just like Parkland.” Read more from Ryan W. Miller of USA Today.
‘How Do We Recover And Step Forward’: Experts Weigh In On Helping Teens Deal With Trauma: The first thing adults should do is make sure their child or adolescent knows they are willing and available to talk with them, said Stephen Brock, a professor of school psychology at Cal State Sacramento. Parents should also immediately reassure children that they are safe — practice that extends to all trauma survivors. “The longer the threatening circumstance continues, or just that [survivors] believe they’re in danger, the harder it’s going to be to recover,” Brock said. Read more from Nina Agrawal of the Los Angeles Times.
The Modern American Gun Debate Started With An Incident In California. How Did It Grow From There? The modern American gun debate began on May 2, 1967, when 30 protesting members of the Black Panther Party marched into the California Capitol with loaded handguns, shotguns and rifles. As photos of gun-toting radicals from Oakland hit front pages across the country, many Americans were shocked to see who was embracing the Second Amendment. In California, as in most states at the time, there were few restrictions on carrying loaded weapons in public. Read more from Ben Christopher of CalMatters.
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
Los Angeles Times:
Sen. Kamala Harris Introduces Bill To Boost Towns' Wildfire Preparedness
California Sen. Kamala Harris introduced a bill Thursday that would set aside $1 billion each year to pay for better infrastructure, land-use and evacuation route planning in fire-prone communities. The proposed legislation would benefit cities and towns throughout the country, but especially those in California, where many communities are vulnerable and residents are struggling to adapt to longer and more intense fire seasons. (Phillips, 11/14)
San Francisco Chronicle:
During PG&E Outages, Generators Caused Fires, Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
When PG&E cut power in rural Nevada County in late September, 90-year-old Art Bern went to turn on a generator outside his garage. It took him a few tries to get the machine, bought along with the house in 1989, going. But after he finally did and returned inside, the lights, which had just gone on, flickered out with a pop. (Moench, 11/14)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Hotline Helping Seniors Get Uber, Lyft Rides Challenged By California Regulators
All Justin Boogaard wanted was to help his grandmother order an Uber ride. Like many older adults, she doesn’t have a smartphone.That led to Boogaard’s creation four years ago of San Francisco startup GoGoGrandparent, which provides a toll-free number that people nationwide and in Canada can call to request Uber and Lyft rides. ...But then California regulators issued GoGo a $10,000 fine in February, saying it needed to apply for a permit as a for-hire transportation company, just like Uber and Lyft. (Said, 11/14)
Reuters:
Generic Drug Group Sues Over California Law Combating 'Pay-For-Delay' Deals
A trade group for generic drugmakers has filed a lawsuit challenging California’s recently-enacted law that bars manufacturers of brand name drugs from paying other companies to delay releasing generic drugs to resolve patent litigation. The Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Sacramento, California, on Tuesday argued that the nation’s first-of-its-kind law to combat so-called “pay-for-delay” settlements is unconstitutional. (Raymond, 11/14)
San Francisco Chronicle:
FBI: Hate Crimes Rose 58% In San Francisco As Nationwide Numbers Leveled Off
Hate crimes jumped 58% in San Francisco last year even as they appeared to level off across California and the nation, new FBI figures show. The city’s surge in hate crimes, which local leaders called troubling, was driven by an increase in incidents in which people were accused of targeting victims due to their race or ethnicity. (Bauman, 11/14)
Modesto Bee:
Stanislaus Program Affects Psychiatric Patients, Hospital ERs
The community paramedicine program — a first in California — was launched in fall 2015 because too many patients in psychiatric crises are delayed in hospital emergency departments. In the past four years, paramedics who received special training assessed 1,473 patients in the field and took 429 of them directly to a mental health crisis center. (Carlson, 11/14)
East Bay Times:
Monterey County Doctor Charged In Opioid Distribution Scheme
A federal grand jury indicted Dr. Deane Leo Crow of Prunedale for his role in an opioid distribution scheme that saw more than 452,000 pills dispensed by pharmacists without a legitimate medical purpose. According to an indictment returned Oct. 31 and unsealed Wednesday, Crow acted outside the course of professional practice and without a legitimate purpose when he caused pharmacists to dispense oxycodone and hydrocodone since August 2014. (Wright, 11/15)
Sacramento Bee:
Sutter Health Settles Kickback Lawsuit For $30 Million
Sutter Health has agreed to pay more than $30 million to the federal government after an executive at the Sacramento-based health care giant accused Sutter of paying out millions of dollars in kickbacks to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, one of the lawyers in the case said Thursday. (Stanton and Anderson, 11/14)
Los Angeles Times:
UC Plans To Enroll 1,400 More California Undergraduates With No Tuition Increase
The University of California plans to enroll 1,400 more California undergraduates next year with no tuition increase under a 2020-21 budget approved Thursday by the board of regents. The UC system also will enroll 1,000 additional graduate students and expand mental health services and academic support in its drive to increase graduation rates and close the achievement gap among diverse student groups. (Watanabe, 11/15)
Capital Public Radio:
Community College Partnership Fills Education, Mental Health Gaps In Amador County
To tackle these shortages, the county is funding a unique scholarship program to provide an educational stepping stone for residents who want to work in the mental health field. Through Amador College Connect, students can enroll in online courses through Coastline Community College in Orange County to pursue a certificate or associate degree in human services. (Ruyak, 11/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Santa Clarita Shooting: There Are Five Types Of Mass Killers
On Thursday morning in Santa Clarita, the details about America’s latest mass shooting emerged quickly: Two victims, a teenage girl and boy, were dead; three others were wounded; and a 16-year-old male suspect, a student at Saugus High School, was in custody in grave condition, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Andrei Mojica, who’d been in his AP government class when the shooting started, described a now familiar drill — building a barricade with desks and chairs against the classroom door, grabbing a fire extinguisher for protection and hunkering down, straining to hear what was going on. (Jillian Peterson and James Densley, 11/14)
Los Angeles Times:
'Medicare For All' Won't Fix Soaring Healthcare Costs
The idea of “Medicare for all” advanced another step with the recent release of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s more detailed health proposal. It is expansive and bold, and has brought some excitement to the progressive core of the Democratic Party. While policy mavens can delight in the details, the enormity of the proposal is a sign that this debate has clearly gone off the rails. (Kevin Schulman, 11/15)
Los Angeles Times:
EPA Would Limit Science's Impact On New Regulations
Science doesn’t get much respect from the Trump administration. Among other things, the administration has brushed off as unimportant the effect of burning fossil fuels on global warming, and has ignored the effect of emissions of mercury and other toxins from power plants on the environment and human health. But now the administration wants to further reduce the influence of science on public policy through a bit of regulatory subterfuge that is stunning in its malign craftiness. If the administration succeeds, we’ll all be the worse for it. (11/14)
Sacramento Bee:
Immigrant Families Threatened By Trump’s ‘Public Charge’ Rule
One in four Americans were either born abroad or have at least one immigrant parent.Yet President Donald Trump’s administration continues its attempts to redefine who is American, and who is eligible to become a U.S. citizen. The Administration’s public charge rule establishes new criteria that unlawfully forces residents to choose between support for their families and a path to citizenship. (Dennis Herrera and Jill Habig, 11/14)
Los Angeles Times:
More State Mental Hospitals Would Help Mentally Ill Homeless
The very term “homelessness,” as used to describe the problem that has changed the face of downtown Los Angeles and other West Coast cities, implies that there’s a single solution: housing. That thinking leads quickly to discussions about the high cost of real estate and the need for new approaches to the housing crisis, such as Facebook’s pledge to spend $1 billion to create affordable housing in Silicon Valley. (Husock, 11/11)
The San Francisco Chronicle:
FDA Should Make Anti-HIV Drug Over The Counter
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar announced last week a federal suit against Gilead Sciences, makers of pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV, also known as PrEP, claiming the company is infringing on government patents while selling these prescription-only drugs at high prices. The case could devolve into a protracted legal battle hinging on arcane patent law and the validity of government patents. (Jeffrey A. Singer, 11/14)
CalMatters:
Housing Crisis — Fits And Starts
The latest developments in California’s housing crisis are, as usual, mixed. In September, according to the Legislature’s budget analyst, permits for 10,580 new housing units were issued, a 13% increase from August and a 40% boost from September 2018. However, overall housing starts are still running below 2018’s level, meaning the net gain for the year, including housing that’s burned or been demolished, will likely be well below 100,000 units, or about half of what the state says we need to build each year. (Dan Walters, 11/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Treat L.A. Homelessness With The Same Urgency As 2028 Olympics
In the summer of 2028, hundreds of thousands of athletes, support staff and tourists will flood into Los Angeles for the 34th Olympiad, all needing a roof over their heads immediately. Within hours, they will all find one. Meanwhile, nearly 60,000 men, women and children continue to languish on L.A. sidewalks, underpasses, in cars and crowded shelters, their numbers growing every year — and our leaders say it will take years to find them shelter. (Rob Eshman, 11/10)
Sacramento Bee:
California State Legislature Must Act To Ban Criminal Cops
California has a criminal cop problem. They wear badges and carry guns. They possess the power to enforce the law on the rest of us even though they have failed to follow the law themselves. They remain in uniform despite their criminal rap sheets. The communities they patrol have often remained in the dark about their misdeeds – until now. (11/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
Deval Patrick’s Ties To Health-Care Industry Could Be A Liability
Deval Patrick's ties to health-care and drug companies could make him a punching bag for Democratic candidates who support single-payer health care and criticize the pharmaceutical industry. Since leaving the governorship of Massachusetts in 2015, Patrick has served on the boards of American Well Corp., a telemedicine company, and Global Blood Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical firm. Patrick plans to leave both boards. American Well, which is private, has received significant investment from health insurance giants, including a $59.2 million investment from Allianz. It has signed partnerships with others including Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (Rubin, 11/15)
The Washington Post:
FDA Panel Endorses Wider Use Of Fish-Oil Drug To Protect Against Heart Problems
The 16-0 endorsement of the FDA advisory committee puts Dublin-based Amarin Corp. one step closer to widespread distribution of Vascepa, a drug the company has said could be worth billions of dollars annually. The FDA, which usually follows such guidance, could make a long-awaited final decision next month. “There’s a definite need for additional therapeutic approaches,” said Kenneth D. Burman, chief of the endocrine section at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, who chaired the panel. Despite some side effects, he said, “this seems a very useful new agent for addition to the armamentarium for the treatment of these patients.” (Bernstein, 11/14)
Reuters:
U.S. Vaping-Related Deaths Rise To 42, Cases Of Illness To 2,172
U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 2,172 confirmed and probable cases and 3 more deaths from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the death toll to 42, so far this year. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,051 confirmed and probable U.S. lung injury cases and 39 deaths associated with use of e-cigarettes, or vaping products. (11/14)
The New York Times:
Apple’s Reach Reshapes Medical Research
In 1976, the Harvard School of Public Health and two other major medical institutions started a study on nurses that has become one of the largest and longest research efforts ever conducted on women’s health. They have so far enrolled more than 275,000 participants. On Thursday, the Harvard school announced an even more ambitious women’s health study, one that aims to enroll a million women over a decade. The new ingredients allowing the huge scale: Apple’s iPhones, apps and money. (Singer, 11/14)