We’ll Be Back Soon: California’s Daily Edition will not publish Monday-Wednesday next week. We’ll be back in your inbox on Thursday, Oct. 24.
While we’re gone, send in a haiku for our first-ever Halloween Health Care Haiku Competition. Read the rules. After all … Goblins wear white coats, and not much is spookier, than the health system.
Now, here are your top California health stories for the day.
State Invalidates Test Scores For More Than 1,000 Pharmacists Because Exam Questions Were Leaked Online: On Wednesday, the California State Board of Pharmacy said it had determined that more than 100 questions from the state licensing exam had been leaked online. Anyone who had taken the exam since July will have to retake it — a decision that affects approximately 1,400 people, board spokesman Bob Davila said. “We are fully aware of how destructive it’s been for them, but we’re a consumer protection agency,” Davila said. “We want to make sure that anyone who does get a license in California is in fact competent to take care of California patients.” Angered by the decision, pharmacists are contacting their legislators, threatening lawsuits, signing petitions and planning protests, hoping the board will reverse its decision and release the exam scores. The scandal has mobilized what is otherwise typically a staid profession, said Jon Roth, head of the California Pharmacists Association. Read more from Soumya Karlamangla of the Los Angeles Times.
Federal Lawsuit Claims Orange County Care Home Workers Were Paid $4 An Hour And Had To Work More Than 87 Hours A Week: In a settlement announced Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Labor said the facilities in Mission Viejo and Lake Forest were assessed $1.1 million in back wages and penalties for 66 workers after falsifying records and intimidating workers. The three-year court case brought by federal officials also charged Lilibeth and Gerardo Ortiz, owners of the homes, with retaliation against live-in caregivers and licensed vocational nurses for filing complaints, serving them with eviction notices. Attorneys for the couple “coerced employees into signing false or misleading statements about their working conditions,” the lawsuit said. Read more from Margot Roosevelt of the Los Angeles Times.
Dignity Cites Financial Worries As It Announces Layoffs: Dignity Health announced layoffs this week to employees from Sacramento northward to Mount Shasta, saying that the health care company is not meeting its financial projections. Dignity officials sent communications to union members at each affected hospital, and officials with the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West said its membership had lost positions at Mercy Medical Center in Redding and a number of other locations. Read more from Cathie Anderson of the Sacramento Bee.
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:
Doctor Who Performed Unneeded Procedures Guilty In $12-Million Medicare Fraud Scheme
A federal grand jury found a Southern California doctor guilty of seven counts of healthcare fraud in connection with a $12-million scheme to perform unnecessary medical procedures on Medicare beneficiaries, officials announced Thursday. Dr. Donald Woo Lee, 54, of Temecula was also found guilty Wednesday of adulteration of a medical device. (Shalby, 10/17)
Sacramento Bee:
Feds: Doctor Did Needless Vein Procedures, Reused Catheters
A Southern California doctor was found guilty on Wednesday of performing unnecessary vein procedures and giving his patients contaminated but repackaged single-use catheters. Following a six-day trial, a federal grand jury convicted Dr. Donald Woo Lee, 54, of Temecula on seven counts of health care fraud and one count of adulterating a medical device, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release Thursday. His sentencing is scheduled for March. (Gilmour, 10/17)
Capital Public Radio:
Sacramento Sheriff Releases Video Of Deputy Fatally Shooting Man In Herald
Video released by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department shows the moments leading up to a deputy responding to a call last Sunday in the southern area of the county and fatally shooting a man. The video shows the deputy approach the man, who has been identified as Maurice Holley, lying in a gully on the side of Bennett Road in Herald at around 2:30 p.m. (Moffitt, 10/17)
East Bay Times:
Strike Spreads To Valley Medical Center And O’Connor, Closing Some Services
Hundreds of workers at Valley Medical Center and O’Connor Hospital picketed Thursday as a strike by Santa Clara County’s largest union entered its ninth day. The strike led to the daylong closure of outpatient physical and occupational therapy services at VMC and O’Connor, although outpatient therapy was still available at nearby Moorpark Medical Clinic and 30 elective surgeries were rescheduled, the county said in a news release Thursday morning. Patients of the Express Care clinic at VMC were instead treated at the Moorpark urgent care clinic and pediatric patients and obstetric and gynecology patients were seen at the urgent care clinic across from VMC on Bascom Avenue. (Vo, 10/17)
The New York Times:
How Pending Decision On Obamacare Could Upend 2020 Campaign
A federal appeals court in New Orleans is preparing a ruling on the Affordable Care Act that could put the law’s future front and center in the presidential race, overwhelming the current Democratic debate over Medicare for all and reigniting the health care-driven worries that helped Democrats win back the House last year. Three judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals are weighing whether to uphold a Texas judge’s ruling that the law’s requirement for most Americans to have health insurance is unconstitutional, and that the rest of the sprawling law cannot function without it. (Goodnough, 10/18)
The Wall Street Journal:
Medicare For All Loses Support Amid Lack Of Detail On Costs To Voters
Support for Medicare for All is showing signs of slipping as top-tier Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders struggle to sell the proposal without providing specifics on the financial costs for voters. Meanwhile, an abundance of other health proposals aired by the Democratic primary field is complicating messaging efforts as polls show many voters still don’t understand what specific plans would do. (Armour, 10/17)
The Hill:
Abortion Rights Group To Host Presidential Forum On Reproductive Rights
NARAL Pro-Choice America will host a presidential forum focused on reproductive rights and abortion, the group announced on Thursday. The forum will take place in the second to last week in January in Des Moines, Iowa, a key primary state. The abortion rights campaign group said the forum would feature Democratic presidential candidates, but did not provide a list of who is expected to attend. (Hellmann, 10/17)
The Associated Press:
Pelosi Moves On Drug Prices Despite Falling-Out With Trump
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is plowing ahead with her bill to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices despite a breakdown in relations with her chief bargaining partner on the issue — President Donald Trump. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the legislation would save Medicare $345 billion over seven years, partly because some seniors would no longer have to skimp on costly medicines, and they'd stay healthier. (10/17)
The New York Times:
Juul Suspends Online Sales Of Flavored E-Cigarettes
Juul Labs announced on Thursday that it would temporarily halt online sales of flavored e-cigarettes like mango, products the company had already stopped distributing to retail stores as public outrage mounted over the soaring rate of teenage vaping. Facing multiple federal and state investigations into its marketing practices, Juul said it decided to discontinue the sales for now until the Food and Drug Administration had reviewed the device and flavor cartridges. But the suspension, which also includes crème, fruit and cucumber, does not extend to menthol or mint. (Kaplan, 10/17)
Reuters:
U.S. Ramps Up Testing In Search Vaping Illness Cause As Cases Near 1,500
U.S. health officials on Thursday reported another 180 cases of vaping-related lung illnesses and announced plans to start testing aerosols produced by e-cigarettes and vaping products as they search for the source of the nationwide outbreak that has so far killed at least 33 people in 24 states. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said it plans to start testing lung cells collected from people who became sick in the outbreak. (10/17)
Politico:
E-Cig Industry Fractures Over Looming Laws As Big Tobacco Plays The Long Game
The Trump administration’s effort to ban flavored e-cigarettes and place other restrictions on the industry threatens to put thousands of small vaping concerns out of business nationwide while the biggest tobacco companies in the world — which already control the lion’s share of the vaping market — could only grow bigger. The high bar anticipated in forthcoming FDA requirements for e-cigarettes to stay on the market, combined with the Trump White House’s push to ban flavors in the meantime, threaten to whittle the e-cigarette industry down to just a few big players. (Owermohle, 10/17)
The New York Times:
Judge Summons Drug C.E.O.S For Talks On Sweeping Opioid Settlement
A mayor of a small West Virginia city brought to its knees by opioids and representatives of large cities and counties left reeling by the epidemic will gather in federal court here on Friday morning, to sit side by side with chief executives from the country’s largest drug distributors. Along with platoons of lawyers, including representatives from four state attorneys general, they have been summoned by Judge Dan A. Polster, who is trying to wrest a far-reaching, last-minute agreement to resolve thousands of lawsuits before the start of the first trial on Monday. (Hoffman, 10/18)
The Associated Press:
Border Patrol's Growing Presence At Hospitals Creates Fear
An armed Border Patrol agent roamed the hallways of an emergency room in Miami on a recent day as nurses wheeled stretchers and medical carts through the hospital and families waited for physicians to treat their loved ones. The agent in the olive-green uniform freely stepped in and out of the room where a woman was taken by ambulance after throwing up and fainting while being detained on an immigration violation, according to advocates who witnessed the scene. (10/17)
The Associated Press:
J&J Agrees To $117M Settlement Over Pelvic Mesh Devices
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to a $117 million multistate settlement over allegations it deceptively marketed its pelvic mesh products, which support women's sagging pelvic organs. Ohio's attorney general said Thursday an investigation found that J&J, the world's biggest health products maker, violated state consumer protection laws by not fully disclosing the devices' risks. (10/17)
ProPublica:
We Found Over 700 Doctors Who Were Paid More Than A Million Dollars By Drug And Medical Device Companies
Back in 2013, ProPublica detailed what seemed a stunning development in the pharmaceutical industry’s drive to win the prescription pads of the nation’s doctors: In just four years, one doctor had earned $1 million giving promotional talks and consulting for drug companies; 21 others had made more than $500,000. Six years later — despite often damning scrutiny from prosecutors and academics — such high earnings have become commonplace. (Ornstein, Weber and Jones, 10/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
Public-Health Puzzle: Young People Having Less Sex, Contracting More STDs
It sounds contradictory: Young people, we’re told, are having less sex than older generations did at the same age. But they’re also contracting more sexually transmitted diseases than any other group, and the rates of infection are accelerating at an alarming pace. Last year, combined cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia reached an all-time high with half the reported infections occurring in adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 24. (McGinty, 10/18)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Despite Years Of Legal Pressure, California Prison Suicides Are Rising
California’s costly and enormous prison system has a deadly problem that it needs to fix. A surging number of inmates are killing themselves and in greater numbers than anywhere else in the country. Worse yet, the state is offering only promises to improve the picture. (10/14)
Los Angeles Times:
What The Gun Lobby Gets Wrong About The 2nd Amendment
The Supreme Court will hear a gun control case in December that could significantly limit the ability of state and local governments to regulate guns for public safety reasons. The case involves a New York City regulation on transporting handguns that was repealed in July. Although that original rule is no longer in effect, for now the court has not determined the matter to be moot, so the case will move forward. (Vikram D. Amar and Alan E. Brownstein, 10/16)
CalMatters:
California Leads The Way In Precision Medicine, Thanks In Small Part To You
Precision medicine uses some of the world’s most sophisticated technologies, but the goal is quite simple: Find the root causes of each patient’s unique condition and apply the best, most precise treatments. A good example is cancer, which is not one condition but many. Each patient’s disease is different, but only recently have we been able to pinpoint these distinctions. (Guerra, 10/15)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento CA Neighborhoods’ Lack Of Trees Hurts Public Health
We often plant trees as a symbolic gesture. We plant them on Earth Day in honor of clean air and sustainability. We also plant trees to commemorate people and events. But trees do more than provide shade and improve landscapes. They are also critical to public health. In Sacramento, which the American Lung Association named fifth worst U.S. city for air quality and where temperatures increasingly reach triple-digit highs, we must take the importance of trees seriously. (10/15)
CalMatters:
California’s AB 5 Will Kill The Gig Economy And Force More Companies To Leave
Proposition 13 was called the political equivalent of a sonic boom by economist Art Laffer. In limiting how much local governments could drain from Californians through property taxes, fed-up voters changed the political landscape with the 1978 ballot measure in a way that few state policies have, before or since. Howard Jarvis’ Proposition 13 swept the country and made headlines around the world. (Jackson, 10/15)
San Jose Mercury News:
Creating A Bay Area Where Everyone Has A Home
Last Saturday, Johns Hopkins University brought together leaders from health care, public health, and housing to ensure access to quality, affordable homes, the foundation for a healthy Bay Area. At the top of their agenda? Racial equity. We all feel and see the increase in homelessness. How has this come to be, and how can we eliminate it? (Keith Carson, Kimi Watkins-Tartt and Peter Cohen, 10/11)
Los Angeles Times:
Why 'Sesame Street' Is Smarter About Foster Care Than Your Local Child Welfare Agency
When “Sesame Street” adds a character and a story line to its fabled neighborhood, people notice. In May, the show’s creators introduced Karli, a Muppet in foster care, and this month they revealed the reason for her situation: Her mom struggles with substance abuse. In supplemental “Sesame Street in the Community” videos available online, Elmo’s dad explains to him that “Karli’s mother has a disease called addiction. Addiction makes people feel like they need a grown-up drink called alcohol or another kind of drug to feel OK. (Naomi Schaefer Riley, 10/17)