The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Acadia Healthcare To Close Sebastopol-Area Drug Recovery Center Azure Acres
Azure Acres, a large drug recovery center near Sebastopol, is slated for closure next month, according to the facility’s corporate owner. (Espinoza, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Blue Shield Of California Spinoff Stellarus Adds Blues Customers
Blue Shield of California’s tech-focused sister company has added two regional Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers as customers and co-founders. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas and Hawaii Medical Service Association announced Thursday they had signed on as co-founders of Stellarus. (Tong, 9/18)

Becker's Hospital Review: Sharp Nurses Petition Management Amid Contract Talks
The union representing nurses at San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare delivered a petition to health system leaders Sept. 17, highlighting their concerns amid ongoing contract negotiations. A Sharp HealthCare spokesperson told Becker’s that representatives received the petition from the Sharp Professional Nurses Network — an affiliate of United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals — “in the same mutually respectful manner as the parties’ negotiations have been conducted.” (Gooch, 9/18)

Bay Area News Group: Paraplegic Patient Accuses Concord Nursing Home Of Giving Him Bleach To Wash Down His Pills
Staff at a Concord nursing home gave a 55-year-old paraplegic patient a cup of bleach-based wound-cleaning solution to wash down his morning pills, the man claimed in a lawsuit against the facility. (Baron, 9/19)

Bloomberg: China’s Brain Implant Startups Take On Musk’s Neuralink In New Tech Race
America’s leadership in the cutting-edge field of brain technology is being challenged as Chinese startups rise with the support of a full-throttle policy drive. For years, US companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp. have led the industry with state-of-the-art procedures implanting chips into patients’ brains. A wave of clinical trials by Chinese startups this year is shifting that narrative. (Tong and Rai, 9/18)

Los Angeles Times: West Nile Virus Confirmed In L.A. County, Health Officials Warn
The first cases of West Nile virus this year have been recorded in Los Angeles County, with four people hospitalized between July and August, officials said. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Wednesday announced that patients from the Antelope Valley, San Fernando and central Los Angeles were infected with the virus, hospitalized and are now recovering. (Campa, 9/18)

The Desert Sun: Mpox Case Reported In Riverside County Resident Who Traveled Overseas
A Riverside County resident who recently traveled overseas returned with a clade I mpox infection but has since recovered, health officials said Thursday, Sept. 18. (Sasic, 9/18)

Los Angeles Times: RFK Jr's Vaccine Committee Changed Its MMRV Recommendations
After an 8-3 vote with one abstention, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will no longer recommend that children under the age of 4 receive a single-shot vaccine for mumps, measles, rubella and varicella (better known as chicken pox). Instead, the CDC will recommend that children ages 12 to 15 months receive two separate shots at the same time: one for mumps, measles and rubella, or MMR, and one for varicella. (Purtill and Gold, 9/18)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Major California Health Insurers Side With Newsom And Medical Groups To Cover Covid Shots
A key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel this week is considering whether to roll back recommendations about who should get vaccinated, but California and some health insurance giants aren’t waiting to see. (Stringer, 9/19)

Stat: ACIP Panel Weighs Delaying Hepatitis B Vaccine Schedule From Birth
A key government advisory committee discussed on Thursday whether to recommend delaying the first hepatitis B vaccine shot, currently given at birth, by at least one month for babies who are born to mothers that test negative for the virus. Experts fear such a change could set back decades of public health work that has almost eliminated infant hepatitis B cases in the U.S. The members of the Advisory Committee on Immunizations Practices pushed a vote on the issue to Friday. Experts fear that if ACIP does shift the initial shot, more children will develop chronic liver infections and complications. (Oza, Chen and Cirruzzo, 9/18)

The Hill: RFK Jr. Vaccine Advisors To Examine Shots During Pregnancy
A panel of federal vaccine advisers appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will launch a new review on the use of vaccines during pregnancy, the panel’s chair said. Martin Kulldorff, a statistician and former Harvard professor who chairs the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), made the announcement at the start of Thursday’s meeting, where panelists will consider recommendations related to the pediatric vaccine schedule, including hepatitis B. (Weixel, 9/18)

MedPage Today: Controversial RFK Jr. Advisor Has Access To Private Info In CDC Vax Database
Discredited autism researcher David Geier has full access to personally identifiable data from the original Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) and may be angling to conduct more studies with newer VSD data, according to a former CDC official. In a letter sent to co-chairs ahead of the Senate's health committee hearing on Wednesday, Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, provided insights into what Geier is doing inside the agency. (Fiore, 9/18)

Los Angeles Times: Federal Judge Says She Is 'Inclined' To Order Trump Restore $500 Million In UCLA Grants
A federal judge Thursday said she was “inclined to extend” an earlier ruling and order the Trump administration to restore an additional $500 million in UCLA medical research grants that were frozen in response to the university’s alleged campus antisemitism violations. Although she did not issue a formal ruling late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin indicated she is leaning toward reversing — for now — the vast majority of funding freezes that University of California leaders say have endangered the future of the 10-campus, multi-hospital system. (Kaleem and Miller, 9/18)

The Hill: Appeals Court Won’t Let Trump Administration Resume HHS Overhaul, Firings
An appeals court Wednesday refused the Trump administration’s request to resume mass layoffs at federal health agencies as part of a restructuring effort. The unanimous three-judge panel on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to lift a lower order blocking the restructuring as Democratic-led states press ahead with their lawsuit.  (Schonfeld, 9/18)

The Hill: State Department Outlines Plans To Move From Global Health Aid To Self-Reliance
The State Department outlined a new plan Thursday to move from global health aid to fostering the self-reliance of countries the U.S. has supported in prior years. The U.S. will focus on working directly with nations, requiring them to co-invest in global health initiatives in order to tackle diseases such as tuberculosis, polio and HIV/AIDS as part of a new strategy from President Trump’s administration. (Timotija, 9/18)

Bloomberg: Obamacare Subsidy Extension Would Cost $350 Billion: CBO
Congressional Democrats’ push to make subsidies for Obamacare health plans permanent would cost about $350 billion over a decade, budget analysts said Thursday, raising the stakes in a standoff that threatens to shut down the government in less than two weeks. (Cohrs Zhang and Tozzi, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Plans To Disclose Provider Directories In 2026
Medicare Advantage insurers will be required to submit provider directories to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services next year under a final rule issued Thursday. CMS intends to incorporate provider network information into the Medicare Plan Finder portal. This policy builds on a plan the agency announced last month to assemble provider lists it will add to the plan finder for the upcoming annual enrollment period. Insurer participation in that initiative is voluntary. CMS eventually aims to create a national provider directory. (Early, 9/18)

Los Angeles Times: After The Fires, Survivors Faced Worry Over Contamination, Struggled To Find Testing
After the Eaton and Palisades fires ripped through Los Angeles County, the vast majority of residents in and around the burn scars were concerned about the hazardous compounds from the smoke and ash lingering in their homes, water and soil, according to a new survey published Tuesday. Yet many felt they lacked the support to move back safely. (Haggerty, 9/19)

Times of San Diego: Fire Chiefs Urge Residents To Remain Vigilant When It Comes To Wildfire Prevention
“Never on pause” – that’s how one fire official on Wednesday described the new normal and how residents should always be prepared when it comes to the threat of a wildfire. “What once was a fire season has now become a fire year,” said Fire Chief Tony Mecham of CalFire San Diego and San Diego County Fire. “With historically low live fuel moisture levels across the county, we urge residents to remain vigilant, with preparation and awareness never on pause.” (9/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Urban Alchemy Gave Pay Bumps To SF Homeless Shelter Staff
Urban Alchemy, a prominent San Francisco nonprofit that operates in cities around the nation, “knowingly overspent” hundreds of thousands on pay bumps for its staff and other expenses last fiscal year under a contract it received to run a homeless shelter near the Tenderloin, city analysts say. The excess spending, which emerged Wednesday at a City Hall hearing, jeopardizes the $22.7 million contract to run the shelter that the nonprofit received from the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. It comes amid mounting scrutiny of Urban Alchemy, which expanded from San Francisco into cities in five other states grappling with homelessness. (Barba, 9/18)

Los Angeles Times: Lawyers Who Sent L.A. Whopping Bill To Get Millions More
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a fivefold increase to its contract with a law firm that drew heated criticism for the invoices it submitted in a high-stakes homelessness case. Three months ago, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher billed the city $1.8 million for two weeks of legal work, with 15 of its attorneys billing nearly $1,300 per hour. By Aug. 8, the cost of the firm’s work had jumped to $3.2 million. The price tag infuriated some on the council, who pointed out that they had approved a three-year contract capped at $900,000 — and specifically had asked for regular updates on the case. (Zahniser, 9/17)

Voice Of San Diego: County Urges El Cajon PD To Change Mental Health Call Policy
A few months after El Cajon police quietly halted automatic responses to some mental health calls, the county is urging the city to change course. A top county bureaucrat detailed the county government’s concerns with the El Cajon policy shift including challenges for county-contracted clinicians who can’t always respond without police backup – in a letter to the city manager last week. She asked the city to consider changes. (Halverstadt, 9/18)

Los Angeles Times: Father Turns To 9-Year-Old Son For Lifesaving Stem Cell Donation
The question came at dinner toward the end of June. Anesthesiologist Nick Mondek, 48, was dying of acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer that affects blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. It was a serious topic to tackle with his then-9-year-old son, Stephen, as they ate bowls of pasta. But Mondek needed a stem cell donor — and fast. So he asked his son to save his life. (Campa, 9/19)

Los Angeles Times: The Louisiana Senator Shows His Regret
There were a couple of especially dramatic moments in Wednesday’s Senate Health Committee hearing delving into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s firing of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the subsequent resignations of three top CDC officials. Interestingly, both were generated by the committee chair, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). (Michael Hiltzik, 9/18)

The Bay Area Reporter: After Pride: Mpox Still Deserves Attention
Mpox hasn’t gone away – and neither has our need to care. Pride Month may be behind us, but events aren’t slowing down quite yet, including the upcoming annual Folsom and Castro street fairs in San Francisco. These events usher in another last-minute round of travel, connection, and reasons to stay tuned-in to our bodies and our health. And this moment, nestled between big gatherings and late-summer plans, is as good a time as any to talk about mpox, not just as statistics or case counts, but as something real and lived. (Scott Bertani, 9/17)

Times of San Diego: How Latinos Are Shaping California Wildfire Preparedness 
Across the United States, wildfires are becoming more frequent, more intense, and more destructive, and should be considered not just a public health crisis but a national security issue, too. This year, California has endured some of the most devastating blazes that have scorched landscapes, destroyed homes and infrastructure, and displaced communities. But while wildfires impact everyone, Latinos are often on the frontlines — leading efforts, building solutions, and pushing for stronger protections for all communities. (Hilda Berganza, 9/12)

East Bay Times: Masquerading As Green, State Bill Would Unleash Toxins Into Poor Neighborhoods
As executive director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, I’ve spent decades pushing recyclers like Radius to be better neighbors. But a new bill, drafted by the metal shredding industry and facing an imminent vote in the California Assembly, would gut oversight of these dangerous facilities and lead to more toxic pollution in West Oakland and across California. (Brian Beveridge, 9/10)