KPCC: California Health Clinics Risk Losing Hundreds Of Millions If Congress Doesn’t Act 
Congress has a Saturday deadline to renew a federal program that funds community health clinics. If it fails to act, it will endanger more than $600 million for clinics in California, forcing many to consider cutbacks in their services. (Faust, 9/28)

The Hill: House Panel To Consider Children's Health Measure 
Legislation to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will get a markup in the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Oct. 4, days after the program’s funding expires. CHIP funding expires Saturday, along with funding for community health centers. The House aims to include both programs in its bill, but Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has said he wants CHIP to stand alone. (Weixel, 9/28)

The Associated Press: San Diego Increases Homeless Citations In Hepatitis Outbreak
The city of San Diego issued citations and cleared a downtown street where hundreds of homeless people regularly camp during ongoing efforts to sanitize neighborhoods to control the spread of hepatitis A. Officers are asking homeless people to leave the street and nearby blocks where tarps and tents have regularly lined sidewalks and an area near a freeway onramp, police Lt. Scott Wahl said Wednesday. Those who refuse are given citations and those who resist further are arrested. Police over the past two weeks have been issuing about 50 citations a week — up from 30 a week before the crackdown, Wahl said. (Watson, 9/28)

Stat: West Nile Virus Cases Are Spiking In LA. The First Line Of Defense: Chickens
More than six dozen sentinel chickens, living in coops dotted around Los Angeles, make up one of the first lines of defense in this sprawling county’s fight against West Nile virus. The disease has been a background threat for years here, but cases have spiked this fall to worrisome levels. Six deaths have been reported by Los Angeles County this year — including three just last week. And the cases are alarmingly severe: Of 98 reported infections here this year, 79 have led to serious neurological side effects, and 87 have required hospitalization. Because it’s still peak mosquito season, more deaths are expected. (McFarling, 9/29)

In other public health news —

Sacramento Bee: Study: Get A Flu Shot When You're In A Good Mood For The Most Effective Vaccination
The flu shot, of course, is not perfect, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says getting vaccinated reduces the chance of catching the flu by 40 to 60 percent. ... But now, researchers from the University of Nottingham have another tip that might make your next flu shot work even better — get the shot while you’re in a good mood. (Magness, 9/28)

Capital Public Radio: What's In Your McMuffin? New Study Looks At Fast Food And Antibiotics 
A new report released by the nonprofit California Public Interest Research Group Education Fund and authored by Consumers Union ranks popular fast food restaurants based on how much of their meat is treated with antibiotics. ...Some research has shown that widespread antibiotic use in animals can lead to the transfer of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to humans through the meat supply. (Caiola, 9/28)

The New York Times: The Zika Virus Grew Deadlier With A Small Mutation, Study Suggests
An intriguing study in mice, which has prompted some skepticism among experts, suggests that a single genetic mutation helped transform the Zika virus into a devastating force in Latin America. The report was published on Thursday in the journal Science. The mutation, called S139N, first arose in an Asian strain of the Zika virus in 2013, just before a small outbreak in French Polynesia — the first linked to an increase in babies born with microcephaly. (Belluck and McNeil, 9/28)

Los Angeles Times: Once Harmless, The Zika Virus Became Lethal After A Single Genetic Mutation Took Hold Around 2013
In a new round of genetic sleuthing, Chinese researchers have pinpointed the single genetic change that has made the Zika virus a fearsome plague to pregnant women and their babies across the Americas, responsible for thousands of cases of microcephaly and other grievous brain abnormalities that sometimes result in death. (Healy, 9/28)

Los Angeles Times: Complaint Alleges Harm To Pregnant Women In Immigration Detention Centers 
[Jennye] Pagoada is among ten women whose testimony was included in a complaint filed this week against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by seven rights groups accusing immigration officials of improperly detaining pregnant women and failing to provide them with adequate medical care. (Etehad, 9/28)

In other women's health news —

San Jose Mercury News: Homeless And Pregnant: San Jose Woman Seeks Shelter
Despite Silicon Valley’s preposterous wealth fueled by a booming tech industry, shelters for families are scarce. ...The city’s most recent homeless count found 104 unhoused “families” — about 340 individuals. (Giwargis, 9/29)

Los Angeles Times: Julia Louis-Dreyfus Has Breast Cancer: 'Today, I'm The One'
Just when we thought she was invincible, Julia Louis-Dreyfus dropped a bombshell on Thursday. The "Veep" star has breast cancer. "1 in 8 women get breast cancer. Today, I'm the one," the actress shared in a post on Instagram and Twitter. The iconic "Seinfeld" alum spun the announcement into a political statement on healthcare, which has remained a hot-button national issue. (Saad, 9/28)

In other news —

Modesto Bee: Modesto School's Forensic Program Gets 3-D Bioprinter 
Enochs is the first and only high school in the Central Valley to partner with the bioprinter's maker, SE3D Corp. of Santa Clara. SE3D has three other bioprinters in schools — one in Monterey and two in the San Francisco Bay Area, [Dave] Menshew said. (Farrow, 9/28)

Politico: Price Took Military Jets To Europe, Asia For Over $500K
The White House approved the use of military aircraft for multi-national trips by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to Africa and Europe this spring, and to Asia in the summer, at a cost of more than $500,000 to taxpayers. The overseas trips bring the total cost to taxpayers of Price’s travels to more than $1 million since May, according to a POLITICO review. (Pradhan and Diamond, 9/28)

The Associated Press: Price Says He's Reimbursing Costs For His Private Flights
Fighting to keep his job, health secretary Tom Price says he'll write a personal check to reimburse taxpayers for his travel on charter flights taken on government business and pledged to fly commercial — "no exceptions." The repayment — $51,887.31, according to Price's office — covered only the secretary's seat. Price did not address the overall cost of the flights, which could amount to several hundred thousand dollars and is under investigation. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Lucey, 9/29)

The New York Times: Chastened, Tom Price Tries To Deflect Anger Over Chartered Flights
Through intermediaries and the media, Mr. Trump has let it be known that offering reimbursement as repentance was no guarantee that Mr. Price would keep his job. On Thursday, Mr. Price tried anyway. “I look forward to gaining, regaining the trust that the American people, some of the American people, may have lost in the activities that I took,” Mr. Price said in an appearance on “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Fox News. (Rogers, Thrush and Haberman, 9/28)

The Washington Post: Tom Price Apologizes For Private-Charter Flights, Pledges To Repay Taxpayers Nearly $52,000
The move came as House and Senate investigators are pressing Price, as well as other Cabinet members, to disclose the extent to which they have relied on noncommercial travel to travel across the United States and overseas. The recent revelations about these costly trips on military and private aircraft, at a time when the same officials have proposed dramatic cuts in the agencies they oversee, has put the administration on the defensive. (Eilperin, 9/28)

The Hill: Democrats Unveil Bills To Ban Cabinet Members’ Private Jet Travel 
House Democrats introduced legislation on Thursday to prevent Trump administration officials from using private jets on the taxpayers’ dime as multiple Cabinet heads come under fire for the practice. Two groups of Democrats unveiled bills with correspondingly flashy titles. ...The Swamp Flyers Act prohibits executive branch officials from using private jets with taxpayer funds unless they certify that no commercial flights were available. The Taxpayers DIME Act, meanwhile, ensures that senior federal officials can’t spend more funds on travel than is necessary and directs the Office of Government Ethics to report on ways to enhance current rules. (Marcos, 9/28)

Reuters: Senators Close To Bipartisan Deal On Health Exchanges: Schumer
Two U.S. senators from both parties are close to finalizing a bipartisan deal to shore up the health insurance exchanges created under Obamacare, the chamber's top Democrat said on Thursday. The move, which Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said was "on the verge" of completion, would stabilize the market for individuals who buy their own insurance plans on the federal or state-based exchanges. (Heavey, 9/28)

Politico: Alexander, Murray Inching Toward Deal To Stabilize Obamacare
A pair of deal-making senators is inching toward a bipartisan agreement to fund Obamacare's insurance subsidies and provide some certainty to health insurance markets just two days after the GOP’s latest Obamacare repeal effort failed. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) are moving toward a plan to stabilize Obamacare in the short term after meeting on Wednesday. Though they have not yet clinched a deal, their progress could ignite a new battle over how or whether to improve the law. (Haberkorn and Everett, 9/28)

Los Angeles Times: Americans Have Been Fighting Over Government's Role In Medical Care For Decades. That Fight Will Continue
In 1978, I was on overnight duty in the pediatric emergency room at Los Angeles County Hospital. It had been a busy night and I was looking forward to the end of shift. At about 4 a.m., a man with a frantic expression came rushing into the ER carrying what looked like a small log wrapped in a blanket. His 4-year-old son had suffered an asthma attack and the man had bypassed several private-hospital ERs on the way to the public hospital. He’d previously been refused emergency care at the private hospitals due to lack of insurance. On this occasion, the father did not want to waste time and took the much longer drive to Big County. I took the bundle from his arms and rushed into the treatment room. (Steve Tarzynski, 9/27)

Los Angeles Times: Graham-Cassidy Is Dead. Now Stop Treating Obamacare Like The Enemy And Help Get Americans Health Coverage
We may never know how many Republicans in the U.S. Senate would have voted against the latest ill-conceived and disruptive proposal to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. But we know the three whose public opposition kept the measure from reaching the Senate floor this week — Susan Collins of Maine, John McCain of Arizona and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Although they disagree sharply over what to do about the ACA, they all deserve the country’s thanks for stopping lawmakers from heedlessly leaving millions of lower- and middle-income Americans unable to afford coverage and sending the market for non-group policies into a death spiral. (9/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Let Obamacare Repeal Rest In Peace
Nine months into the GOP’s total control of the federal government, the obsessive campaign to dismantle the ACA has succeeded mainly in expanding the ranks of its unlikely defenders in the face of grim alternatives. It’s a measure of the depth and illogic of this obsession that Republicans have yet to give it up completely. (9/26)

Los Angeles Times: Why The GOP's Obamacare Repeal Plan Was Doomed From The Start
It’s always tempting to declare the outcome of any contest preordained, even when it was closer than it looks. One side’s victory in the World Series or a presidential election often is treated as inevitable in retrospect, though a single timely hit or strikeout or the shift of a few thousand votes in a couple of states might have been the determining factor. With repeal, however, failure was baked into the outcome from the start. (Michael Hiltzik, 9/26)

Los Angeles Times: Republicans Should Gladly Pay For My Preexisting Condition
It’s a question I encounter frequently when I discuss healthcare with conservatives, particularly after I note that I have a chronic and costly preexisting condition, Type 1 diabetes. “Why should I pay for your healthcare?” they ask. (David Lazarus, 9/26)

Sacramento Bee: Brown Can Help End Nursing Home Abuse
A Carmichael nursing home supervisor admitted she was ordered to alter medical records of a 92-year-old patient, who died after developing rotting bedsores. The state fined a Santa Monica nursing home for claiming a resident received physical therapy five days a week. At least 28 of those sessions were documented by nurse assistants who were not at work on those days. In Los Angeles, lawyers for a woman who was severely re-injured at a convalescent home discovered that nonexistent nurses made entries in her chart. (9/28)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: A Dose Of Transparency On Drug Prices
With the defection of Arizona’s John McCain and others, Senate Republicans decided on Tuesday not to hold a vote on the latest Obamacare repeal bill. That would be the good news. But anyone looking for something more than the status quo on health care, especially the spiraling cost of pharmaceuticals, might keep an eye on Sacramento rather than Washington. (9/27)

East Bay Times: Don't Buy The Hype, Keep Prescription Drugs Safe
It’s easy to take safe, reliable medicines for granted. Picking up drugs from the pharmacy, I hardly give a second thought about their safety and efficacy. But the lull of normalcy masks very real threats to a relatively well-functioning system, including counterfeiting, fraud and powerful narcotics in the wrong hands. (Eric O'Neill, 9/24)

Los Angeles Times: If The Hepatitis A Outbreak Doesn't Convince You To Wash Your Hands After Using The Toilet, Nothing Will
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health last week declared an outbreak of hepatitis A, citing 12 cases as of Monday. Only four are cases in which people acquired the disease locally, but that’s enough for officials to sound the alarm. And few populations are more vulnerable to acquiring it — and suffering more severe cases of it — than the homeless community. More than three-quarters of the cases identified here have been among homeless people. (9/27)

San Jose Mercury News: 60% Of Medicaid Beneficiaries Are Working Americans
The U.S. Congress has put the health of millions at risk with its counterproductive attempts to gut Medicaid. The changes being proposed will move America’s health care system, and our entire economy, in a dangerous and harmful direction, phasing out Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans and threatening the viability of the Medicaid system through underfunded per capita allotments. (Christine Tomcala, 9/24)

Los Angeles Times: Why Replacing L.A. County's Health Director Won't Be Easy
When Los Angeles County supervisors describe the kind of person they want for a top department post, they often say something along the lines of, "We want a Mitch Katz type. "That certainly speaks volumes about Dr. Mitchell H. Katz, who on Friday told the supervisors he'd be leaving the county at the end of the year. His departure culminates a stunningly successful run as leader, first of the massive Department of Health Services and then of the new and even more massive county Health Agency, which takes in the formerly stand-alone departments of mental health and public health. Katz turned about a third of the county's operation and budget into a nimble human services organization that not only runs hospitals and coordinates clinical care, but also provides housing for the homeless and diverts the addicted and mentally ill from jails to clinics. (9/26)

Sacramento Bee: Record STD Rates Show Need For More Talk About Sex
Let’s talk about sex. On the heels of yet another congressional effort to defund Planned Parenthood and roll back access to health care comes news that last year set national and state records for sexually transmitted disease. There’s a dispiriting feel to the data released this week by California’s Department of Public Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gonorrhea rates are up just as drug-resistant strains threaten to render the disease untreatable in the near future. Syphilis, close to eradication as recently as the 1990s, has increased, particularly among bisexual men, gay men and women. (9/27)

Los Angeles Times: Facing Criticism, UC Irvine Scrubs 'Homeopathy' From Its Roster Of Offered Treatments
As of late last week, visitors to the website of UC Irvine Health, that institution’s clinical arm, could learn that among its services to patients was “homeopathy.” That was a problem, because homeopathy is a discredited and thoroughly debunked “alternative medicine.” Even Howard Federoff, UCI’s vice chancellor for health affairs, agreed that the scientific basis for homeopathy was “lacking.” The issue is important because the donors of a $200-million gift to UCI’s medical schools, the billionaire couple Susan and Henry Samueli, are sworn believers in homeopathy and supporters of a raft of other “integrative” health treatments. As I reported, some medical authorities have raised questions about whether the Samuelis’ beliefs and their rare generosity will undermine UCI’s explicit commitment to science-based medicine. (Michael Hiltzik, 9/25)

Sacramento Bee: Jerry Brown Should Sign Gender Recognition Act
It said male on my birth certificate, and I was raised as a boy. However, for as far back as I can remember, I never imagined myself growing up to be a man or a woman. As a child growing up in Amish Country in rural Pennsylvania, I would show interest in the toys and activities that society deems to be only for girls: twirling baton, tumbling on the balance beam and playing with makeup. I enjoyed some of the stereotypically male activities as well, including several years of participation in the Boy Scouts. (Mark Daniel Snyder, 9/28)