Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Unfairly Inflates Medical Costs In Northern California, AG Alleges
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Friday that, after a six-year investigation, he has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Sacramento-based Sutter Health in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the health-care company has used its market power to control prices and exclude competition. (Anderson, 3/30)

The Hill: California Sues Hospital Network Over High Health Costs 
“Sutter Health is throwing its weight around in the healthcare market, engaging in illegal, anticompetitive pricing that hurts California families,” Becerra said in a statement. “These tactics are risking Californians’ lives by driving up the cost of healthcare for everyone." Becerra alleges that Sutter Health sets excessively high out-of-network rates for patients who must get care outside of their provider network; restricts publication of provider cost information and rates; and requires insurance companies negotiate with the entire system or face termination of contracts. (Hellmann, 3/30)

California Healthline: California Takes On Health Giant Over High Costs
Taken together, Sutter’s actions “improperly block any and all practical efforts to foster or encourage price competition between Sutter and any rival Healthcare Providers or Hospital Systems,” according to the state’s complaint. “Sutter’s conduct injured the general economy of Northern California and thus of the state.” (Terhune and Ibarra, 4/1)

The Mercury News: Attorney General Lawsuit Accuses Sutter Health Of Anticompetitive Practices
The network, which is based in Sacramento, includes 24 hospitals and more than 8,000 physicians. On Monday, UC Berkeley researchers released a report showing that inpatient hospital procedures cost 70 percent more in Northern California than in Southern California, in part because of consolidation in the region’s health industry. (Tolan, 3/30)

The Mercury News: Drugging Our Kids: Big Drop In Drugged Foster Kids In California 
After years of efforts to crack down on the rampant use of psychiatric drugs in California’s foster care system, the number of youth prescribed the potent medications is plummeting — a major turnaround in how the state cares for some of its most vulnerable children. The Bay Area News Group began examining the state’s use of the powerful medications in its series “Drugging Our Kids,” in 2014. Since then, the number of foster youth prescribed antipsychotic drugs has fallen by almost half, from 5,076 during the 12-month period that ended in June 2014 to 2,778 during the same period that ended in June 2017. (Woolfolk, 4/1)

Capital Public Radio: Prescription Database Could Help Prevent Opioid Abuse, But State System Still Lags 
In some California counties, there are more opioid prescriptions than residents. The state is trying to change prescribing practices, but the technology needed to do that isn’t quite ready yet. (Caiola, 3/30)

In other public health news —

KQED: Battery Blood: California Has Worse Lead Standards Than Arkansas And Texas. Why?
In the summer of 2008, California’s Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) inspected Exide Technologies’ vehicle-battery recycling plant in Vernon, California, an industrial suburb of Los Angeles. The ensuing laboratory analysis of air from the plant’s smelter room, where batteries are melted down to reclaim their lead, revealed that levels of the neurotoxin exceeded federal standards by a factor of 13. Despite the toxic air, Cal/OSHA found no serious violations at Exide, issuing only a token fine of $150 for what it deemed a low-level violation. (Rubin, 4/1)

Orange County Register: Santa Ana To Begin Clearing Homeless People From Civic Center Area, As Resettlement Of Riverbed Homeless Winds Down
Plans to begin clearing the Civic Center next week were discussed at a court session on Friday, March 30. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, who has been overseeing a pair of civil rights lawsuits filed when the county began to clear more than 700 people from Santa Ana River Trail encampments, had tough words for officials and for homeless people inclined to reject help. (Walker, 3/30)

The Washington Post: California Ordered To Add Cancer Warning To Coffee, But The Science Doesn’t Hold Up
Storm clouds are brewing in California’s coffee cups. Companies across the state will have to add a cancer-warning label to coffee, a judge ruled this week, because the drink contains a chemical called acrylamide. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elihu M. Berle sided with a nonprofit organization in a case against Starbucks, Peets and dozens of other coffee chains, saying that businesses that sold coffee were in violation of a state regulation called Proposition 65. Prop 65 requires businesses with at least 10 employees to disclose any carcinogens and toxic chemicals in their products. (Guarino and Rosenberg, 3/30)

Los Angeles Times: Go Ahead And Drink Your Coffee, Public Health Experts Say
The decision has put public health experts at odds with a state law aimed at safeguarding the health of Californians. "I can understand the logic of the judge, by going by the book. But I can also understand the science," said Mariana Carla Stern, a USC professor who studies diet and cancer. "From the science standpoint, there's no reason the public should worry about drinking coffee." (Karlamangla and Kim, 3/30)

Orange County Register: City Of Hope Proposing $200 Million Cancer Center In Irvine Near Orange County Great Park 
City of Hope is planning to build a $200 million cancer center, which would anchor a future medical campus south of the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. The new outpatient center, equipped with “leading-edge technologies and dedicated oncology specialists,” would open on land donated by FivePoint, which is overseeing the development of about 10,000 homes around the Great Park, according to a press release announcing the plan. (Shimura, 3/30)

In other news from across the state —

Ventura County Star: New Urgent Care Clinic Opens In Simi Valley
CareNow Urgent Care has opened a clinic in Simi Valley and will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony from 4-6 p.m. April 17. CareNow, a part of HCA Healthcare, operates in 15 U.S. markets, and the new Simi Valley clinic at 2888 Cochran St. is the second CareNow Urgent Care facility in the area. The other local clinic opened in Thousand Oaks in 2017. In the region, CareNow is affiliated with Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center and West Hills Hospital & Medical Center. (4/1)

Los Angeles Times: CHOC Celebrates Completion Of O.C.'s Only Mental Health Inpatient Center For Children Under 12
The Children's Hospital of Orange County this week celebrated completion of an 18-bed mental health inpatient facility, the only center in the county to offer inpatient services to kids younger than 12. The 12,000-square-foot center is being touted as a vital answer to the deficit of mental health care for children in the county. (Brazil, 3/29)

KPBS: Poway's First Community Clinic To Open Later This Month 
A community health clinic is coming to Poway. Operated by Escondido-based Neighborhood Healthcare, the new clinic is designed to be a medical home for 7,500 people. (Goldberg, 4/2)

Politico: Did Shulkin Get Fired Or Resign? This Is Why It Matters.
The White House is now asserting that recently departed Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin resigned. Shulkin has made it clear in his public comments that he was forced out. While Washington often wraps firings in the verbal cloak of a resignation, the distinction this time could have far-reaching implications that could throw the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second-largest federal agency, into further disarray. (Restuccia, 3/31)

The Associated Press: White House Goes On Attack Over Shulkin's Claim He Was Fired
The White House is hitting back at former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin for claiming that he was fired from his job and that he was only informed about it shortly before President Donald Trump tweeted about his replacement. The Trump administration says he left his job willingly amid a bruising ethics scandal and mounting rebellion within the agency. The semantics of whether Shulkin resigned or was fired could be relevant to Trump's ability to name an acting VA secretary to temporarily fill his place. (4/2)

The Associated Press: Ousted Shulkin Rejects White House Claim He Resigned VA Job
Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is making it clear he was fired from his job amid conflicting claims from the White House. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters on Sunday told The Associated Press that Shulkin had "resigned" from his job when President Donald Trump abruptly announced via Twitter last Wednesday that he was nominating White House doctor Ronny Jackson to replace him. (4/1)

In other national health care news —

The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals Fear Competitive Threat From Potential Walmart-Humana Deal
Early-stage deal talks between Walmart Inc. and Humana Inc. are deepening anxiety in the hospital sector, which already has been grappling with sluggish growth and competition from cheaper health-care options. Hospitals have been eyeing Walmart nervously for years as it advances into health care, seeking to leverage its enormous purchasing heft, physical reach and focus on price. The Bentonville, Ark., retailer already operates pharmacies and primary-care clinics and plans to begin offering lab-testing services. It has also recently increased its direct negotiations with hospitals for competitive prices on some procedures for its employees. (Evans, 4/1)

Stat: NIH Rejected Study Of Alcohol Advertising While Pursuing Industry Funding
It’s rare for officials at the National Institutes of Health to summon university scientists from hundreds of miles away. So when Dr. Michael Siegel of Boston University and a colleague got the call to meet with the director of NIH’s Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, he said, “I knew we were in trouble.” He never imagined, however, that at the 2015 meeting the director, George Koob, would leap out of his seat and scream at the scientists after their PowerPoint presentation on research the agency had eagerly funded on the association between alcohol marketing and underage drinking. “I don’t f***ing care!” Koob yelled, referring to alcohol advertising, according to the scientists. (Begley, 4/2)

The New York Times: After Gun Control Marches, ‘It’ll Go Away’ Vs. ‘We Are Not Cynical Yet’
For more than a month now, the questions have ricocheted down this Main Street culled from a Norman Rockwell dreamscape — past the dueling barbershops and the outdoor broom sale and the mural with the horse — quietly at first, when the Florida massacre was still fresh, and then not so quietly. Why would this time be different? Why should it be? (Flegenheimer and Bidgood, 4/1)

Stat: Wholesale Drug Prices May Be Rising, But Rebates Are Taking A Bigger Bite
As anger mounts over the cost of prescription medicines, a new analysis finds that brand-name drug makers increased their list prices by 5.5 percent in last year’s fourth quarter, but after subtracting various allowances, their net pricing fell by 1.1 percent. And the average concession off the list price, which is also known as the wholesale price, was 41 percent, according to Sector & Sovereign Research, which tracks the pharmaceutical industry. These concessions included rebates paid to pharmacy benefit managers, allowances given to wholesalers, fees paid to retailers, provisions for returned goods, and the cost of any copay card or coupon programs. (Silverman, 3/30)

Kaiser Health News: Medicaid Minus Stigma: In Indian Country, It’s Part Of The Fabric Of Life
On a crisp sunny day, Tyson Toledo, a precocious 5-year-old boy, hobbled into a private health clinic to have his infected foot examined. Pediatrician Gayle Harrison told his mother to continue to apply antibiotic ointment and reminded them to come back if the swelling and redness worsened. The appointment at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services’ outpatient center comes at no charge for the Toledo family, who live 30 miles away on the Navajo Nation Reservation. That’s because Tyson is covered by Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor. (Galewitz, 4/2)