Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Big Soda Pours Big Bucks Into California’s Capitol
The soda industry spent $11.8 million to influence policy statewide in 2017 and 2018. As politicians once again consider bills that would tax and label sugary drinks, more big money is expected to flow. (Samantha Young, )
Good morning! A jury in Long Beach, California, handed Johnson & Johnson a win, ruling that the company’s popular baby powder product was not linked to the plaintiff’s cancer. More on that below, but first, here are your top California health stories for the day.
There Are 22 Bills In Front Of The Legislature This Year To Make Health Insurance Cheaper. Which Ones Will Make It Through?: Health care costs are a top concern with voters, and lawmakers are trying to address those worries with a nearly two dozen bills this year. One major proposal contained in two of the bills would extend Medi-Cal eligibility to all undocumented adults whose incomes are low enough to qualify. Other legislation includes a measure that would establish a tax credit beginning in 2020 for individuals earning between 400 and 600 percent of the federal poverty level who buy insurance on the state’s Covered California exchange; and a bill that would put limits on how much consumers have to contribute to their premiums and subsidize copayments and deductibles between 200 and 400 percent of the poverty level. Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
California Borrows, Super Sizes Program From Vermont That Uses Medication To Treat Opioid Addiction: The program, which launched originally in Vermont in 2012, features a system of regional addiction treatment centers or "hubs" that are connected with "spokes" like primary care practices and local clinics, which allows patients to get help close to home. After starting with 18 hubs and 57 spokes, the California effort has expanded in a year and a-half to include more than 200 spokes statewide. There have been unique challenges in super-sizing the program that was created by such a small state, but California has also seen successful results, as well. Read more from Politico.
More Than 1,500 Doctors, Hospital Staff Urge UCSF To Cut Ties With Catholic Dignity Health Over Its Stances On Abortion, Transgender Care: Under the partnership with the health system, UCSF doctors could have to sign a document that deems certain medical procedures, including sterilization, “intrinsically evil.” The providers and other critics of the partnership also say that Dignity Health has discriminated against LGBTQ patients because of its refusal to provide certain care—such as abortions or transgender surgery. “We are deeply concerned, because fundamentally, Dignity Health decisions are made based on religious beliefs, not on the most up-to-date evidence to provide the best care for patients,” said Dr. Eleanor Drey, who teaches obstetrics and gynecology at UCSF. Although, UCSF doctors have had privileges at Catholic hospitals for decades, the medical center has had a formal affiliation with Dignity Health only since 2017. That partnership is only expected to grow further. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
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
Oakland Tribune:
California’s First Surgeon General Prioritizes Children And Addressing Health Disparities
Addressing the adverse physical and mental repercussions of childhood trauma has been the highlight of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris’s career as a pediatrician. And it’s an issue that will take center stage during her tenure as California’s first-ever surgeon general. Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Burke Harris in January soon after he unveiled several health initiatives during his inaugural address, including expanding health care coverage and lowering prescription drug costs. Only three other states — Pennsylvania, Florida and Arkansas — have a surgeon general. Michigan was the first state to appoint a surgeon general in 2003, but eliminated the position seven years later. (Bharath, 4/6)
Bloomberg:
J&J Wins Trial Over California Man's Talc-Cancer Claim
Johnson & Johnson won the latest trial over claims its iconic baby powder can cause cancer, as a jury in Long Beach, California, rejected a lawsuit brought by a 65-year-old retired teacher who claimed the product was contaminated with asbestos. The J&J victory Friday comes the week after the company settled three cases alleging baby powder caused a rare asbestos-connected cancer. Two, in Oklahoma and California, were settled during trial. The other, in New York, was settled less than two weeks before trial was set to begin. (Fisk and Feeley, 4/5)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
U.S. Measles Outbreak Raises Questions About Sonoma County Vaccination Rates
Nineteen years after it was thought to be eradicated in this country, measles is making a comeback. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a bombshell: The number of confirmed measles cases in the first three months of 2019 — 387 — exceeded by 15 the total number of cases nationwide the previous year. While 17 of those cases this year were in California, none were reported in Sonoma County, though county health centers have been put on alert and are on the lookout for patients exhibiting symptoms of the highly contagious airborne disease. (Murphy, 4/6)
KQED:
Meth Mania: From Biker Gangs To The Psych Ward, How Speed Came Of Age In California
While the country's attention has been focused on prescription opioids and heroin overdoses, methamphetamine has been making a comeback. The drug's history is rooted in California — biker gangs like the Hells Angels manufactured and distributed it up and down Interstate 5 in the 1980s. (Dembosky, 4/5)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Takes More Heat For Spending Millions Of Dollars Cleaning Up Homeless Camps
Ansar was part of a protest by a coalition of homeless activists and health and housing providers, who called on L.A. to redirect the millions of dollars spent on police-led sanitation sweeps each year toward showers, water fountains, bathrooms, trash collection and regularly scheduled cleanups for people living in the city’s many street camps. Currently, Ansar and others argued, police and city workers harass homeless people, issuing tickets that can lead to them getting arrested and destroying their belongings without relieving the camps’ fetid conditions. (Holland, 4/5)
KPCC:
Audio: OC Medi-Cal Insurer To Spend $100 Million On Health Care For Homeless
Orange County's Medi-Cal insurer, CalOptima, plans to spend $100 million to address the health care needs of people living on the streets and in shelters. On top of $25 million that CalOptima's board of directors has approved in recent months, the board voted Thursday to dedicate an additional $75 million over the next three years. (Replogle, 4/5)
The Mercury News:
How The Bay Area Housing Crisis Hurts Region's Youngest Residents
As high prices and a shortage of available housing continue to squeeze local families, issues that once were the purview of adults, such as rent control and just-cause eviction protection, increasingly are entering the vocabulary of Bay Area kids. Children of renters wonder when the rent increase will come that forces them out of their house, away from the friends they’ve grown up with and the places that feel like home. (Kendall, 4/7)
Ventura County Star:
Ventura County Judge Upholds $1 Million Verdict Against Hospital
Virginia Hoover wept in a courtroom Wednesday as a judge announced rulings that mean the $1.03 million jury verdict in a lawsuit against the Camarillo hospital that fired her after a workplace injury still stands. An appeal of the trial is possible. ...Hoover, 61, of Camarillo sued St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital and its parent company, Dignity Health, in May 2016. She was fired in December 2014 after more than 24 years as a radiologic technologist after she hurt herself while preparing for a CT scan. The injury, suffered in December 2012, brought doctor-ordered restrictions on use of her left arm, including not reaching overhead or lifting more than 15 pounds. (Kisken, 4/7)
Oakland Tribune:
Around East County: Rotary Helps Raise $100K For Transplant
After hearing the story of an Antioch family’s efforts to help save the life of a young Modesto girl, the members of the Rotary Club of the Delta didn’t let the boundaries of their group stop them from helping. To help raise $100,000, the club is hosting a “Have a Heart” fundraiser April 27. “We are a civic-minded group of people who try to make a difference in our community and beyond, and we have a great time doing it,” said Paula McEvoy, past president of the Rotary Club of the Delta. “The ‘Have a Heart’ event is in support of a young lady who needs a heart transplant, and she must have $100,000 in the bank before she can be put on the recipients list.” (Gehlke, 4/7)
Politico:
Trump’s Health Care Brain Trust Says No Thanks
President Donald Trump promised a new plan to replace Obamacare. But the four Senate Republicans he tapped for the job aren’t jumping at the opportunity. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) says any new plan has to come from the White House — and that he had no warning Trump planned to make him part of the health policy group. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) won't say more than he and colleagues are “working on health care thoughts.” John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), when asked about the Republican plan, turned the question back on the opposition, saying, “Democrats want to go to the complete government takeover of health care.” (Cancryn and Ollstein, 4/8)
The Hill:
Mulvaney: Trump Admin To Release ObamaCare Replacement Plan 'Fairly Shortly'
The Trump administration will release a health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act “fairly shortly,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday. Administration officials and White House aides, including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, met for a Saturday summit at Camp David to discuss possible proposals, according to CNN. (Budryk, 4/7)
Stat:
Lawmakers Will Grill Five Pharmacy 'Middlemen' — Some More Than Others
President Trump has blasted them as “middlemen,” known for their “dishonest double dealing.” Key Democrats decry the industry as a “black box” under a “veil of secrecy.” Pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists and doctors incessantly pummel them, in ads and in testimony, as the key culprits behind the nation’s rising drug prices. Now, the “middlemen” — pharmacy benefit managers, entities that aim to help insurance companies negotiate lower drug prices by managing formularies and extracting rebates — will have an unprecedentedly high-profile chance to defend themselves. (Florko, 4/8)
The Associated Press:
Watchdog To Examine Medicare Chief’s Publicity Spending
A government watchdog said Friday it will review costly outside contracts to handle public relations for Medicare chief Seema Verma, whose agency oversees health insurance programs covering more than 100 million Americans. Responding to a request by congressional Democrats, the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office said it will examine Verma’s public relations contracts at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/5)
The Wall Street Journal:
Federal Judge To Hold Hearings On Decision To Allow CVS-Aetna Merger
A federal judge on Friday said he wants to hear in court from witnesses who object to the Justice Department’s decision last year to approve CVS Health Corp.’s nearly $70 billion acquisition of Aetna Inc.—a highly unusual move that threatens to shake up the already-consummated deal. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., is reviewing a department settlement last fall that allowed the merger after the companies agreed to sell off assets related to Medicare drug coverage. “This is a matter of great consequence to a lot of people,” Judge Leon said during a brief court hearing. Health care “is a high priority issue for tens of millions of families,” he added. (Kendall, 4/5)
The New York Times:
Hunger And An ‘Abandoned’ Hospital: Puerto Rico Waits As Washington Bickers
A newborn’s cries rarely echo anymore though the hallways of what passes as a hospital on the ravaged island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico. “We miss it,” said Dennisse Bermúdez Colón, a nurse. Hurricane Maria closed the island’s only labor and delivery room, forcing expectant mothers to travel, usually by sea, to the big island eight miles away to have their babies. Just a few emergency births have taken place in an old storm shelter converted into a provisional clinic. (Mazzei, 4/7)
Reuters:
U.S. Government Says It Could Take Two Years To Identify Families Separated At Border
It could take the U.S. government up to two years to identify potentially thousands of additional children separated from their parents by the authorities at the southern border, the government said in a court filing. The filing late on Friday outlined for the first time the Trump administration's plan for identifying which family members might have been separated by assessing thousands of records using a combination of data analysis, statistical science, and manual review. (4/6)
The Washington Post:
For CBD Food Craze, Regulations And Restrictions Are All Over The Map
At Joshua Hudson’s smoothie shop, a bohemian outpost called Twisted Smoothie in a small strip mall here, customers can add a 15 mg or 30 mg shot of cannabidiol, or CBD, to their blended drinks for a few extra dollars. They also can get a minilecture from Hudson on the virtues of the cannabis extract, found in both hemp and marijuana, which he and other fans claim can ease a range of health problems without making users high. “It makes everybody better,” said Hudson from behind the counter. He takes CBD before important meetings and first dates to calm his nerves, he said. “I tell people, ‘CBD — it’s a natural Tylenol and Xanax mixed together.’ ” (Quinton, 4/7)
The Washington Post:
For Hospital Patients, Bedside Tablets And Apps Are Providing Some Control Over Care
Shannon Olson got more sleep than she expected during her daughter Emilia’s hospital stay in January. Emilia, 2½ , was hospitalized for 10 days at the Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital in Danville, Pa., to treat an infected cyst on her face. Olson slept in Emilia’s room and had planned to wait up for the nurses’ last rounds. Instead, she went to sleep before the late rounds, and each morning logged into an app on the tablet Geisinger offers each patient. The app provided access to Emilia’s hospital chart. “It made it so much easier knowing that all of Emilia’s updated chart information was available to me on the tablet,” Olson said. (Kritz, 4/7)