San Francisco Chronicle: California’s Assisted-Dying Loophole: Some Doctors Won’t Help Patients Die
Judy Dale died of cancer in her San Francisco home in September, in agony, after being denied the pain-relieving medication she might have received under the state’s aid-in-dying law that had taken effect three months earlier. A lawsuit by her children will determine whether UCSF Medical Center, where Dale first went for treatment, was responsible for her suffering by allegedly concealing its oncologists’ decision not to provide life-ending drugs to patients who ask for them. (Egelko, 8/12)

California Healthline: End-Of-Life Advice: More Than 500,000 Chat On Medicare’s Dime
The 90-year-old woman in the San Diego-area nursing home was quite clear, said Dr. Karl Steinberg. She didn’t want aggressive measures to prolong her life. If her heart stopped, she didn’t want CPR. But when Steinberg, a palliative care physician, relayed those wishes to the woman’s daughter, the younger woman would have none of it. ... Steinberg used an increasingly popular tool to resolve the impasse last month. He brought mother and daughter together for an advance-care planning session, an end-of-life consultation that’s now being paid for by Medicare. In 2016, the first year health care providers were allowed to bill for the service, nearly 575,000 Medicare beneficiaries took part in the conversations, new federal data obtained by Kaiser Health News show. (Aleccia, 8/14)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Jail Is Largest Psychiatric Facility In Sonoma County
The largest psychiatric facility in Sonoma County is not a hospital. It’s the jail. If not by design then by default, jail cells have essentially replaced psychiatric hospital beds for many of Sonoma County’s most severely mentally ill residents. It is a trend that began before the closure of Santa Rosa’s two secured mental health hospitals a decade ago, and has continued since. Now, nearly 40 percent of the 1,100 inmates held at the county’s main jail and its lower-security North County Detention Facility near the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport have some form of mental health issue, from mild depression to bipolar schizoaffective disorder. (Espinoza, 8/12)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: New Sonoma County Jail Wing Seeks To Improve Care For Mentally Ill Inmates
When Sonoma County sheriff’s officials publicly revealed their plans last spring to build a $48 million jail wing for the mentally ill, a common question quickly emerged. Why not build a psychiatric hospital instead in Sonoma County? After all, the only local hospital beds for mental health patients are operated by a for-profit company, while many low-income residents suffering a psychiatric crisis often wait for hours in an emergency room, waiting for a bed to free up in a psychiatric hospital in another county. (Espinoza, 8/12)

Mercury News: Bureau Of Prisons Requires Free Tampons For Female Inmates
The federal Bureau of Prisons quietly issued a new policy last week requiring prisons to provide free tampons and maxi-pads to female inmates. The new operations memorandum was released less than a month after Sen. Kamala Harris, D-CA, and three other Democratic senators introduced a bill that would have made the same policy change. (Tolan, 8/11)

Los Angeles Times: Despite California's Strict New Law, Hundreds Of Schools Still Don't Have Enough Vaccinated Kids
Even with a new law that has boosted kindergarten vaccination rates to record highs, hundreds of schools across California still have so many children lacking full immunization that they pose an increased risk of disease outbreaks, according to a Times analysis of state data. At nearly 750 schools, 90% or fewer kindergartners had been fully vaccinated last year, the analysis found. Experts say the rate should be at least 95% to prevent the spread of highly contagious diseases such as measles. (Karlamangla and Poindexter, 8/13)

Capital Public Radio: How Scientists Are Getting To The Bottom Of California Gun Deaths 
A new Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis aims to explore the risk factors behind gun deaths, and ultimately prevent them. The center is headed by Dr. Garen Wintemute, a UC Davis professor who has been working in gun violence prevention for 30 years. (Caiola, 8/11)

Los Angeles Times: Americans Want A Say In Human Genome Editing, Survey Shows
Just last week, scientists reported a new first in the journal Nature: They edited heritable cells in human embryos to treat an inherited form of heart disease. The day after the research was published, a group of genetics experts published a statement calling for further debate before applications of the technology are taken any further in humans. According to a new survey of 1,600 adults published in the journal Science today, much of the American public shares this desire for engagement in decision-making. (Abed, 8/11)

The Mercury News: How Babies Are Losing Sleep Because Of iPads And Smartphones
A Scientific Reports study published last year revealed that there is a significant link between the use of touch screens with sleep problems in infants and toddlers. Traditional screen time, such as television and video games, also affects sleep, but it’s a less omnipresent force in our lives. (D'Souza, 8/11)

Sacramento Bee: Doctors Face Dilemma In Prescribing Opoids 
Seeking to treat pain differently, many health care providers have shifted toward alternative treatments or in some cases stopped prescribing opioids at all. Even if they prescribe with strict limits, doctors say they grapple with ambiguity about whether their patients are misusing medication and whether opioids are the best solution for their pain. (Knowles, 8/14)

Stat: 4 Questions About Trump's Emergency Declaration On Opioids
President Trump threw the public for a loop again on Thursday when he announced his administration was moving to declare the opioid crisis a national emergency, just two days after administration officials said they weren’t going to take such a step. Emergency declarations can carry both symbolic weight and serious policy consequences. Here are four things STAT will be keeping an eye on. (Joseph, 8/11)

NPR: From Alaska To Florida, States Respond To Opioid Crisis With Emergency Declarations
Public health officials and others concerned about the nation's opioid crisis are hailing President Trump's decision to declare it a national emergency. ... But while the Trump administration prepares the presidential order, governors in six states have already declared emergencies to deal with opioids. (Allen, 8/11)

Sacramento Bee: Baby Boomers From Bay Area Moving To Sacramento Active-Adult Communities 
A growing number of developments in the capital region are aimed squarely at the 55-plus crowd, including the nearly 1 million baby boomers in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of whom are hitting retirement age with lots of home equity. Median home values in four of the nine Bay Area counties have exceeded $1 million, while average home prices in Sacramento County remain closer to $300,000. (Sangree, 8/14)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Genome Leader Illumina Expands Again In San Diego 
Like a fast-growing child constantly outgrowing clothes, biotech giant Illumina has trouble keeping up with its continued expansion. So on Monday, the San Diego genome sequencing leader is scheduled to open a new addition — a 7-acre, 316,000 square-foot complex called the i3 campus. Illumina considers it an extension of its headquarters, less than a mile away in the University Town Center area. (Fikes and Showley, 8/12)

Also in the news -

Ventura County Star: Gold Coast Health Plan Names New Chief Medical Officer
Gold Coast Health Plan has named a new chief medical officer to replace Dr. C. Albert Reeves, who retired last month. Gold Coast, the publicly funded organization that administers Medi-Cal in Ventura County, announced Thursday that Dr. Nancy Wharfield is the group's new chief medical officer. She previously served as its associate chief medical officer. (8/11)

Modesto Bee: Embattled Merced Health Clinic That Left Patients In The Dark Has Closed
A Merced-based health clinic that recently filed for bankruptcy and has been embroiled in legal battles between clinic leaders since March has closed down all of its clinics, according to a notice on a clinic door. Horisons Unlimited Health Care closed all of its clinics as of Aug. 1 because of “their current financial condition,” according to the notice on the Los Banos clinic door. (Velez, 8/11)

Ventura County Star: Emergency Room Will Be Doubled In Size As Part Of St. John's Expansion In Oxnard
A sometimes space-compromised emergency room will double in size as part of a $20 million expansion project at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. Groundbreaking for projects could begin as soon as September. A new $1 million MRI device came earlier this summer. It's designed for procedures ranging from locating tumors to diagnosing rotator cuff tears. (Kisken, 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Rural America’s Childbirth Crisis: The Fight to Save Whitney Brown
Since the start of the century, it has become more dangerous to have a baby in rural America. Pregnancy-related complications are rising across the U.S., and many require specialized care. For some women, the time and distance from hospitals with the resources and specialists to handle an obstetric emergency can be fatal. The rate at which women died of pregnancy-related complications was 64% higher in rural areas than in large U.S. cities in 2015. That is a switch from 2000, when the rate in the cities was higher, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal. (McKay and Overberg, 8/11)

The New York Times: Health Insurers Get More Time To Calculate Increases For 2018
The Trump administration is giving health insurance companies more time to calculate price increases for 2018 because of uncertainty caused by the president’s threat to cut off crucial subsidies paid to insurers on behalf of millions of low-income people. Federal health officials said the deadline for insurers to file their rate requests would be extended by nearly three weeks, to Sept. 5. (Pear, 8/13)

Politico: How The Trump Administration Is Spending Millions To Shore Up Obamacare
President Donald Trump has threatened to blow up Obamacare. But his own administration is separately dangling hundreds of millions of dollars before states to bail out their insurance markets. Alaska will get $323 million over the next five years to coax its lone Obamacare insurer to remain in the market and hold down premiums. At least four other states, including some that have vociferously opposed the Affordable Care Act, are seeking similar deals. ... The White House said Thursday it applauds the stabilization efforts even as Trump steps up the pressure on the Senate to resume efforts to try to pass legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare. (Pradhan, 8/13)

The Associated Press: Democratic Attorneys Escalate Legal Fight Against Trump
[A]n emboldened coalition of Democratic state attorneys general has unleashed a torrent of lower-profile litigation they argue is necessary to protect public health, the environment and consumers from a Republican White House. State attorneys from Massachusetts to New York to California, often working together, have brought more than 40 legal actions against the Trump administration over the last seven months. The pace, which both parties describe as unprecedented, has produced an average of one lawsuit or legal motion every five days since Trump’s inauguration, not including many more letters, legal threats and formal comments to federal agencies. (Peoples, 8/13)

The Hill: Conservative Chairman In Talks About ObamaCare Stabilization Deal 
Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) are in talks for a bill that would stabilize ObamaCare markets. The measure would fund key ObamaCare payments known as cost-sharing reductions, possibly in exchange for expanded flexibility favored by conservatives for states to waive ObamaCare regulations through broadening an existing provision known as 1332 waivers. (Sullivan, 8/11)

The Hill: Democrats See ObamaCare Leverage In Spending Fights 
House Democrats want to use the looming battle over government spending and raising the debt limit as leverage to shore up ObamaCare. The minority party believes Republicans will need their votes on the critical fiscal issues, and they think they can secure concessions on healthcare. (Lillis, 8/13)

The Washington Post: House Conservatives Hope To Revive Obamacare Repeal Vote
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus want to seize control of the health-care debate by petitioning Republicans to hold a vote on a version of a repeal bill that passed the House in 2015. Conservatives say they believe a repeal measure can pass without a replacement, despite warnings from Ryan and other leaders that the votes aren’t there. The long-shot effort gained momentum last week with support from influential outside groups. (Snell, 8/13)

Bloomberg: Health Insurers Struggle To Win Reprieve Of Obamacare Tax 
Health insurers won a victory in 2015 when a tax that was part of the Affordable Care Act was suspended. Now as they fight to repeal or delay the tax again before it comes back into effect, the odds don’t seem to be in their favor.  Insurers, businesses and conservative groups are scrambling for ways to at least delay the health-insurance tax, or HIT, following the collapse of health-care legislation in July. They seemed poised for victory just a few months ago, when the health-insurance fee, and most of the other levies enacted to help fund Obamacare, were targeted in repeal bills passed by House Republicans and considered by Senate Republicans. (Brody, 8/11)

The Associated Press: Health Care Divide Leaves Tax On Path To Reinstatement
The industry that makes medical devices from artificial hips to miniature pumps for IV drips is looking for a fallback plan to repeal a widely reviled sales tax that almost met its end in GOP health care legislation. The 2.3 percent excise, one of several taxes and fees in the Affordable Care Act that pay for expanded insurance coverage, has been the subject of ferocious lobbying by manufacturers seeking its permanent death. Yet for now it's on track to be reinstated on Jan. 1 after a two-year hiatus, leaving industry leaders worried it will hurt employment and stifle development of innovative, even lifesaving products. (Salsberg, 8/13)

Roll Call: ‘Right To Try’ Bill Could Face Slower Action In House
A Senate-passed bill intended to help dying patients access experimental drugs will likely face lengthier deliberations in the House. While the Senate fast-tracked the bill on Aug. 3, the House will likely subject it to a hearing and markup before bringing it up to a vote, according to congressional aides and a lobbyist. (Siddons, 8/14)