- California Healthline Original Stories 1
- As U.S. Suicides Rates Rise, Hispanics Show Relative Immunity
- Health Care Personnel 1
- Weeklong Strike Set To Start For 4,000 Kaiser Mental Health Professionals In California
- Around California 2
- Proposed 'Public Charge' Policy Could Cost California Thousands Of Jobs, Billions Of Dollars In Economic Output
- Hospital Officials Were Warned Repeatedly About Prominent Pasadena Obstetrician, But Nothing Was Done
- The Opioid Crisis 1
- Calls For Prison Guards, Inmates To Carry Naloxone Intensify Following Two Suspected Overdose Deaths At San Quentin
- Public Health and Education 1
- 'Our Lives Will Never Be The Same Again': California Burn Survivors On A Long Road To Recovery
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
As U.S. Suicides Rates Rise, Hispanics Show Relative Immunity
Support from family and community appear to shield Latinos from rising suicide rates, researchers say. (Charlotte Huff, )
More News From Across The State
Weeklong Strike Set To Start For 4,000 Kaiser Mental Health Professionals In California
“This strike is a clear message to Kaiser that its mental health clinicians won’t stand by silently while their patients can’t get the care they need,” union leader Sal Rosselli said in a statement. Kaiser claims the union is most interested in raising wages that are already among the best in the nation.
The Hill:
4,000 Mental Health Professionals To Go On Strike In California
Four thousand Kaiser Permanente mental health professionals will begin a five-day strike Monday demanding the HMO address their concerns about what they called understaffing problems. The workers claimed that shortages of clinicians has limited patients' access to appropriate treatment, according to a statement from National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). (Rodrigo, 12/7)
The Mercury News:
Kaiser Mental Health Workers Planning 5-Day Strike Monday
As a result, mental health care appointments during the week may be canceled, but the union’s president says the strike is in the long-term best interest of patients, who currently have to wait a month or more for follow-up mental health appointments due to low staffing levels. “They’ve canceled appointments for these five days, but there’s a critical situation every day of the year,” Sal Rosselli, the union’s president, said Sunday. Rosselli said Kaiser needs to hire hundreds more clinicians to address what he called an “access crisis” for patients. (Geha, 12/9)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Kaiser Mental Health Workers To Strike For 5 Days
Kaiser says the union’s main concern is increasing its workers’ wages, which it says are already the highest in the state. Sal Rosselli, the union president, said negotiators are seeking pay increases as well as benefits packages equal to those given to other medical professionals. Staffing for mental health care has been a lingering and contentious issue at Kaiser. In 2015, Kaiser agreed to pay a $4 million fine levied in 2013 by state regulators over inadequate access to its mental health services. (Cabanatuan, 12/9)
The "public charge" policy would allow officials to penalize legal immigrants for accepting government aid, such as Medicaid.
Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Move To Restrict Immigrants' Healthcare Access Would Hit California's Economy, Study Says
Rules that could give immigrants reason to avoid enrolling in health safety net programs would deliver a blow to California’s economy, costing the state thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic output, a new study concluded. Under the rules proposed by the Homeland Security Department, immigrants could jeopardize their chances of getting green cards if they enroll themselves or their children in Medicaid — the half-century-old government health insurance program for the poor — or nutrition assistance programs such as CalFresh or federal housing assistance. (Bhuiyan, 12/7)
In other news —
Los Angeles Times:
San Diego County, Mexico Work To Avert Health Crisis At Migrant Camps
Two months pregnant, Jessica Mejia of Honduras received flu and tetanus vaccinations and prenatal vitamins in the health clinic at Tijuana’s El Barretal shelter Friday. She was one of many in the 6,000-strong migrant caravan to receive checkups, medications and even minor surgery from a growing set of medical services that added a mobile hospital last week. (Sisson and Solis, 12/9)
A Los Angeles Times investigation uncovered numerous allegations against Dr. Patrick Sutton, the vice chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Huntington Memorial Hospital. Unease about Sutton was so widespread at Huntington that some nurses adopted a policy of misleading him about the progress of a woman’s labor to keep him out of the delivery room for as long as possible, according to interviews with more than half a dozen current and former nurses.
Los Angeles Times:
More Than 20 Women Accused A Prominent Pasadena Obstetrician Of Mistreating Them. He Denied Claims And Was Able To Continue Practicing
A Times investigation identified more than 20 women who claim [Dr. Patrick] Sutton mistreated them during his medical care. Their allegations date to 1989, his first year at Huntington, and include unwanted sexual advances, medical incompetence, the maiming of women’s genitals and the preventable death of an infant. Sutton denied each allegation in an interview with The Times. Top Huntington administrators were warned repeatedly about Sutton over the decades, according to interviews with current and former administrators and other hospital employees. One obstetrician at the hospital told The Times she complained to Huntington’s chief medical officer and its compliance department on several occasions about what she saw as his poor clinical judgment and misogynistic remarks. (Ryan and Hamilton, 12/9)
In other news from across the state —
Los Angeles Times:
Laguna Council To Consider A Daytime Pilot Program At The Alternative Sleeping Location
Homelessness, public safety, sidewalk vendor regulation and grant funding are on a packed agenda for the first regular meeting of Laguna Beach’s newly configured City Council. Officials on Tuesday are expected to adopt a resolution reaffirming the city’s commitment to caring for people who are homeless and disabled and announcing a pilot daytime drop-in program at the Alternative Sleeping Location. (Pinho, 12/7)
KQED:
Richmond Looks To Get Out Of Managing Its Low-Income Housing
Richmond will search for outside public and private partners to manage its low-income housing properties and Section 8 voucher programs, the City Council decided this week. Faced with major financial and operational challenges and ongoing federal budget cuts, the Richmond Housing Authority has long struggled to meet the basic needs of its tenants, many of whom are elderly and physically impaired. (Veltman, 12/7)
Modesto Bee:
Modesto City Council Approves Tax Rate For Marijuana Retailers
The Modesto City Council has approved an 8 percent tax for cannabis retail businesses. The council at its Dec. 4 meeting also approved tax rates for other types of cannabis businesses in Modesto, including distribution, microbusiness, manufacturing, indoor cultivation and testing labs. (Ahumada and Rowland, 12/9)
Forty California inmates died of drug overdoses last year, and California’s long-term drug overdose rate is more than three times the nationwide prison rate.
The Mercury News:
Suspected Fatal Overdoses At San Quentin Prompt Call For Life-Saving Drug Availability
A pair of suspected fatal overdoses on San Quentin State Prison’s death row this week is adding urgency to an effort to allow California prison guards and even inmates to carry a drug that can save the lives of those who overdose on opioids. Attorneys made the request earlier this year to state corrections officials and the federal receiver who controls prison medical care under a long-running lawsuit, Steven Fama of the nonprofit Prison Law Office said Thursday. (Thompson, 12/7)
KQED:
San Quentin Deaths Come Amid Increase In Drug Overdoses At Prison
The recent deaths of two inmates on California's death row at San Quentin State Prison took place as Marin County health paramedics received a "spike" in calls from the prison related to opioid overdoses, according to the county's top health official.Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County's public health officer, said in the past six months the county's emergency medical services responded to 155 ambulance calls at San Quentin. (Goldberg and Shuler, 12/9)
'Our Lives Will Never Be The Same Again': California Burn Survivors On A Long Road To Recovery
Those who were burned but survived the Camp Fire are only beginning to deal with the consequences of the wildfire. To deal with the possibility of a large increase in fire burn patients, U.C. Davis has formed a consortium with 25 hospitals across eight Western states, and has added another specialist to its team.
The New York Times:
The Wildfire May Be Over, But Those It Burned ‘Live That Nightmare Every Day'
Bill Blevins had pulled himself out of homelessness and addiction with a job as an alarm systems repairman, dexterous work with tiny electrical components that he enjoyed. But last week he was forced to confront a new hurdle: His left pinkie finger was amputated. It was his third surgery since his hands were ravaged by the wildfire that devastated the town of Paradise, Calif., last month. And now he’s not sure if he will be able to work again. (Nir, 12/8)
In other public health news —
KQED:
Doctor Detectives Take On Rare Diseases
Individual rare diseases are very uncommon, but taken together into a single category, they afflict one in 20 people. All across the country, teams of medical sleuths are cracking these mystery cases and providing hope for families including some right here in the Bay Area. (Levi, 12/9)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Bay Area Firm At Forefront Of Science Seeking Arthritis Cure
Unity co-founder Nathaniel David, an inventor and entrepreneur, was impressed by their work, calling it the “coolest biology” he had ever seen. Unity, his fifth startup, was founded in 2011 with more than $300 million in funding, including investments by billionaires Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. David, a Harvard and UC Berkeley-trained molecular and cell biologist, sold two of his first four companies — one that produced a diabetes drug, the other a remedy for double chins — for well over $2 billion. His lone business whiff is a company that managed to make a crude oil substitute from algae but was thwarted when oil prices plummeted. (Kovner, 12/8)
Los Angeles Times:
#ThisIsOurLane: Doctors Tell The NRA Why They Are Experts On The Effects Of Gun Violence
It was the kind of imperious broadside that would strike fear into the hearts of most politicians. In a contemptuous tweet, the National Rifle Assn. admonished a medical group for speaking out about gun injuries and dismissed their concern by saying that physicians should mind their own business. “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane,” the NRA tweeted on Nov. 7. In drafting a policy statement that “reflects every anti-gunner’s public policy wish list,” the American College of Physicians “seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves,” the NRA complained. (Healy, 12/7)
Brandon Nelson's family blames failures in the state's mental health system for their son's suicide.
East Bay Times:
California Parents Agonize: ‘Did Our Son Really Have To Die?’
After college, the kid who once transformed black plastic bags into solar hot-air balloons started working for a company that made aircraft components. Things didn’t really begin to veer off course until last fall, when [Brandon] Nelson, 26, became convinced that one of those aircraft components was fatally flawed. He was consumed with the idea that, if struck by lightning, aircraft with those parts would explode. What followed was a disastrous foray into California’s fractured mental health system, which has been plagued with dysfunction since psychiatric hospitals were shuttered in favor of more friendly — and less expensive — community-based treatment centers decades ago, experts say. (Sforza, 12/10)
A New York Times and ProPublica investigation reveals widespread flaws in how conflicts of interest are reported in medical journals, which are the main conduit for communicating the latest scientific discoveries to the public.
The New York Times/ProPublica:
What These Medical Journals Don’t Reveal: Top Doctors’ Ties To Industry
One is dean of Yale’s medical school. Another is the director of a cancer center in Texas. A third is the next president of the most prominent society of cancer doctors. These leading medical figures are among dozens of doctors who have failed in recent years to report their financial relationships with pharmaceutical and health care companies when their studies are published in medical journals, according to a review by The New York Times and ProPublica and data from other recent research. (Ornstein and Thomas, 12/8)
The New York Times/ProPublica:
Doctors And Disclosures
Academic journals are the way the world learns about medical breakthroughs, and companies benefit greatly when research about their products is published in them. Prestigious journals require authors to list any potential conflicts of interest. But dozens of doctors have failed to disclose significant relationships with health care and drug companies that pay them for consulting work, sitting on corporate boards and other roles. (Thomas and Ornstein, 12/8)
There's a brewing rift in the Democratic party between progressives who campaigned on "Medicare for all" and those who want to stabilize and improve upon the health law. The hospital, insurance and pharmaceutical industry are getting ready for the upcoming battle. Meanwhile, state attorneys general, emboldened by election wins, look to shore up their defense of the health law in courts.
Politico:
Establishment Looks To Crush Liberals On Medicare For All
The united front that helped Democrats save Obamacare just a year ago is falling apart over single-payer health care. Deep-pocketed hospital, insurance and other lobbies are plotting to crush progressives’ hopes of expanding the government's role in health care once they take control of the House. The private-sector interests, backed in some cases by key Obama administration and Hillary Clinton campaign alumni, are now focused on beating back another prospective health care overhaul, including plans that would allow people under 65 to buy into Medicare. (Cancryn, 12/10)
The Hill:
Top Dems Press Trump Officials For Answers On Pre-Existing Conditions
Four incoming House Democratic chairmen on Friday pressed the Trump administration for answers about its decision to call for overturning ObamaCare’s pre-existing condition protections in court. “In declining to defend these provisions, the Trump Administration is seeking to invalidate these critical patient protections, and once again subject millions of Americans with preexisting conditions to the discrimination they faced before the ACA,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. (Sullivan, 12/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Democratic Attorneys General To Bolster Fight Against Trump’s Agenda
Democrats are building a new power base that will play an elevated role in a divided government in Washington: state attorneys general contesting President Trump’s agenda in the courts. Democrats defeated Republican incumbents in four states last month, giving the party a 27-23 edge among states’ top law-enforcement officials, a shift that will beef up its legal fights against the president. Democrats plan to build upon dozens of existing lawsuits fighting Mr. Trump’s attempt to undercut the Affordable Care Act, roll back environmental regulations and install hard-line immigration policies. (Thomas, 12/10)
In other national health care news —
The Washington Post:
Trump Administration Halts Study That Would Use Fetal Tissue ‘To Discover A Cure For HIV’
The Trump administration has shut down at least one government-run study that uses fetal tissue implanted into mice even before federal health officials reach a decision on whether to continue such research, which is opposed by antiabortion groups. A senior scientist at a National Institutes of Health laboratory in Montana told colleagues that the Health and Human Services Department “has directed me to discontinue procuring fetal tissue” from a firm that is the only available source, according to an email he sent to a collaborator in late September. (Goldstein and Bernstein, 12/9)
Stat:
HIV Research Halted After NIH Freezes Acquisition Of Fetal Tissue
The NIH confirmed the suspension on Friday to Science, which reported it affected two NIH labs, including halting an HIV research project. Spokespeople for the Department of Health and Human Services and and the NIH institutes with affected labs did not respond to STAT’s request for comment on Sunday. Researchers use fetal tissue to create mice with human-like immune systems — which is useful for biologists like Dr. Warner Greene who do HIV research. (Sheridan, 12/9)
The Associated Press:
Caregivers For 3600 Migrant Teens Lack Complete Abuse Checks
Nearly every adult working with children in the U.S. — from nannies to teachers to coaches — has undergone state screenings to ensure they have no proven history of abusing or neglecting kids. One exception: thousands of workers at two federal detention facilities holding 3,600 migrant teens in the government’s care, The Associated Press has learned. The staff isn’t being screened for child abuse and neglect at a Miami-based emergency detention center because Florida law bans any outside employer from reviewing information in its child welfare system. Until recently at another facility holding migrant teens in Tornillo, Texas, staff hadn’t even undergone FBI fingerprint checks, let alone child welfare screenings, a government report found. (Mendoza and Burke, 12/7)