The Associated Press: California Lawmakers Weigh Revamped Health Insurance Tax
California lawmakers are expected to take action Monday on a tax package aimed at appeasing federal regulators and preventing a $1.1 billion funding hole in the state's health insurance program for low-income Californians. The state Senate and Assembly were expected to consider three bills that are the culmination of a special legislative session Gov. Jerry Brown called last year to adjust taxes on health insurance plans. (Noon and Cooper, 2/29)

Capital Public Radio: Brown's Tax On Health Plans Splits California GOP
Democrats are expected to support the tax – but Republicans are split. Republicans have long branded themselves as opposing tax increases, and Sen. Mike Morrell (R-Rancho Cucamonga) says he can’t in good conscience support this one, especially with the state’s budget surplus. ... Republicans who support the bill will have some political cover. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and California Chamber of Commerce both say the governor’s proposal would not result in a net tax increase. (Adler, 2/29)

The Business Journal: Kaweah Delta Legislators To Vote 'Yes' On Managed Care Bill
The Kaweah Delta Health Care District is calling on local legislators to vote for the state’s Managed Care Organizations (MCO) bill package, which would provide nearly $800,000 in reimbursements for the district. In a statement released today, Kaweah Delta asked Assemblyman Devon Mathis, (R-Visalia), Senator Andy Vidak (R-Hanford) and Senator Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) to support the MCO bill package and eliminate “clawback” or retroactive recoupment of reimbursement for services provided by distinct part skilled nursing facilities (DP/SNFs). (2/26)

Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles County Health Department Targeted In Ransomware Attack
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services computers have been targeted in a "ransomware" cyberattack, officials said Friday. Ransomware is a type of malware that takes control of computers and cuts off users' access to files or threatens to destroy them unless a ransom is paid. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center officials said earlier this month that they had paid a $17,000 ransom in bitcoin to a hacker who seized control of the hospital's computer systems. The attack on the Los Angeles County health department was on a smaller scale. (Sewell, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Zenefits Says It Is Laying Off 250 Employees
Zenefits is dismissing 250 employees, or roughly 17% of its workforce, in a major retrenchment for a health-benefits-brokerage company that less than a year ago was touted as one of Silicon Valley’s most promising startups. The cutbacks were concentrated in sales, the company said. Zenefits eliminated a team responsible for selling health-insurance policies to corporate customers and narrow its focus to small businesses, which it sees as a more natural fit. (Winkler, 2/26)

The New York Times: Zenefits To Lay Off 17% Of Work Force
Zenefits, a San Francisco health insurance start-up facing regulatory scrutiny, plans to lay off 250 people starting Friday, David Sacks, the chief executive, says. The cuts will mostly affect the company’s sales teams and represent about 17 percent of employees. (Benner, 2/26)

The San Francisco Business Times: Zenefits To Lay Off 250 Amid Shakeup, CEO Says
Troubled San Francisco-based human resources software startup Zenefits will lay off 17 percent of its staff, its new CEO said in a memo Friday. The cuts will affect 250 employees and will begin today, said CEO David Sacks in an email to employees obtained by the Business Times. (McDermid, 2/26)

The San Francisco Business Times: Is Boston Any Better At Finding Space For Emerging Biotech Companies?
An old saw says the Bay Area's track record of breeding and growing life sciences companies than that of Boston — of course, the saying in the Bay State swings the other way. But as young companies' growth outpaces their ability to find flexible, modular space to accommodate more employees, research and potential sales of drugs, medical devices or medical diagnostics, Boston and San Francisco are pretty much face the same quandary: There's little room to grow. (Leuty, 2/26)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Can Geneticists Engineer Healthier Humans?
It’s being called a “game changer,” the biggest advance in genomics in years. A tool that could help develop better ways to treat everything from cancer to obesity. But does the powerful new gene editing tool CRISPR represent hope or hype? Have scientists merely come up with a flashy new piece of technology? (Robbins, 2/26)

The San Francisco Business Times: 23andMe 'Spit Kits' May Head To The Shelves Of This Huge Retail Chain
Genetic information company 23andMe Inc.'s "spit kits" will be available at Walgreens stores, a company leader said Friday. But the company officially said no deal is imminent. The deal, if it actually is finalized, would demonstrate how far Mountain View-based 23andMe has come since the Food and Drug Administration two years ago spanked it for not getting the agency's approval before marketing its kit to consumers as a way to uncover disease-signaling gene mutations. (Leuty, 2/26)

The Los Angeles Daily News: Pregnant Woman Is Second Zika Case In Los Angeles County
A pregnant woman from Los Angeles County has been infected with the Zika virus after traveling outside the area, public health officials confirmed late Friday. Officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said the woman is the second confirmed case of Zika virus in the region. The first was an adolescent who had travelled to El Salvador, and was diagnosed in November. She has since recovered. (Abram, 2/26)

The Associated Press: CDC: Zika Infections Confirmed In 9 Pregnant Women In US
Zika infections have been confirmed in nine pregnant women in the United States, including one who gave birth to a baby with a rare birth defect, health officials said Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it's investigating 10 more reports of pregnant travelers with Zika. All got the virus while visiting or living in places with Zika outbreaks. (Stobbe, 2/29)

The Sacramento Business Journal: What Weighs 21 Tons, Costs $7M And Kills Brain Tumors
Sutter Health has installed a 21-ton, $7 million "gamma knife" that uses radiation to do brain surgery more quickly and simply than previous generations of the device. Gamma knives have been used for decades to destroy tumors with targeted beams of radiation. But officials at the Sutter Neuroscience Institute, on Sutter's midtown Sacramento campus, said their device is the first model of its kind in the state. (Anderson, 2/26)

NBC: Vice President Joe Biden Lands In Bay Area, Talks Cancer Moonshot Initiative
Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, touched down in the Bay Area Saturday, prepared to spend the entire weekend discussing health initiatives and raising funds for Democrats. The duo first stopped at the University of California, San Francisco, where they participated in an 11 a.m. roundtable discussion with tech industry leaders about finding (and funding) a cure for cancer. (2/27)

The Los Angeles Times: No One Knows What's Behind L.A. County's Rise In Mental Competency Cases
Competency cases increased by nearly 50% from 2014 to last year. Between 2010 and 2015, the annual total ballooned from 944 to 3,528. L.A. County Superior Court does not compile detailed data on what types of criminal cases wind up in mental health court. Attorneys, judges, doctors and law enforcement officials say they can only guess why the caseload is growing. (Sewell, 2/28)

The Desert Sun: California Prisons See Benefit In Routine HIV Testing
In 2010, California began offering routine HIV testing to incoming prison inmates. The result, according to a new study by state health officials, is a high rate of inmates getting the care they need to get the virus under control. But once released, many inmates struggled to stay on top of their drug treatment. (Newkirk, 2/26)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Top Killer Of Women Often Unrecognized
Just as heart attacks and related conditions are the leading cause of death among American men, heart disease tops the list for women. But much of the publicity surrounding this disease focuses on men. Women are left out of the picture, and the results are often deadly. UC San Diego recently re-interviewed an apparently healthy and active young mother the health system treated years ago for a heart attack. and shared the lessons learned. (Fikes, 2/28)

The Associated Press: Murder Charges Against Rehab Center A First In California
A Riverside County grand jury has indicted a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for murder after the death of a man who was seeking help to treat a drinking problem, the first time in California that a corporation has been accused of murder, according to the facility's attorneys. (2/28)

Glendale New-Press: Glendale Pair Convicted Of Laundering More Than $1 Million In Medicare Fraud
Two Glendale men were convicted this week of laundering more than $1 million generated through fraudulent billings to Medicare for equipment and tests that were either medically unnecessary or never provided, officials said. After a three-week trial, a federal jury found Karen “Gary” Sarkissian guilty of six counts of money laundering, five counts of health care fraud and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, according to the U.S. attorney's office. (Tchekmedyian, 2/26)

The Press Democrat: Elite Team Of Foster Families Care For Drug-Addicted Babies In Sonoma County
Inside a remodeled two-story house somewhere in Santa Rosa, there’s a room where drug-addicted newborns are loved. The walls are painted green and pink and blue and yellow and then blue again in rows of stripes. The crib is antique, and it matches the changing table — both white. White curtains with lace edging hang over the windows, and a little stuffed lamb rests on pink bed sheets, waiting for its next owner. (Warren, 2/27)

The Desert Sun: Hundreds Walk To End Alzheimer's
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday to raise awareness for Alzheimer's Disease. The annual Walk to End Alzheimer's took place at Palm Desert Civic Center Park. About 200 people participated, organizers said. (Atagi, 2/27)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Pfizer Donates $5M To La Jolla Institute
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has donated $5 million to the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, much of which will be used to create an endowed chair in cancer immunology. The gift is the largest private donation ever received by LJI, which has struggled to supplement federal and industry funding with philanthropy. That struggle contributed to LJI's decision last year to become an affiliate of UC San Diego. The university agreed to give the institute $36 million over a 12-year period. (Robbins, 2/28)

The New York Times: Better Care Or Onerous Restrictions? Texas Abortion Law Going Before Supreme Court

The Washington Post: Arguments In Supreme Court Abortion Case Pitched To Audience Of One

The New York Times: Eyes On Kennedy, Women Tell Supreme Court Why Abortion Was Right For Them

The Associated Press: Abortion Returns To Supreme Court Altered By Scalia's Death

Reuters: U.S. Court Test On Abortion Reflects Success Of Strategy Shift

NPR: Many Dislike Health Care System But Are Pleased With Their Own Care
The United States has the most advanced health care in the world. There are gleaming medical centers across the country where doctors cure cancers, transplant organs and bring people back from near death. But a poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, shows that only one-third of Americans say the health care they receive is "excellent." Even fewer people are impressed with the system as a whole. (Kodjak, 2/29)

The Associated Press: Insurer Warnings Cast Doubt On ACA Exchange Future
Political uncertainty isn't the only threat to the Affordable Care Act's future. Cracks also are spreading through a major pillar supporting the law Health insurance exchanges created to help millions of people find coverage are turning into money-losing ventures for many insurers. The nation's largest, UnitedHealth Group Inc., could lose as much as $475 million on its exchange business this year and may not participate in 2017. Another major insurer, Aetna, has questioned the viability of the exchanges. And a dozen nonprofit insurance cooperatives created by the law have already closed, forcing around 750,000 people to find new plans. (2/26)

The New York Times: Trying To Revive H.M.O.s, But Without Those Scarlet Letters
An H.M.O. by any other name is still an H.M.O. Once emblematic of everything wrong with health insurance, the health maintenance organization is making a grudging, if somewhat successful, comeback. But its reputation for skimping on care has so tainted the plans that the insurers and companies resurrecting them have gone through innumerable steps to try to avoid using the term H.M.O. — only to be told, at least in one case by state regulators, that an H.M.O. must still be called an H.M.O. (Abelson, 2/28)

The New York Times: Administration Protests Limits On Its Power To Fill Vacancies
A federal appeals court ruling that limits the president’s power to appoint officials to temporarily run federal agencies when high-level government jobs become vacant has prompted growing concerns among Obama administration officials. ... At a budget hearing, [Representative Leonard Lance, Republican of New Jersey] asked Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, how many officials were serving at her department in an acting capacity. Ms. Burwell named two: Mary K. Wakefield, the acting deputy secretary, and Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo, the acting assistant secretary for health. Another top health official, Andrew M. Slavitt, has been nominated by Mr. Obama to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services but has been unable to get a confirmation hearing. (Pear, 2/28)

The New York Times: Top Lobbyist For Drug Makers Threads A Thicket Of Outrage
Few lobbyists have walked into the kind of political inferno that greeted Stephen J. Ubl when he became the top pitchman for the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Ubl, the 47-year-old president and chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, took charge in November, as the Obama administration, presidential candidates, members of Congress, consumer groups, health insurance companies and doctors were criticizing the prescription drug industry for charging prices they saw as exorbitant and excessive. The anger has only grown worse. (Pear, 2/26)