Fresno Bee: Madera Hospital, Partners Announce Reopening Plan, Timeline
Madera Community Hospital could start seeing patients later this summer if a bankruptcy judge approves their new proposed deal. (Montalvo, 1/21)

Los Angeles Daily News: Teenagers Tour A Simulated Surgery And Get A Peek At Robotics At Cedar-Sinai 
Twenty-two local junior high and high school students took part in a simulated surgery, and other simulated medical procedures, at the Cedars-Sinai Women’s Guild Simulation Center for Advanced Clinical Skills, and were joined by Clippers forward Moussa Diabate and Clippers forward-center Daniel Theis. (1/20)

Bloomberg: American Healthcare REIT Said To Seek $700 Million In IPO
American Healthcare REIT Inc. is seeking to raise about $700 million in an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the situation. The Irvine, California-based senior housing and assisted living property owner could start gauging investor interest in the listing as soon as next week, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The company is a non-traded REIT, which is required to make regular filings and only infrequently trades over the counter. (Or, 1/19)

Modern Healthcare: Sickle Cell Gene Therapy To Be Covered By Blue Cross Insurers
Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers have become the first carriers to cover multimillion-dollar new gene therapies for sickle cell disease, and other insurers and Medicaid agencies are moving to follow suit. Blue Cross' Synergie Medication Collective has inked risk-sharing agreements with drugmaker BlueBird Bio to offer its $3.1 million Lyfgenia gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease to some self-insured employers, as well as competitor Vertex Pharmaceuticals' $2.2 million Casgevy treatment. (Tepper, 1/19)

Stat: FDA Sets Aggressive Timeline For Overhauling Inspection Procedures
Food and Drug Administration officials hope to finish this year a massive overhaul of the way the agency inspects facilities that make drugs, medical devices, and food products, they said Friday. (Wilkerson, 1/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Pro-Life Is The Future’: Thousands In S.F. Rally Against Abortion
Civic Center Plaza was a sea of umbrellas Saturday afternoon as thousands of people took to San Francisco’s streets to peacefully protest abortion and seize on the movement’s gains since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the right to the procedure. The 20th annual Walk for Life West Coast began with a rally at Civic Center and continued with a march down Market Street to the Embarcadero, prompting street closures and bus reroutes. (Echeverria, 1/20)

The New York Times: Abortion Opponents March In Washington, With Obstacles Ahead 
Last year, anti-abortion activists descended on the National Mall in triumph for the annual March for Life, eager to enter a new era for their ambitions to end abortion following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that established federal abortion rights. But this year, the first presidential election year in post-Roe America, the movement finds itself marching once more in Washington not in triumph, exactly, but grasping to advance their cause after a series of political defeats, fewer powerful allies, and setbacks in the court of public opinion. (Dias, 1/19)

Roll Call: Johnson Touts Personal Story In Speech At Anti-Abortion March 
On a snowy Washington, D.C., day, one day after Congress passed a stopgap spending bill and fled town, a sizable and motivated crowd assembled for the annual March for Life on the National Mall to listen to the new speaker of the House praise their efforts to end abortion. In his first address to the nation’s largest annual anti-abortion rally as speaker Friday, Mike Johnson, R-La., shared the impetus for his interest in anti-abortion issues. (Raman, 1/19)

NBC News: Biden Administration Announces New Abortion Initiatives On Roe Anniversary
President Joe Biden will convene key members of his Cabinet on Monday to discuss abortion rights on the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling, according to a White House official. The president will “hear directly from physicians on the frontlines of the fallout” since the landmark decision was reversed and detail new actions his administration is taking to strengthen access to contraception and medication abortion, as well as ensuring patients can receive emergency medical care. The meeting will mark the fourth time his task force on reproductive health care access has come together since the fall of Roe roughly a year and a half ago.  (Alba, 1/22)

CNN: Biden Campaign Puts Abortion Rights Front And Center As It Plans To Tie Trump To Abortion Bans 
The Biden campaign will hit the airwaves in battleground states with its first abortion-focused ad of the year, featuring stark, emotional testimony from a woman personally affected by a state abortion ban who lays the blame directly on former President Donald Trump. It comes as the campaign is launching a full-court press this week to put abortion rights front and center in the 2024 race, including with events headlined by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The push marks the campaign’s first organized effort to emphasize the issue, seeking to further galvanize voters around reproductive rights in the first presidential election after the Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion. (Saenz, 1/22)

The 19th: How Doctors Are Impacted As Abortion Rights Return To The Supreme Court
Less than two years ago, the Supreme Court eliminated the federal right to an abortion, a decision that the court’s conservative majority suggested would remove them from further litigation of abortion rights.  ”The Court’s decision properly leaves the question of abortion for the people and their elected representatives in the democratic process,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion. But this term, the court is now set to hear two cases that could further undercut access to the procedure. (Luthra, 1/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: People Petitioning CARE Court In San Diego County Are Qualifying For Help 
In the first few months of operation, the vast majority of people who have petitioned the state’s new CARE Court to get someone mental health help are qualifying in San Diego County, judicial officials said Friday, but it’s been challenging connecting with those who need the assistance. (Winkley, 1/20)

Medical Xpress: Who Is Most Efficient In Health Care? Study Finds, Surprisingly, It's The VA
Private-sector hospitals, clinics, and insurers are bloated, bureaucratic nightmares compared to efficiently run Veterans Health Administration facilities that put care over profits, a new study reveals. The study, by researchers at Hunter College of the City University of New York, Harvard Medical School, the Veterans Health Administration, and the University of Washington, points fingers at profit-driven private facilities and insurers, where a whopping 30% of staff are stuck in the tangled web of paperwork, while the VHA shines with a lean 22.5% administrative staff. That means nearly 900,000 fewer paper pushers would be needed if private hospitals, clinics, and insurers took a page from the VHA's playbook. The research is published in the journal JAMA Network Open. (1/19)

Bay Area News Group: San Mateo County Considers Criminal Penalties For Homeless People Who Refuse Shelter
San Mateo County is considering a new law that could levy criminal penalties on homeless people who refuse shelter, a proposal officials say they hope can be a model for cities throughout the Peninsula struggling to move people off the street. On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors is set to begin discussing the ordinance, which would allow homeless encampment residents on public property in unincorporated areas to be charged with a misdemeanor if they decline two offers of a shelter bed. (Varian, 1/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Mystery Illness Impacting Residents, Workers At Balboa Park Homeless Camping Site 
An abdominal illness has spread among dozens of residents and workers at one of the city’s safe sleeping sites for the homeless, and San Diego County health officials are investigating. (Molnar, 1/20)

Los Angeles Times: California Winds Spread More And More Microplastics
Wind picks up microplastics from human-sewage-based fertilizers at higher concentrations than previously known, and may be an “underappreciated” source of airborne plastic bits, flakes and threads. ... It means people are potentially inhaling these particles, which measure between 1 and 5,000 micrometers, or 5 millimeters, in size. Most of these particles are likely to be coated with harmful chemicals such as plastic additives, heavy metals, pesticides and other chemicals that have been poured down the drain or have trickled off streets into storm drains. (Rust, 1/19)

Becker's Hospital Review: CDC Urges More Blood Testing For PFAS Chemicals
The CDC on Jan. 18 issued updated guidance for clinicians regarding exposure to per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, urging them to consider a patient's individual history and possible exposure to the chemicals and to order blood tests as needed to detect both recent and past exposures. These chemicals, also called PFAS, are found in drinking water and used in everything from non-stick cooking pans, to shampoo and dental floss. But exposure to high concentrations can cause chronic health conditions like high cholesterol, kidney and testicular cancer, pregnancy-induced hypertension, decreased vaccine response and more. (Hollowell, 1/19)

Bay Area News Group: Raw Sewage In Creeks? Sunnyvale And Mountain View Argue In Court The Clean Water Act Should Not Apply To Them
When it comes to the environment, Sunnyvale and Mountain View have a pretty green image, spending millions on bike lanes, solar energy and electric vehicle charging stations. But their tactics in an ongoing court case — in which their lawyers claimed major Bay Area creeks should not be protected from pollution under the federal Clean Water Act — are raising eyebrows among environmentalists. (Rogers, 1/22)

CBS News: Risk Of Wildfire Smoke In Long-Term Care Facilities Is Worse Than You'd Think 
Every year, wildfires across the western U.S. and Canada send plumes of smoke into the sky. When that smoke blows into southwestern Idaho's Treasure Valley, it blankets Boise-area residents in dirty air. They include seniors living in long-term care facilities, many of whom are considered an at-risk population for smoke exposure because of respiratory or cardiac diseases. "An astonishing amount of smoke gets inside these facilities," said Luke Montrose, an environmental toxicologist and researcher at Colorado State University. Data from monitors Montrose installed in four Idaho long-term care facilities in 2020 showed that large amounts of smoke pollution recorded outside during wildfire season seeped into the facilities. One building let in 50% of the particulate matter outside; another, 100%. In some cases, Montrose said, "it was no better to be inside than to be outside during those smoke events." (Mohr, 1/22)

Becker's Hospital Review: Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Gets 90-Year Ban From HHS
HHS has banned Elizabeth Holmes, incarcerated founder of blood-testing company Theranos, from participating in any federal healthcare program for the next 90 years. According to a Jan. 19 news release from HHS' Office of Inspector General, Ms. Holmes will be unable to bill Medicare, Medicaid or any other federal program. Ms. Holmes is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after being convicted of defrauding investors in Theranos. The company claimed to be able to screen for hundreds of conditions with a single drop of blood. (Wilson, 1/19)

LAist 89.3 FM: Making Sense Of New State Public Health Guidelines That Say Asymptomatic COVID Patients Don’t Need To Isolate If Symptoms Are Improving
The California Department of Health has rescinded it’s previous COVID-19 order, which encouraged those with the infectious disease to isolate for 5 days prior to continuing daily activities. The looser guidelines now allow for Californians to go back to work or school as long as their symptoms are mild and improving without the use of medication. So what can this significant change in policies mean for workplaces and people’s day-to-day lives? To offer insights into infectious diseases and this new policies’ implications, Austin Cross talks to Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center. (LAist, 1/19)

CalMatters: A Change Of Plan: California Ends COVID Isolation Rule For Asymptomatic Cases As Winter Infections Climb
Californians infected with COVID-19 may go about their lives without isolating or testing negative as long as their symptoms are improving, according to new and significantly loosened guidelines from the California Department of Public Health. (Hwang, 1/21)

NBC News: California Deviates From CDC Guidelines On Covid Isolation: What Do Experts Think, And Will More States Follow?
In California, a person who tests positive for Covid and has no symptoms does not need to isolate, according to new state health guidelines. People who test positive and have mild symptoms, meanwhile, can end isolation once their symptoms improve and they’ve been fever-free for 24 hours without medication — even if that point arrives in less than five days. ... The state's guidance differs from that of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which continues to advise people with Covid to stay home for at least five days, regardless of whether they have symptoms. (Bendix, 1/19)

CIDRAP: US Respiratory Illness Levels Still High But Showing Some Signs Of Reprieve 
Illnesses from three main respiratory viruses remain high across the nation, but, for a second week, some indicators that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks, such as hospitalizations and SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels, showed declines. In its latest updates for COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the CDC said rapid increases seen in the weeks leading up to the winter holidays have slowed, with decreases noted for COVID-19 and continuing declines in RSV activity in some regions. Overall, flu activity shows stable or declining trends, but the CDC said it is closely watching for a second spike that sometimes occurs after the winter holidays. (Schnirring, 1/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Netflix Hit ‘You Are What You Eat’ Began With Stanford Nutrition Study
Stanford University scientists are the driving force behind a hit Netflix documentary “You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment” that tries to answer the question of how to eat for better health. But how solid is the science in the show, which features Bay Area residents as test subjects, and what does it tell us about how to nourish ourselves? (Ho, 1/21)