KQED: Head Of Covered California: State Exchange ‘Here For The Long Haul’
Despite ongoing uncertainty around the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on a national level, the state’s insurance marketplace, Covered California, is recording higher enrollment numbers this year when compared to the  same time last year. ... KQED spoke to Covered California’s executive director, Peter V. Lee, who emphasized that despite these challenges, his program remains solid. (Klivans, 1/26)

San Jose Mercury News: California Flu Deaths Jump From 74 To 97
The number of Californians younger than 65 who have died from the flu during this flu season jumped again in the latest reporting period and now totals 97, according to figures released Friday by state public health officials. The latest number represents a spike of 23 in addition to the 74 deaths announced by the state last week — in the same age group — and an increase of four in the Greater Bay Area. (Seipel, 1/26)

The New York Times: This Flu Season Is The Worst In Nearly A Decade
This year’s flu season is now more intense than any since the 2009 swine flu pandemic and still getting worse, federal health officials said on Friday. Nationally, the number of people falling ill with flu is increasing. More worrying, the hospitalization rate — a predictor of the death rate — has just jumped. It is now on track to equal or surpass that of the 2014-2015 flu season. In that year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, 34 million Americans got the flu, 710,000 were hospitalized and about 56,000 died. (McNeil, 1/26)

The Associated Press: Flu Widespread Across US For Third Straight Week
Sick with the flu? You’ve got a lot of company. The flu blanketed the U.S. again last week for the third straight week. Only Hawaii has been spared. The government doesn’t track every flu case but comes up with estimates. One measure is how many people seek medical care.Last week, 1 in 15 doctor visits were for symptoms of the flu. That’s the highest level since the swine flu pandemic in 2009. (Stobbe, 1/26)

The Washington Post: This Flu Season Is On Track To Be The Worst In Nearly A Decade
The toll on children has been especially severe. CDC officials said the pediatric death count is likely to approach, if not exceed, the 148 deaths reported during the especially severe flu season of 2014 and 2015. That season ended with 56,000 flu-related deaths, 710,000 people hospitalized and 16 million who sought care from a clinician or hospital. This year’s intensity has been driven by a particularly nasty strain of the virus known as H3N2. Another strain has also begun showing up, hitting baby boomers especially hard, CDC officials said Friday, although experts have not figured out exactly why. (Sun and Wan, 1/26)

The Hill: CDC: This Flu Season Worst Since 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic 
What's more, flu activity has stayed at the same level nationwide for about three weeks, said Dr. Dan Jernigan, the director of the CDC’s Influenza Division. That sets it apart from many flu seasons, in which activity wanes in certain parts of the U.S. "We often see different parts of the country 'light up' at different times, but for the past 3 weeks, the entire country has been experiencing lots of flu, all at the same time," he said. (Greenwood, 1/27)

KQED: Woman Seeks Help For Post-Partum Depression. A Nurse Calls The Cops. 
With her first daughter, everything was fine. But four months after having her second, Jessica Porten started feeling really irritable. Little things would annoy her, like the baby’s glider chair. “It had started to squeak,” she said, “And so when I’m sitting there rocking the baby and it’s squeaking, I would just get so angry at that stupid chair.” She read online that this could be a symptom of post-partum depression – a condition that affects up to one in five women in California during or after pregnancy. The rates have spurred state lawmakers to introduce a package of bills to improve screening and treatment of maternal mental health conditions. (Dembosky, 1/28)

Sacramento Bee: UC Hospital Leaders, Nurses Clash Over Contract
Amid an impasse in negotiations, registered nurses all around the University California system rallied Thursday at hospitals and on campuses to protest contract proposals that they say would impede their ability to provide quality patient care and undermine their well-being in retirement. ...Roughly 14,000 RNs at the five major UC medical centers, 10 student health centers, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are represented by the California Nurses Association in these contract negotiations. (Anderson, 1/27)

Reuters: Dennis Peron, Father Of Medical Marijuana In California, Dies At 72
Dennis Peron, the cannabis activist who fired up the movement to legalize medical marijuana in California, died on Saturday in a San Francisco hospital. He was 72. Also a prominent figure in San Francisco's gay community, he was credited as a pioneer in recognizing the health benefits of pot during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. "A man that changed the world," was how his brother Jeffrey Peron remembered him on Facebook. "It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my brother Dennis Peron." (Goldberg, 1/28)

In other news —

San Francisco Chronicle: California Marijuana Purveyors Go Mainstream, Except For The Sacks Of Cash
Industry leaders estimate that 70 percent of the more than 1,600 recreational and medical dispensaries in the state are still dealing in cash. ...The Wild West situation stems from marijuana remaining illegal under federal law, which prompts banks that might open accounts and extend loans to fear money-laundering charges. (Fimrite, 1/28)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Arrests Made In Alleged $66 Million Military Medical Insurance Fraud 
A Utah pharmacy and the husband-and-wife owners of a Tennessee medical practice have been indicted on allegations that they used Marines and sailors in San Diego County as pawns in a nearly $66 million medical insurance scheme, according to an indictment unsealed Friday. Jimmy and Ashley Collins, who own Choice MD in Cleveland, Tenn., made their first court appearance Friday in Chattanooga, a precursor to an upcoming San Diego hearing. ... Military members in San Diego would be paid to recruit other service members to participate in a fake medical study, according to the allegations. The participants were paid $100 to $300 to speak with a doctor in a telemedicine session and would be prescribed compound medication — some in cream form, according to details in a search warrant affidavit obtained last year by the Union-Tribune. (Davis, 1/26)

Ventura County Star: HIV Surge Ignites Worries About Casual Sex, Awareness
An increase in HIV cases is triggering concerns about risky sexual behavior, a shortfall of educational programs and changed perceptions of a virus once seen as a death sentence. Ventura County Public Health Department officials said a preliminary count shows 80 new cases of HIV reported in 2017 along with 12 new cases of AIDS. At least 11 positive tests of HIV and AIDS were reported in December alone. The numbers, which still must be verified by the state, leaped from the 49 new cases of HIV and seven cases of AIDS in 2016. Three years earlier, in 2013, there were 28 cases of HIV and 16 cases of AIDS, according to public health records. (Kisken, 1/27)

In other news from across the state —

Los Angeles Times: After A Baby Suddenly Dies, A 911 Call From USC's Former Medical School Dean Sparks Detectives' Interest
The death of the infant, Boaz Franko, is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Detectives are working to determine whether he died from natural causes, an accident or as the result of a crime. (Hamilton and Ryan, 1/27)

San Jose Mercury News: Santa Cruz Brain Surgeon, Accused Child Rapist, Sued By Former Patient
Santa Cruz brain surgeon and accused child molester James Kohut and his former employers are being sued by a patient claiming Kohut implanted the wrong screws in his neck, according to court documents. The suit, filed this month in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, also lists defendants Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group and Dominican Hospital. (Todd, 1/27)

The Associated Press: NY, Minnesota Sue Feds Over Cuts To State Health Care Plans
The attorneys general for New York and Minnesota are suing the Trump administration for abruptly cutting off federal funding for health care coverage for more than 800,000 low-income residents in the two states. New York’s Eric Schneiderman and Minnesota’s Lori Swanson announced Friday that the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court accuses the Department of Health and Human Services of withholding more than $1 billion. (1/26)

Bloomberg: Trump Administration Sued Over $1 Billion Obamacare Cut 
The U.S. Health and Human Service Department waited until a day before Affordable Care Act payments were due to notify New York and Minnesota by email that more than $1 billion in annual funding was being cut off, according to a complaint filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called the state’s health plan a "lifeline" for 700,000 residents. "The abrupt decision to cut these vital funds is a cruel and reckless assault on New York’s families,” he said in a statement. (Larson, Tracer and Recht, 1/26)

In other news on the health law —

The Associated Press: Strong Health Sign-Ups Under Obamacare Encourage Democrats
Republicans on the campaign trail this year will be eager to tout the potential benefits of their tax cut plan.Voters like Jeanine Limone Draut, a freelance technical writer in Denver, have something else in mind: health care. Failed efforts by congressional Republicans last year to repeal former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act exposed not only deep divisions within the party but also revealed core benefits of the law that millions of Americans now take for granted. Draut is tired of the attacks and the uncertainty surrounding the law's future. (1/28)

The Hill: Poll: Most Unaware Congress Repealed ObamaCare Mandate 
Only a third of the public is aware that Congress repealed ObamaCare's individual mandate, according to a new poll released Friday. Of those surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 36 percent said they're aware Congress repealed the requirement that most have insurance or pay a tax penalty, while 46 percent incorrectly said it has not been repealed. (Hellmann, 1/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Koch Groups Move On From Health-Care Fight
The billionaire Koch brothers’ political organization spent more than $200 million in the past decade on what official Tim Phillips calls “without question our biggest policy defeat,” the quest to kill the Affordable Care Act. Now, the network of donors is turning its attention to the more urgent matter of protecting Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress this fall. “You can’t pout; you have to move on,” said Mr. Phillips, the longtime president of Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs’ primary vehicle for advocating on health care and other state and federal policies. “We won’t hold the majority forever, and we have many more policy goals.” (Bykowicz, 1/28)

The New York Times: Cecile Richards On Her Life After Planned Parenthood
According to Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood for over a decade, protesters who wave anti-abortion signs outside one of the organization’s clinics will sometimes return — a week, a month or a year later — for an annual medical exam. The men in Washington, D.C., who have done battle with Ms. Richards (“and they’re almost always men”) don’t see that side of the organization, she said. “For women, access to reproductive health care isn’t a political issue,” Ms. Richards said. “The women who walk into Planned Parenthood clinics come from every background, every political persuasion. "Yes, she said, even women who support President Trump. (Chozick, 1/26)

In other national health care news —

Stat: Gilead Accused Of 'Unethical' Policy For An HIV Prevention Drug
Atrio of AIDS advocacy groups is accusing Gilead Sciences (GILD) of drastically limiting a key component of an AIDS prevention treatment in an “unethical” manner that may violate federal guidelines. At issue is a Gilead drug called Truvada, which is combined with one of two other medicines to form nPEP, or non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis, the term used to describe preventive treatment. Observational studies suggest the combination can reduce the risk of acquiring HIV infection when started within 72 hours of exposure and continued for a month. (Silverman, 1/26)

The Hill: FDA Approved Record Number Of Generic Drugs Last Year
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 1,027 generic drugs last year, a record number, the Trump administration said Friday. The figure came as part of a year-end report from the Department of Health and Human Services, and was touted as part of the administration’s efforts to fight high drug prices. (Sullivan, 1/26)

Kaiser Health News: Death In The Family: An Uncle’s Overdose Spurs Medicaid Official To Change Course
Andrey Ostrovsky’s family did not discuss what killed his uncle. He was young, not quite two weeks past his 45th birthday, when he died, and he had lost touch with loved ones in his final months. Ostrovsky speculated he had committed suicide. Almost two years later, Ostrovsky was Medicaid’s chief medical officer, grappling with an opioid crisis that kills about 115 Americans each day, when he learned the truth: His uncle died of a drug overdose. (Huetteman, 1/29)

The New York Times: How To Keep Children Safe From Abuse At The Pediatrician’s Office
How can parents know if a doctor is touching a child in an inappropriate way? After scores of young women testified about being sexually molested by Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, the former doctor for the American gymnastics team who was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison on Wednesday, their parents wondered how they could have missed the signs. Some were even in the exam room at the time but were unaware that anything was wrong. (Rabin, 1/26)

The New York Times: Citing Deaths Of Lab Monkeys, F.D.A. Ends An Addiction Study
The deaths of four squirrel monkeys used as subjects in a nicotine addiction study have prompted the Food and Drug Administration to shut down the research permanently and to establish a council to oversee all animal studies under the agency’s purview. “It is clear the study was not consistent with the agency’s high animal welfare standards,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency’s commissioner, said in a statement on Friday. “These findings indicate that F.D.A.’s animal program may need to be strengthened in some important areas.” (Kaplan, 1/26)

The Washington Post: What Should You Do If A Nuclear Bomb Is Heading Your Way?
On Jan. 13, the state of Hawaii spent 38 minutes in terror after a text alert mistakenly warned of an incoming nuclear missile attack. If you heard about the mistake and wondered what you would or should do if you learned a nuclear bomb was heading your way, you're not alone. It has been more than 30 years since schools in the United States had “duck and cover” drills for schoolchildren, and preparing for a nuclear attack isn't something most people are familiar with. Today, nuclear threats are more likely from rogue states and terrorists, not the Soviet Union. But we should still be worried about nuclear threats we’re facing — and, with a president promising to rain down “fire and fury,” the threats we’re making. So if an attack is imminent, what do you do? (Taylor, 1/26)