The Mercury News: California Doctor, Renowned Vaccine Skeptic, Placed On Probation For Exempting Child From All Vaccinations
Dr. Bob Sears, a renowned Dana Point pediatrician who has been sought out by parents who wish to opt out of the state’s mandatory vaccine requirements, has been placed on probation for 35 months by the Medical Board of California. The June 27 order, which will go into effect on July 27, allows Sears to continue his medical practice but requires him to go through 40 hours of educational courses for each year of probation and a professional ethics course. (Bharath, 6/30)

Los Angeles Times: California Doctor Critical Of Vaccines Is Punished For Exempting 2-Year-Old Boy From All Childhood Immunizations
In 2016, the board threatened to revoke Sears’ medical license for wrongly writing a doctor’s note for a 2-year-old boy that exempted him from all childhood vaccinations. This week, the medical board settled on a lesser punishment. Sears can keep practicing medicine but will be required to take 40 hours of medical education courses a year, as well as an ethics class, and also be monitored by a fellow doctor. He also must notify all hospital and medical facilities where he practices of the order and is not allowed to supervise physician assistants or nurse practicioners. The doctor’s supporters expressed relief that he was not more severely punished, while critics were pleased that the state did more than simply reprimand him, as some had feared. (Karlamangla, 6/29)

The Mercury News: Jahi McMath Death Could Cost Family Millions In Legal Fight
Jahi McMath’s tragic saga came to an end last week, but the legal battle between her family and the hospital they claim was responsible for her brain damage grew even more heated after her lawyers announced the Oakland teen had been removed from the machines that kept her breathing for nearly five years. The decision could cost the family millions of dollars in their medical malpractice suit against UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and some doctors, experts say, because the cost of future medical care is a major factor in determining damages. (Gafni, 6/30)

KQED: Jahi McMath, Teen At Center Of Medical And Religious Debate On Brain Death, Has Died
The Uniform Declaration of Death Act, which has been in place since 1981, defines death as the "irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem." In the world of medical ethics, as NPR's Maanvi Singh reported in 2014, there are varying views on death. (Chow, 6/30)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma West Medical Center Hospital Puts Off Closure Talks, Plans Fundraising Campaign
Sonoma West Medical Center has put off deliberations over whether to shut down the Sebastopol hospital, opting instead to go forward with aggressive fundraising aimed at paying down part of the facility’s $5 million in debt. SWMC’s board of directors had planned to meet Friday and discuss whether to begin drawing up plans to close the cash-strapped facility. Barbara Vogelsang, SWMC’s chief nursing officer and COO, said in an email the SWMC board met Friday but “there was no motion made to discuss a closure of the hospital.”Any such plan would have to go before the Palm Drive Health Care District, which owns the hospital and supports it financially. (Espinoza, 6/29)

In other hospital news —

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Workers Protest Potential Layoffs
About 80 Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital unionized employees and their supporters carried signs and shouted slogans Friday in front of the hospital, protesting the potential layoff of several dozen medical technicians, including nursing assistants who provide bedside care for patients. Striding the sidewalk on Brookwood Avenue, the protesters — some wearing teal or blue hospital scrubs — carried signs that read “Patients Before Profits” and “Save Our Jobs.” ...St. Joseph Health, which operates Memorial Hospital and 62 other Sonoma County facilities, had $53 million in operating revenue last year, all of it returned to the nonprofit organization, said Vanessa deGier, a St. Joseph Health spokeswoman. (Kovner, 6/29)

KPBS: Mental Health Advocates Concerned By Loss Of Inpatient Beds At Tri-City
Mental health advocates are reacting to the decision by Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside to close its inpatient mental health and crisis stabilization units. Tri-City Medical Center is a community district hospital run by a publicly elected board. The board has decided to suspend operations of the hospital’s inpatient mental health services and expand outpatient services. (St John, 7/2)

Sacramento Bee: Officials Say Rising Rates Are Due To Decreased Condom Use, Funding Cuts, Greater Number Of Sexual Partners
A record number of California residents were diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases in 2017. Recently released data from the California Department of Public Health show a 45 percent increase in cases of gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia in the state compared with rates five years prior. STD rates have continued to rise in Sacramento County, as well as both state and nationwide over the last several years. (Holzer, 7/2)

In other public health news —

KQED: Smoke Advisory In Effect For The Bay Area 
Bay Area air quality officials have issued a smoke advisory for Sunday across the Bay Area, due to smoke and ash from the County Fire in Yolo County. If you stepped outside today to see your car covered in ash or smelled smoke, that's a sign you should try to stay indoors and close your windows. (Hutson, 7/1)

Sacramento Bee: Health Care Giants Are Racing To Roseville. Here’s What It Means For Patients – And The Region’s Economy
Roseville leaders are eagerly anticipating the addition of about 1,200 jobs, added growth and economic opportunity stemming from three expansions at Kaiser Permanente, Adventist Health and Sutter Health over the next several years. ...In the third quarter of 2017, more than 25,000 residents of Placer County worked in the fields of health care and social assistance, up 37 percent from 2012, according to California's Employment Development Department. (Browning, 6/30)

In other news from across the state —

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Seven San Diego Defendants Charged As A Result Of National Health Care Fraud Takedown
Seven people, including a physician and two chiropractors, have been charged in San Diego federal court as part of a nationwide health care fraud investigation that identified more than $2 billion in false billings, prosecutors said. The San Diego defendants are among more than 600 people charged across the United States, many of whom are doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals. (Littlefield, 6/30)

Ventura County Star: Natren Probiotics Unveils New Thousand Oaks Plant
Natren Probiotics recently hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony unveiling its new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at 3105 Willow Lane in Thousand Oaks. The company was established in 1982 by developmental scientist Natasha Trenev and husband, Yordan Trenev, introducing probiotics as a dietary supplement category. The newly enlarged 36,000-square-foot plant, more than six years in planning, will serve as the exclusive manufacturing home for Natren’s probiotics, providing the company’s acclaimed proprietary full-culture and freeze-drying procedure. (6/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: La Taqueria Workers’ Risky Complaints Over Unpaid Overtime, Health Care Bring Reforms
Owner Miguel Jara, 75, has often spoken to the media about how much he values his workers, several of whom have cooked at La Taqueria for more than a quarter-century. Yet in November, San Francisco’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement and the California Labor Commissioner fined La Taqueria for numerous labor violations, including unpaid overtime, sick pay and health care costs. (Kauffman, 6/30)

Ventura County Star: Pleasant Valley Lions Donate $15,000 To St. John’s Healthcare Foundation
At its June 12 meeting, the Pleasant Valley Lions Club presented a check for $15,000 to the St. John’s Healthcare Foundation. The donation will provide new medical equipment in conjunction with renovations underway at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. The St. John’s Foundation works to raise money for needed medical services and equipment, both in Camarillo and for St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. The donation from the Lions Club will go to the neonatal intensive care unit to provide better vision health for the smallest patients. (6/29)

Capital Public Radio: Lessons Learned At Sacramento’s New Homeless Triage Shelter 
She [Anna Darzins] is with Volunteers of America and coordinates care for the city’s new Winter Triage Shelter, which opened in December with a million-dollar budget for four months — and the hope that removing barriers to housing would help people who had been untreated for mental illness and addiction. ...Fifty percent of the people at the new triage shelter report having a substance abuse problem, 60 percent have a mental illness and 90 percent report some kind of disability, according to the city. (Moffitt, 6/28)

In other news —

Capital Public Radio: A Legacy Of Serving Homeless Guests Continues At St. Mary’s Dining Room In Stockton 
St. Mary’s Dining Room in Stockton started 60 years ago feeding homeless people. Today, it continues that tradition — but also puts clothes on their backs, tends to guests’ health, and helps people get back on their feet. ...And about one-third of the people who show up at meal time are families who have hit hard times, according to St. Mary’s staff. (Ibarra, 6/28)

The Associated Press: Collins Opposes A Nominee Who Would Overturn Abortion Ruling
Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a key vote on President Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme Court, said Sunday she would oppose any nominee she believed would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. The White House is focusing on five to seven potential candidates to fill the vacancy of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, a swing vote on the court. The Maine senator said she would only back a judge who would show respect for settled law such as the 45-year-old Roe decision, which has long been anathema to conservatives. (7/2)

Politico: Collins: New Justice Should Not Favor Overturning Roe V. Wade
“Roe v. Wade is a constitutional right that is well-established,” Collins said on “State of the Union” on CNN. “And no less an authority than Chief Justice [John] Roberts said that repeatedly at his confirmation hearing.“ Trump last week said he wouldn’t ask potential Supreme Court nominees about abortion rights — a departure from his stance on the campaign trail, when he said he would nominate to the Supreme Court only people who oppose abortion. (Kullgren, 7/1)

The Hill: Manchin Warns Trump Against Picking Court Nominee Who Will Overturn Roe V. Wade  
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is signaling that President Trump should avoid picking a Supreme Court nominee that is openly pushing to overturn Roe v. Wade, instead encouraging him to choose a "centrist." "All of that stuff is red flags for all Americans. And I think he needs to get a jurist basically looking at the law. The Roe v. Wade has been the law for 40-some years," Manchin told a West Virginia radio station on Friday when asked if he wanted a jurist who would overturn the 1973 Supreme Court case that established the right to an abortion. (Carney, 6/29)

Politico: The Truth Behind Bob Casey’s ‘Pro-Life’ Stand
Sen. Bob Casey calls himself a pro-life Democrat. But his voting record paints a different picture. After a decade in the Senate, Casey has become an increasingly reliable vote in support of abortion rights — scoring as high as 100 percent on NARAL Pro-Choice America’s vote tally in 2016 and 2017. Anti-abortion groups insist he’s no champion of their cause — and view him as unlikely to support President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, whose confirmation will be a proxy battle on the future of Roe v. Wade. (Haberkorn, 7/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Says He Has Narrowed List Of Possible Supreme Court Picks To Five
President Donald Trump said on Friday that he planned to interview one or two candidates this weekend at his Bedminster, N.J., resort to fill Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat, and plans to announce his final pick on July 9. “I’ve got it narrowed to about five,” he said, including two women.The president also said he wouldn’t specifically ask candidates about Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling making abortion legal. However, a potential nominee’s approach to the issue has been a factor in creating Mr. Trump’s list of 25 conservative candidates. (Radnofsky and Nicholas, 6/29)

The New York Times: Bulwark Against An Abortion Ban? Medical Advances
As partisans on both sides of the abortion divide contemplate a Supreme Court with two Trump appointees, one thing is certain: America even without legal abortion would be very different from America before abortion was legal. The moment Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced his retirement, speculation swirled that Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion, would be overturned. Most legal experts say that day is years away, if it arrives at all. A more likely scenario, they predict, is that a rightward-shifting court would uphold efforts to restrict abortion, which would encourage some states to further limit access. (Belluck and Hoffman, 7/1)

The New York Times: Supreme Court Defeat For Unions Upends A Liberal Money Base
The Supreme Court decision striking down mandatory union fees for government workers was not only a blow to unions. It will also hit hard at a vast network of groups dedicated to advancing liberal policies and candidates. Some of these groups work for immigrants and civil rights; others produce economic research; still others turn out voters or run ads in Democratic campaigns. Together, they have benefited from tens of millions of dollars a year from public-sector unions — funding now in jeopardy because of the prospective decline in union revenue. (Scheiber, 7/1)

Meanwhile —

The New York Times: How Conservatives Weaponized The First Amendment
On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm. The court’s five conservative members, citing the First Amendment, had just dealt public unions a devastating blow. The day before, the same majority had used the First Amendment to reject a California law requiring religiously oriented “crisis pregnancy centers” to provide women with information about abortion. Conservatives, said Justice Kagan, who is part of the court’s four-member liberal wing, were “weaponizing the First Amendment.” (Liptak, 6/30)

The New York Times: Judge Strikes Down Kentucky’s Medicaid Work Rules
A federal judge on Friday blocked Kentucky’s closely watched plan to require many Medicaid recipients to work, volunteer or train for a job as a condition of coverage. The state had been poised to start carrying out the new rules next week and to phase them in fully by the end of this year. (Goodnough, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Kentucky’s Requirement That Medicaid Recipients Must Work Is Blocked By A Federal Judge
The decision by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg vacates that approval and sends the state’s program, Kentucky HEALTH, back to the federal Department of Health and Human Services for further review. Boasberg said that top HHS officials “never adequately considered whether [the program] would in fact help the state furnish medical assistance to its citizens, a central objective of Medicaid.” That “signal omission” renders the decision “arbitrary and capricious,” he concluded. (Sun and Goldstein, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Judge Blocks Kentucky’s Plan For Work Requirements On Medicaid
The judge vacated the HHS approval and sent the proposal back to the department for further review. Kentucky had hoped to save about $33 million as it reduced the number of beneficiaries by about 90,000 through the new requirements under its new Medicaid program, called Kentucky HEALTH. “The Secretary never provided a bottom line estimate of how many people would lose Medicaid with Kentucky HEALTH in place,” wrote Judge Boasberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama. “This oversight is glaring, especially given that the risk of lost coverage was ‘factually substantiated in the record.’ ” (Armour, 6/29)

The Associated Press: Federal Judge Blocks Kentucky's Medicaid Work Requirements
The decision is a setback for the Trump administration, which has been encouraging states to impose work requirements and other changes on Medicaid, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Kentucky was the first state in the country to get that permission, and the new rules were scheduled to take effect Sunday in a northern Kentucky suburb of Cincinnati. (6/29)

Politico: Judge Blocks Kentucky’s Medicaid Work Requirement
The ruling carries broad implications for Republicans across the country hoping to trim enrollment in Medicaid, which now covers more than 70 million Americans. Three other states have received federal approval for work rules — Arkansas, Indiana and New Hampshire — and several other states are seeking permission. The Arkansas work requirement took effect earlier this month. (Pradhan, 6/29)

NPR: Federal Judge Blocks Medicaid Work Requirements In Kentucky
A number of health policy experts praised the ruling, which they've described as "scathing" and "savage." "The court made the right decision," says Elizabeth Lower-Basch, director of income and work supports at the Center for Law and Social Policy. "It found that HHS did not even consider the basic question of whether the waiver would harm the core Medicaid goal of providing health coverage, and it prohibits Kentucky from implementing it until HHS makes such an assessment." (Kodjak, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Amazon’s PillPack Deal Gives It Access To Sensitive Health Data
Amazon.com Inc. knows more about consumers’ online-shopping habits than any other retailer. Now it is about to get its hands on the most intimate of personal data: people’s health conditions. Last week’s acquisition of online pharmacy startup PillPack will give Amazon insight into people’s prescriptions, putting the tech company into the highly regulated realm of health information with more restrictions than it is accustomed to on data-mining. (Stevens and Terlep, 7/1)

In other national health care news —

Los Angeles Times: 'We Beg You To Help Us.' Immigrant Women In Detention Describe Their Treatment, Share Fears About Their Children
The words appear on a scrap of paper, scrawled in pencil by an immigrant mother held at a detention center: “We beg you to help us, return our children. Our children are very desperate. My son asks me to get him out and I’m powerless here.” In another letter, childish print on notebook paper, a mother spoke of her son: “It’s been a month since they snatched him away and there are moments when I can’t go on.… If they are going to deport me, let them do it — but with my child. Without him, I am not going to leave here.” (Hennessy-Fiske, 7/2)

The New York Times: Parents And Children Remain Separated By Miles And Bureaucracy
Yeni González emerged into the warm evening air in Eloy, Ariz., her hair braided by the other women in the detention center. We’re braiding up all your strength, they had told her in Spanish. You can do it. Ms. González, who had been released on a bond, was meeting her lawyer on Thursday and would soon join the volunteers who were driving her to New York City to find her three young children — Lester, Jamelin and Deyuin — who had been taken away from her more than a month before at the southern border. (Correal, 6/30)

The Associated Press: Separations At The Border Didn’t Worry Some Trump Officials
The government’s top health official could barely conceal his discomfort. As Health and Human Services secretary, Alex Azar was responsible for caring for migrant children taken from their parents at the border. Now a Democratic senator was asking him at a hearing whether his agency had a role in designing the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that caused these separations. The answer was no. (Long and Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/2)

The New York Times: Emergency Rooms Run Out Of Vital Drugs, And Patients Are Feeling It
George Vander Linde tapped a code into the emergency room’s automated medicine cabinet. A drawer slid open and he flipped the lid, but found nothing inside. Mr. Vander Linde, a nurse, tried three other compartments that would normally contain vials of morphine or another painkiller, hydromorphone. Empty. Empty. Empty. The staff was bracing for a busy weekend. Temperatures were forecast for the 90s and summer is a busy time for hospital emergency departments — the time of year when injuries rise from bike accidents, car crashes, broken bottles and gunshots. (Thomas, 7/1)

Stat: Congress Presses For Transparency At Groups Supporting NIH, CDC
The National Institutes of Health has hit a series of ethical snags in recent years, with questions about whether work funded by nonprofit groups has come with too many conditions attached or otherwise failed to meet certain ethical standards. Congress has taken notice. In what amounts to a written warning from Capitol Hill, a House committee last week included language in a spending agreement that emphasizes existing requirements on funding from the Foundation for the NIH and the CDC Foundation. (Facher, 7/2)

The Washington Post: Opioid Addiction And Overdoses In Children Devastate Parents
“Brian has been dead for 136 days,” says his mother, Vicki Bishop. “I watched him die over many years, and it was a long, slow, horrible death.” Her son’s decades-long battle with opioids blotted out the sun in her own life, says Bishop, 65, of Clarksburg, Md. It held her in the clenched fist of shock and anticipation shared by millions of American parents who are traumatized by a child’s substance use. “I spent so many years in stages of anxiety and depression,” Bishop says. “I worried about Brian 24/7. His disease took over my life.” (Fleming, 6/30)

The New York Times: More Americans Evacuated From China Over Mysterious Ailments
The State Department has evacuated at least 11 Americans from China after abnormal sounds or sensations were reported by government employees at the United States Consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou, officials said, deepening a mystery that has so far confounded investigators. At least eight Americans associated with the consulate in Guangzhou have now been evacuated, according to one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. (Myers, 6/30)