Ventura County Star: VA Nursing Home Woes Will Be Explored At Congressional Hearing In Camarillo
Controversies over care and antipsychotic drugs at VA nursing homes will likely spill into an upcoming congressional hearing in Camarillo. U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village, is organizing a field hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health that will focus on VA long-term care. The July 30 session will explore everything from adult day care for veterans to nursing home care. The hearing comes as the subcommittee’s parent body, the House Veteran Affairs Committee, pursues an investigation into the quality of care at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 133 nursing homes, including two in a service region that includes Ventura County. (Kisken, 7/22)

The Associated Press: Judge, Calm In Court, Takes Hard Line On Splitting Families
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw appeared conflicted in early May on whether to stop families from being separated at the border. He challenged the Trump administration to explain how families were getting a fair hearing guaranteed by the Constitution, but also expressed reluctance to get too deeply involved with immigration enforcement. "There are so many (enforcement) decisions that have to be made, and each one is individual," he said in his calm, almost monotone voice. "How can the court issue such a blanket, overarching order telling the attorney general, either release or detain (families) together?" (7/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Watchdog, Enforcer, Coach: The Unusual Role Of Judge Dana Sabraw
It’s a busy time for U.S. District Judge Dana Makoto Sabraw. On Friday in San Diego, he presided over jury deliberations in a criminal case against a man trying to prove he isn’t an illegal alien from Mexico but a California-born American citizen. And on Monday, Judge Sabraw is overseeing jury selection in an Apple Inc. patent dispute. Those matters come on top of what is by far the biggest case of his career: the legal effort to reunite thousands of migrant parents and their children. (Gershman, 7/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Theranos Settles Investor Suit As Funds Run Low
Theranos Inc., running on financial fumes, settled a suit filed by investors who had alleged they were defrauded by the blood-testing firm. The pact ends a civil case brought by Robert Colman, a former Silicon Valley investment banker, and other plaintiffs who made indirect investments in Theranos, court records filed Friday show. They alleged that Theranos made false and misleading statements about its technology. The company previously reached costly settlements with a major investor and its former retail partner Walgreens Co., and settled civil fraud allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission in March without admitting or denying wrongdoing. (Weaver, 7/22)

Stat: "Father Of Gene Therapy" Faces Harsh Reality: A Tarnished Legacy And An Ankle Monitor
This is what it has come to for a world-renowned scientist who was convicted of sexually molesting a colleague’s young daughter. [Dr. W. French] Anderson has been hailed as the father of gene therapy and was honored at George H.W. Bush’s White House. In 1991, the New York Times ran a laudatory story headlined “Dr. Anderson’s Gene Machine.” He started the first gene therapy company and sold it to a major drug maker in 1995 for $325 million, was a Time “hero of medicine” in 1997 and scientific consultant to the 1997 film “Gattaca,” and was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1998 (with singer Reba McEntire). ...But in July 2006, Anderson was convicted of three counts of lewd acts on a child and one count of continuous sexual abuse, including fondling her genitals. (Begley, 7/23)

Los Angeles Times: As L.A. Struggles To Reduce Traffic Deaths, Speed Limits Keep Going Up
Sheila Brown was shocked to learn, in the spring of 2009, that the Los Angeles City Council was planning to raise the speed limit on Zelzah Avenue, a few blocks from her home in Granada Hills. A few weeks before, a 60-year-old woman had been struck and killed in a crosswalk on Zelzah, Brown told the City Council in an impassioned letter. She said the frequent sounds of screeching tires as drivers narrowly avoided collisions were proof that allowing higher speeds would put residents and students in danger. (Nelson, 7/22)

In other public health news —

CALmatters: Food For The Heart In A New California Health Program
[Sharon] Quenton is one of those enrolled in a $6 million pilot project authorized last year by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown. Run by the state Department of Health Care Services, it was launched in seven counties for 1,000 congestive heart failure patients in Medi-Cal, the state’s version of federal Medicaid care for the needy. ...Patients recently home from the hospital get some nutrition counseling and 12 weeks of homemade, heart-healthy meals with lots of fresh ingredients delivered to their doorsteps. (Gorn, 7/22)

Ventura County Star: Tuberculosis Infections Emerge After Oxnard Scare; Danger Seen As Low
Five people have tested positive for tuberculosis infections in an investigation that started last month after exposures of the contagious disease at a middle school and fitness center in Oxnard, a public health official said Friday. Two of the people were diagnosed with the latent tuberculosis infection, meaning they are not contagious and are not required to isolate themselves. The latent infection can develop into active tuberculosis but often does not. (Kisken, 7/20)

Modesto Bee: Grant Gives Booster Shot To Training Of Nurses, Other Caregivers At Stan State, MJC 
The Stanislaus Health Careers Fund is providing scholarships and other help for students at Modesto Junior College and California State University, Stanislaus. It aims to cut into the shortage of caregivers in the region. (Holland, 7/21)

In other news from across the state —

The Press-Enterprise: Riverside’s Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center Is Sold
Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center in Riverside will soon have a new owner. The facility, which for 60 years has been an independent nonprofit hospital, will be acquired by AHMC Healthcare Inc., which runs hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties. (Shultz, 7/20)

Ventura County Star: Allergan Lawsuit Alleges Doctor Charged For Free Botox
Pharmaceutical giant Allergan is being accused of retaliating against an Oxnard employee who made allegations involving a doctor illegally charging patients for Botox samples received for free. KellyAnn Henderson, who said she worked for Allergan for nearly six years, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court on June 18. She alleged retaliation by a manager at the company forced her into resigning her position in May and violated laws aimed at protecting workers who allege wrongdoing at their place of work. (Kisken, 7/21)

The New York Times: Sniffles? Cancer? Under Medicare Plan, Payments For Office Visits Would Be Same For Both
The Trump administration is proposing huge changes in the way Medicare pays doctors for the most common of all medical services, the office visit, offering physicians basically the same amount, regardless of a patient’s condition or the complexity of the services provided. Administration officials said the proposal would radically reduce paperwork burdens, freeing doctors to spend more time with patients. The government would pay one rate for new patients and another, lower rate for visits with established patients. (Pear, 7/22)

The New York Times: Got Medicare Advantage? Prepare For New Perks — And New Questions. 
Did you fall in the bathroom and fracture your hip? Medicare, if you have it, will pay thousands of dollars for surgery to repair the injury and thousands more for your resulting hospital stay and rehab in a nursing home. But Medicare wouldn’t have paid $200 to have grab bars installed in your bathroom, or covered the cost of a $22-an-hour aide to assist you in the shower — measures that might have helped you avoid the accident. (Span, 7/20)

Politico: Pence’s Anti-Abortion Law Could Upend Roe V. Wade
An anti-abortion law Vice President Mike Pence signed as governor of Indiana could become the case that lets the Supreme Court reshape abortion rights as soon as next year. The Indiana law — which prohibited abortion because of the gender, race or disability of the fetus, such as Down syndrome — was blocked by lower courts and is one of three significant anti-abortion state statutes that are sitting one level below the Supreme Court. If Indiana appeals this fall, and the justices accept the case, it could be the opening for a broader ruling on Roe v. Wade that could redefine abortion rights nationwide. (Haberkorn, 7/23)

Politico: Wavering Rand Sets Off Supreme Court Spectacle
Rand Paul is one of a handful of senators who'll determine whether Brett Kavanaugh lands on the Supreme Court — and the Kentucky Republican has every intention of maximizing his leverage. Paul is again inviting fellow senators to play the will-he-or-won’t-he guessing game when it comes to his decision — expressing grave concerns about Kavanaugh’s approach to personal privacy while insisting his vote could go either way, depending on what the judge says in the coming weeks and months. (Everett, 7/23)

The New York Times: Bayer Will Stop Selling The Troubled Essure Birth Control Implants
Bayer announced on Friday that it would discontinue sales of its Essure birth control implant by the end of the year, bowing to a lengthy campaign by health advocates and thousands of women to get the device off the market. The implant has had a troubled history. It has been the subject of an estimated 16,000 lawsuits or claims filed by women who reported severe injuries, including perforation of the uterus and the fallopian tubes. Several deaths, including of a few infants, have also been attributed to the device or to complications from it. (Kaplan, 7/20)

The Associated Press: Bayer To Stop Sales Of Birth Control Device Tied To Injuries
The German company had billed the device as the only non-surgery sterilization method for women. As complaints mounted and demand slipped, it stopped Essure sales in Canada, Europe, South America, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has placed multiple restrictions on the device following patient reports of pain, bleeding, allergic reactions and cases where the implant punctured the uterus or shifted out of place. (7/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Bayer To Stop Selling Essure In U.S.
In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tightened restrictions on the sale and distribution of the birth-control implant, requiring both patients and health-care providers to sign an acceptance-of-risk form. That move followed an FDA decision in 2016 requiring Bayer to add a prominent warning to call attention to serious risks associated with the device, after studies linked it to pain and other health issues among women. In April the FDA said since adding the warnings, Essure sales have declined about 70% in the U.S. (Mohan, 7/20)