Stat: What Will Become Of The Man Who Helped Build Theranos?
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani is a virtual ghost — despite serving nearly seven years in the No. 2 position at the blood-testing startup that turned out to be too good to be true. While the black-turtleneck-clad [Elizabeh] Holmes graced magazine covers and spoke before adoring crowds, Balwani, her former boyfriend, stayed in the shadows. He has almost no internet presence, and the only verifiable photo that STAT could find of him was a grainy image from his 1988 college yearbook. Now, he’s at the center of a legal showdown that could tear open a new chapter in a scandal that has rocked the business world and captivated the public imagination. And it could set up a daytime-TV legal defense: My ex-girlfriend duped me. (Robbins, Garde and Feuerstein, 3/19)

Los Angeles Times: California's Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers Want The Supreme Court To Overturn State Notice Law
The Alpha Pregnancy Center, located in a storefront on a busy street in the Mission District, is one of about 200 centers in California and thousands across the country pushing the U.S. Supreme Court to spare them from government regulation. The California centers are challenging a state law that requires them to inform clients that contraception, prenatal care and abortion may be obtained free or at low cost from the state, along with a state phone number for information about Medi-Cal. (Dolan, 3/18)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Chula Vista Hospital Cuts The Wait For Its Patients 
[A] team at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center has been using a combination of technology and better planning to significantly shrink the amount of time patients spend sitting around, waiting to move from one place to another. While the effort has not yet solved bed capacity-related emergency room backups, it has managed to get transports started more quickly after they’re requested and to shrink the average amount of time that elapses from departure to destination. (Sisson, 3/18)

In other hospital news —

Ventura County Star: Hospital Worker Vaccination Rate In County Ranked Among Worst In State
A state report contends Ventura County’s flu vaccination rate for hospital workers ranked among the worst in California for the 2016-17 flu season. According to the report from the California Department of Public Health, 71 percent of the county’s 15,051 health care workers in hospitals — from doctors and nurses to clerks and cafeteria staff members — were vaccinated for the flu last year. Driven by data provided by hospitals, the document listed 55 California counties, excluding three that don’t have acute care hospitals. Only one, Kern County, had a lower vaccination rate than Ventura County for workers that include hospital employees, contracted workers present at the hospital at least one day during flu season and licensed practitioners including physicians. (Kisken, 3/17)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: UC San Diego Medical School Reaches For The Top As It Turns 50  
Fifty years after it enrolled its first medical students, UC San Diego is crackling with optimism, having created one of the country’s most respected medical schools in a comparatively short period of time. US News and World Report says the medical school is among the 20 best in the country in research and primary care — rankings partly based on the university’s history of developing drugs and treating cancer patients. The magazine also points to UC San Diego’s exclusivity. The medical school accepts 3 percent of its applicants, making it nearly as hard to get into as the far older programs at Stanford and Georgetown. (Robbins, 3/18)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Match Day: Nail-Biting Rite Of Passage For UC San Diego Medical Students 
This scene played out Friday morning on the La Jolla campus — and at medical schools across the country. Known as “Match Day,” this has been a nail-biting rite of passage for would-be American doctors since the 1950s. ... Match Day culminates years of study and months of suspense. Last September, these students applied to residency programs. A month later, invitations to interview started to trickle in. In February, each student submitted a list of favored residencies, in order of preference. (Rowe, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: In A First, Veterans Affairs Centers Use Genetic Testing To Treat Depression
For the first time since he began practicing medicine in 1992, [Kewchang] Lee is asking a small number of his patients to take a cheek swab for a genetic test analyzing their ability to metabolize commonly prescribed antidepressants. ...It is the first study in the VA health system to examine whether doctors gaining knowledge of their patients’ genomic composition can help shape more precise treatment plans for depression. (Ho, 3/17)

In other public health news —

KPBS: FDA Proposal To Slash Nicotine In Cigarettes Could Have Big Impact In California 
Tobacco control advocates are praising a proposal from the Food and Drug Administration to drastically reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. The FDA plan would limit the nicotine level at 0.4 milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco. (Goldberg, 3/19)

East Bay Times: Helping Wife With Parkinson's, Husband Becomes Advocate For A Cure
This will be [Bill] Clinch’s 16th trip to the annual caucus that includes workshops led by public policy and health care advocates, up-to-date reports from science and medical experts and access to members of Congress on Capitol Hill. According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, nearly 1 million Americans and 10 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s, the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. The condition often displays as tremors or facial changes due to a loss of motor control, but Parkinson’s results also in low blood pressure, depression, anxiety and other symptoms. There is no cure. In the United States alone, 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. (Fancher, 3/18)

Los Angeles Times: Orange County Officials Agree To Extend Motel Stays 'On A Case-By-Case Basis' For Santa Ana River Homeless
After a rare federal court hearing Saturday, Orange County officials agreed to extend motel stays "on a case-by-case basis" to homeless people removed from camps along the Santa Ana River while working to prevent the mass evictions from worsening the homeless crisis at the Santa Ana Civic Center. The daylong hearing and negotiations marked the latest chapter of an extraordinary effort by officials, homeless advocates and a federal judge to improve the lot of the growing homeless population in one of America's most affluent counties. (Do, 3/17)

Orange County Register: Orange County Agrees To Case-By-Case Extensions For Homeless Leaving Motels; Plan Unveiled To Help People Living At Civic Center 
In a previously negotiated agreement with lawyers for seven homeless plaintiffs, the county had placed about 700 people in motels around the county for up to 30 days. With the first of those motel stays having expired Friday, March 16, plaintiffs’ lawyers raised concerns with U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter about the appropriateness of where those people would be sent next. Depending on needs identified by county outreach workers assigned to do clinical assessments, the county is giving the people leaving the motels these options: referrals to temporary shelters, residential programs for mental health or substance abuse treatment, or recuperative care for medical needs. (Walker, 3/17)

KPCC: Some OC Homeless Could Get Extended Hotel Stays 
Lawyers for the county and for homeless plaintiffs negotiated for nearly six hours behind closed doors before Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do announced the county would consider paying for some homeless people to stay in motels longer than their allotted 30 days, if outreach workers determine that there’s no appropriate shelter option for them. (Replogle, 3/17)

Los Angeles Times: Faced With Complaints Of Filth And Blight, L.A. Cracks Down On Overnight RV Parking. Now, The Homeless Are Scrambling
For a while, Vincent Neill and his family parked their weathered RVs on a stretch of roadway in Canoga Park, where the kids had friends down the street. But then business owners began to complain, he said. So Neill, his wife and their seven children relocated their caravan of vehicles to a Chatsworth manufacturing zone. (Reyes, 3/15)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento, CA May Open Bathrooms For Homeless Downtown
With the population of people living on the street at a record high, Sacramento City Hall is focusing on sheltering the homeless. But advocates for months have consistently pushed for action on another front: providing places for people to relieve themselves. (Lillis and Hubert, 3/19)

The Bakersfield Californian: 'Do It For Your Kids': Responding To Poor Outcomes, Life Expectancies, Officials Urge Adults To Make Healthier Choices 
Kern County ranks toward the bottom of the state and the worst in the San Joaquin Valley for poor health outcomes — but it has been making progress when it comes to a few key measures, according to a report published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation this week. Kern ranked 52nd out of 57 California counties that were analyzed for health outcomes. Fresno County came in 51st, and Tulare came in 50th, according to the report. It ranked counties on a variety of factors, including length and quality of life, health behaviors, social determinants, clinical care access and physical environments. (Pierce, 3/16)

And in other news from across the state —

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County Seeks Deep Cuts To Mental Health Services
In an effort to save $1.85 million, the Health Services department has proposed cuts to a bevy of mental health and substance abuse programs operated by nonprofit “community partners,” including a $236,000 reduction to Community Support Network, which runs Hope House and five other supportive housing homes. If the cuts go through, [Tom Bieri, director of Community Support Network] said all six homes would have to be closed — a move that would affect 72 county behavioral health clients. The loss of supportive housing like Hope House could lead to an increase in people with mental illness ending up in more expensive settings such as inpatient psychiatric facilities, hospital emergency rooms or jail, Bieri said. (Espinoza, 3/16)

Ventura County Star: After Parkland Shooting, County Districts Review Safety And Security Measures
There’s a pattern that’s all too familiar in school districts across the country: There’s a shooting, then there is widespread concern about school safety. There are calls from students, parents and lawmakers for gun law reform, arming teachers and mental health awareness. And then the conversations seemingly fade as the tragedy falls out of the 24-hour news cycle. But a month after a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, and killed 17 people, local school districts are still doing their best to assure parents and students that school safety is a top priority. (D'Angelo, 3/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: South Bay Nonprofit To Discontinue Home Care Amid Struggle To Find Caregivers 
Pathways Home Health and Hospice, a nonprofit home care agency in the South Bay, plans to discontinue a 30-year-old program that provides caregivers to 60 mostly elderly people. The program sends home aides to residents who need help with daily tasks such as laundry, grocery shopping and housekeeping. About 100 Pathways caregivers will be laid off. (Ho, 3/16)

Politico: Obamacare Insurers Just Had Their Best Year Ever — Despite Trump
Obamacare is no longer busting the bank for insurers. After three years of financial bloodletting under the law — and despite constant repeal threats and efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle it — many of the remaining insurers made money on individual health plans for the first time last year, according to a POLITICO analysis of financial filings for 29 regional Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, often the dominant player in their markets. (Demko, 3/17)

In other national health care news —

The Associated Press: Trump Opioid Plan Includes Death Penalty For Traffickers
President Donald Trump’s plan to combat opioid drug addiction nationwide calls for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including the death penalty where appropriate under current law. That from a top administration official. It’s a fate for drug dealers that Trump, who aims to be seen as tough on crime, has been highlighting publicly in recent weeks. (Superville, 3/19)

The Associated Press: Report: Abortion Is Safe But Barriers Reduce Quality Of Care
Abortions in the U.S. are very safe but getting one without facing delays and false medical information depends on where women live, says a broad examination of the nation's abortion services. Friday's report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine shows abortion increasingly is performed early in pregnancy, when it's safest. The risk of maternal death is higher from tonsillectomies, colonoscopies and childbirth, according to the independent panel, which advises the government on scientific issues. (Neergaard, 3/16)

The New York Times: 5 Doctors Are Charged With Taking Kickbacks For Fentanyl Prescriptions
In March of 2013, Gordon Freedman, a doctor on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, fielded a request from a regional sales manager for the manufacturer of Subsys, a spray form of the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl. Dr. Freedman was already a top prescriber of Subsys and also one of the company’s paid promotional speakers. Now the sales manager was telling him the company, Insys Therapeutics, would increase the amount of money it was paying him and asked that he increase the number of new patients he was prescribing Subsys. (Weiser and Thomas, 3/16)

Los Angeles Times: Erasing Stephen Hawking's Disability Erases An Important Part Of Who He Was
In the days since Stephen Hawking's death, obituaries have described him as being "confined" or "chained" to a wheelchair, as someone who "overcame" his disability and succeeded in spite of it. None of those things are true. Stephen Hawking had a disability, and Stephen Hawking used a wheelchair. His work was possible because of those things, not in spite of them. (Roy, 3/16)

NPR: Marijuana's Secondhand Smoke Poses Risks To Heart And Lungs
The inspiration arrived in a haze at a Paul McCartney concert a few years ago in San Francisco. "People in front of me started lighting up and then other people started lighting up," says Matthew Springer, a biologist and professor in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "And for a few naive split seconds I was thinking to myself, 'Hey, they can't smoke in AT&T Park! I'm sure that's not allowed.' And then I realized that it was all marijuana." (Ortega-Welch, 3/19)