Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
She Was Dancing On The Roof And Talking Gibberish. A Special Kind Of ER Helped Her.
With mental health beds in short supply, emergency rooms increasingly have become the care of first and last resort for people in the grips of a psychiatric episode. Now, hospitals around the country are opening emergency units that calmly cater to patients with mental health needs. (Anna Gorman, )
Good morning! FEMA accidentally exposed the personal and banking data of California wildfire victims in a major privacy mishap last week. More on that below, but first here are your top California health stories for the day.
Comprehensive Health Care Remains Elusive For Many Of California’s Undocumented Immigrants, But Geography Plays A Big Role: More California counties are offering programs to help undocumented immigrants get basic coverage, but getting care for chronic conditions that require specialists can be difficult. Counties with the leanest benefits leave people with untreated diabetes, hypertension or cancer, and standards vary on how much the county is willing to help. Some don’t offer robust coverage programs because they worry about the politics and red tape involved, and others simply feel it isn’t their responsibility. “The county is a last-resort safety net that is there in some areas and less so in others,” said Anthony Wright, president of the consumer group Health Access. “People have different access to health care based on the county they’re in. And at the end of the day that’s not a great policy.” Read more from Capital Public Radio.
Pushback On Age-Screening For San Diego Doctors: Physicians in the Scripps Health System in San Diego who are 70 years or older will soon have to undergo tests to determine if they are still fit to practice. One part of the screening involves thinking tests on a computer—such as answering simple math problems. They’ll also have to pass a physical exam that checks their vision and hearing. While some in the industry are championing the idea, there are physicians who say they would want any final decision over their ability to practice to be made by a committee of their peers who have experience watching them work. And still others say the age is arbitrary. "Is it fair to make a cutoff point?" said Nielufar Varjavand, of the Drexel School of Medicine. "Is 64 or 69 okay, but 70 and 74 not okay? There may be statistics behind this, but who decides the age cutoff? And who determines whatever assessment is used is the appropriate assessment tool?” Read more from MedPage.
In Rare Move, State Of California Revokes Licenses Of Foster Homes Involved In High-Risk Foster Youth Problem: In a 17-page complaint, the California Department of Social Services outlined a disturbing list of failures from Unity Care, leveling accusations at the organization of leaving high-risk foster youths without proper supervision in filthy, unsafe environments. Unity Care CEO Andre Chapman said that the organization couldn’t handle the “severe mental symptoms and behaviors” of the foster youth in the new program. “We simply failed,” said Chapman, who last fall voluntarily shut down the five care homes in neighborhoods spread across south and east San Jose as well as one in South San Francisco, shortly before the state moved to revoke its licenses. The state’s actions against Unity Care come at a time when California is overhauling its foster care system, switching from a group-home to foster-family model, believing foster youth will do better living with families. Read more from The Mercury News.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
KQED:
Cal/OSHA Launches Probe Into Attack That Injured Two Stanford Hospital Psych Nurses
State workplace regulators are investigating Stanford Hospital after a nurse in her 70s was attacked by a patient in a psychiatric unit earlier this month in an incident police learned of two days later. The attack, which left the nurse with serious injuries, took place on March 12, but Palo Alto police did not learn of the incident until March 14. }(Goldberg, 3/22)
Ventura County Star:
Pay To Clinicas Execs Questioned In Medi-Cal Turf War
The tax documents showed up on a reporter’s desk multiple times, all sent anonymously. One of the senders marked gaudy compensation levels with a highlighter, scrawling a note in a margin. ...The documents showing Roberto Juarez’s reported compensation neared $4 million in fiscal year 2016 are salvos in the ongoing war over Medi-Cal in Ventura County. Juarez and his employer said the lion’s share of the compensation represents a rapidly built retirement fund put off for years because of financial limitations. (kisken, 3/23)
The Associated Press:
California Grower Recalls Avocados Over Possible Listeria
A Southern California company is voluntarily recalling whole avocados over possible listeria contamination. Henry Avocado, a grower and distributor based near San Diego, said Saturday that the recall covers conventional and organic avocados grown and packed in California. The company says they were sold in bulk across California, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina and New Hampshire. There have been no reports of any illnesses associated with the avocados. (3/24)
Modesto Bee:
State Recalls Raw Milk Sold From Dairy Farm West Of Modesto CA
A state agency Wednesday ordered a recall of raw milk sold from a Modesto-area dairy farm because of concern about bacteria. No illnesses were reported. The product came from Valley Milk Simply Bottled, on Maze Boulevard about four miles west of the city, the California Department of Food and Agriculture said. (Holland, 3/22)
Capital Public Radio:
Online Wine Yes, Coffee No: Scrambling To Keep Up With California’s New Prop. 65 Toxic Warnings
The new rules also expand responsibility for the warnings to the entire “supply chain” associated with a product, from manufacturer to distributor to retailer. As a result, visits to the state’s Prop. 65 website have skyrocketed—both from businesses and from the citizen “bounty hunters” who can make money by spotting and reporting violators. (Martin, 3/23)
Sacramento Bee:
CA’s Healthiest Counties Are Also Its Richest, Study Says
A new study revealing California’s healthiest, and least healthy, counties highlights the divide between both urban and rural California as well as richer and poorer counties. ...The findings showed that that the Bay Area, Napa Valley and Southern California were home to some of the healthiest counties in the state, while the least healthy counties all were found in rural Northern California and along the Central Valley. (Sheeler, 3/22)
Capital Public Radio:
Hungry Kids Often Can’t Find Free Meals When They’re Not In School. These Sacramento Groups Are Making It Easier.
Various nonprofit organizations across the region use grant funding to serve food in neighborhoods where a majority of children qualify for free meals through the National School Lunch Program. But advocates say most families aren’t accessing that food. This spring, a coalition of nonprofits, school districts and lawmakers are trying to ramp up the distribution to eligible children. (Caiola, 3/22)
Orange County Register:
Encanto Healthcare Facility Owes $47 Million To City Of Industry, Yet City Council Keeps Offering More Money
Warned repeatedly by state and local auditors that it will likely never recoup nearly $50 million in loans to a private health-care center, the City of Industry nevertheless is opening its purse strings once again for its costly pet project. In the past year, city officials have offered another $1.15 million in taxpayer funds to prop up the El Encanto Healthcare and Habilitation Center — which has strong ties to City Hall — even though no plan exists to ensure the money is repaid or spent properly. (Henry, 3/22)
Stat:
Patients Are Using Digital Health Apps To Confess Suicidal Thoughts
Digital health apps, which let patients chat with doctors or health coaches or even receive likely medical diagnoses from a bot, are transforming modern health care. They are also — in practice — being used as suicide crisis hotlines. Patients are confessing suicidal thoughts using apps designed to help them manage their diabetes or figure out why they might have a headache, according to industry executives. As a result, many digital health startups are scrambling to figure out how best to respond and when to call the police — questions that even suicide prevention experts don’t have good answers to. (Robbins, 3/25)
The Washington Post:
Anti-Vaxxers Face A Crackdown From GoFundMe, Instagram And Other Platforms
GoFundMe has joined a growing list of social media companies cracking down on anti-vaccination propaganda to help stop the spread of misinformation. The increased effort from tech giants, such as Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube, comes amid a relentless anti-vaccine movement, talk about “chickenpox parties” and concerns over measles outbreaks across the country. It also comes as the American Medical Association, the nation’s most prominent doctors’ organization, has urged social media platforms to ensure users have access to accurate information on vaccines. (Bever, 3/22)
The Washington Post:
FEMA ‘Major Privacy Incident’ Reveals Data From 2.5 Million Disaster Survivors
The Federal Emergency Management Agency shared personal addresses and banking information of more than 2 million U.S. disaster survivors in what the agency acknowledged Friday was a “major privacy incident.” The data mishap, discovered recently and the subject of a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, occurred when the agency shared sensitive, personally identifiable information of disaster survivors who used FEMA’S Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, according to officials at FEMA. Those affected included the victims of California wildfires in 2017 and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the report said. (Achenbach, Wan, and Romm, 3/22)
The New York Times:
Medicare For All Would Abolish Private Insurance. ‘There’s No Precedent In American History.’
At the heart of the “Medicare for all” proposals championed by Senator Bernie Sanders and many Democrats is a revolutionary idea: Abolish private health insurance. Proponents want to sweep away our complex, confusing, profit-driven mess of a health care system and start fresh with a single government-run insurer that would cover everyone. But doing away with an entire industry would also be profoundly disruptive. (Abelson and Sanger-Katz, 3/23)
The Associated Press:
Medicare For All Legislation Has Thorny Issues
The "Medicare for All" legislation that's become a clarion call for progressives has two little-noticed provisions that could make it even more politically perilous for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. The legislation from White House hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, along with a similar measure in the House, lifts curbs on government health insurance for people in the country illegally and revokes longstanding restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions. (3/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
New Anti-Abortion Measures Could Struggle For Traction In Courts
Republican-led states are pushing through a raft of new anti-abortion legislation recently, but it’s far from clear that the toughest restrictions will survive judicial scrutiny. States this year have introduced hundreds of anti-abortion bills—including “fetal heartbeat” laws recently enacted in Mississippi and Kentucky—at a rate abortion-rights advocates say is unprecedented. Perhaps most notably, the governors of Kentucky and Mississippi signed bills this month making it a crime for doctors to terminate a pregnancy after an ultrasound detects fetal cardiac activity. (Gershman, 3/24)
The Hill:
Dem Support Grows For Allowing Public Funds To Pay For Abortions
Support is growing among Democrats in Congress for allowing abortion coverage in publicly funded health programs. House Democrats, who say they have a “pro-choice majority” for the first time in history, are vowing to end a long-standing ban of abortion coverage in Medicaid. They also want to ensure that future government healthcare plans allow recipients to get abortion coverage. (Hellmann, 3/23)
The New York Times:
Guggenheim Museum Says It Won’t Accept Gifts From Sackler Family
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York said on Friday that it did not plan to accept future gifts from the family of Mortimer D. Sackler, a philanthropist and former board member whose money has been met with growing unease in the art world as his family’s pharmaceutical interests have been linked to the opioid crisis. The Guggenheim’s decision was announced one day after Tate, which runs some of the most important art museums in Britain, announced a similar move, saying that “in the present circumstances we do not think it right to seek or accept further donations from the Sacklers.” (Stack, 3/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Why Marlboro Maker Bet On Juul, The Vaping Upstart Aiming To Kill Cigarettes
The biggest U.S. tobacco company has made a $12.8 billion bet on a company whose stated goal is to get smokers to drop cigarettes. The calculated gamble: The move will help the Marlboro maker keep up with a quickly changing market. The risk: It could hasten its own decline. Facing an accelerating fall in cigarette sales, Altria Group Inc. in December put billions into Juul Labs Inc., a controversial startup whose sleek, nicotine-packed vaporizers have fueled a surge in the e-cigarette market. (Maloney and Mattioli, 3/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Flu Season Hasn’t Been This Bad This Late In 20 Years
The percentage of doctor visits for flulike symptoms last week, 4.4%, is the highest figure for this time of the year since 1998, the first season the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began tracking flu prevalence this way. While this season hasn’t been as extreme as some in recent years, it has been a long one. It is still widespread in 42 states, though that’s down from 47 states and Puerto Rico for the week ended March 9, the CDC says. (Umlauf and Abbott, 3/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Where Alzheimer’s Research Is Pushing Ahead
The failure last week of Biogen Inc. and Eisai Co.’s once-promising Alzheimer’s disease drug was the latest in a spate of disappointments for medicines designed to target Beta amyloid, a sticky substance long known to accumulate in the brains of people with the disease. The repeated failure of such drugs are giving greater currency to efforts by academics and smaller biotech companies to better understand the biology of Alzheimer’s and explore the use of drugs with alternative mechanisms of action. Some of the more promising research efforts are looking into the role that inflammation, the immune system, viruses and another brain substance called tau might play in the disease, disease experts say. (Walker and Loftus, 3/24)