- California Healthline Original Stories 4
- In Caring For Sickest Infants, Doctors Tap Parents For Tough Calls
- For Parents Of Preemies, Life Starts With A Complex Fight For Survival
- A Sick Newborn, A Loving Family And A Litany Of Wrenching Choices
- State Regulator Cites Price, Access As Top Concerns In Proposed Anthem-Cigna Merger
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
In Caring For Sickest Infants, Doctors Tap Parents For Tough Calls
Doctors were once unquestioned authorities on how aggressively to treat the sickest and most premature babies. Now, they increasingly include parents in these wrenching choices. (Jenny Gold, 3/7)
For Parents Of Preemies, Life Starts With A Complex Fight For Survival
About 380,000 babies are born too soon every year in the United States, a preterm birth rate that's far higher than most high-income, developed countries. Even with so many families facing the realities of a premature child, predicting the long-term health of a baby is difficult, and doctors have an even tougher time talking about those predictions with parents. (3/7)
A Sick Newborn, A Loving Family And A Litany Of Wrenching Choices
In deciding how far to go in treating their very sick and premature baby, one San Francisco couple acted out of hope, not always in sync with doctors and nurses. (Jenny Gold, 3/7)
State Regulator Cites Price, Access As Top Concerns In Proposed Anthem-Cigna Merger
In a public meeting Friday, consumer advocates urged the Department of Managed Health Care to hold Anthem’s feet to the fire before signing off on the planned $54 billion purchase of Cigna Corp. (Ana B. Ibarra, 3/7)
More News From Across The State
Bill To Expand Paid Family Leave Sent To Gov. Brown
After passage in the Assembly, Gov. Jerry Brown must decide whether to sign the measure that would raise payments to employees. In other news from Sacramento, Assembly member Eduardo Garcia pushes legislation related to expansion of the Desert Healthcare District.
The Sacramento Business Journal:
Governor Will Make Final Decision On Expansion Of Paid Family Leave
Gov. Jerry Brown is poised to decide whether to raise payments for employees taking family leave. The California Assembly on Thursday passed a bill that would increase state payments for both family leave and state disability insurance. The money comes from an underutilized state account that is funded through deductions from employee paychecks. By raising payments, the bill seeks to encourage more workers to utilize their leave. (Young, 3/4)
The Desert Sun:
Eduardo Garcia Presses Ahead With Health District Vote
Assembly member Eduardo Garcia acknowledged Friday that a decision on how to pay for an enlarged Desert Healthcare District could still be more than two years away. Nevertheless, the Coachella Democrat is pushing ahead with legislation that would let Coachella Valley voters decide if the west valley district should extend east as far as North Shore. Garcia wants that vote to happen in November. (Newkirk, 3/6)
Sewage Facilities Serving As 'Luxury Hotel' For Lethal Superbugs
California hospitals send millions of gallons of waste to these plants, but instead of killing the drug-resistant bacteria in that sewage, the facilities become a place for it to thrive. And hospitals are not breaking any laws by doing it -- there are no specific regulations on superbugs.
The Los Angeles Times:
Sewage Plants Are Failing To Kill Lethal Superbugs Unleashed From Hospitals
Every day Southern California hospitals unleash millions of gallons of raw sewage into municipal sewers. The malodorous muck flows miles to one of the region's sewage plants, where it is treated with the rest of the area's waste and then released as clear water into a stream or directly to the Pacific. (Peterson, 3/7)
Revolving Leadership Door At California Biotech Startups
Martin Shrkreli's old job as CEO at KaloBios Pharmaceuticals has been filled. And the head of the University of California's biotech incubator is leaving the school system for a private-public initiative.
The San Francisco Business Journal:
New Space, CEO for Onetime Martin Shkreli Biotech Fixer-Upper
KaloBios Pharmaceuticals has a new CEO and is on its way to smaller, cheaper space in Brisbane. (Leuty, 3/5)
The San Francisco Business Journal:
UC Loses Startup Visionary To Biotech Incubator, Venture Fund He Helped Create
Douglas Crawford, an architect of the University of California's effort to swing biotechnology from academic lab benches to commercial partners and spinouts, has left UC to work full time at a public-private incubator and early-stage venture fund firm he was instrumental in creating. As associate director of QB3 — or the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences — Crawford's fingerprints are on scores of life sciences companies that have set up shop or spun out of the institute's four Bay Area incubators and handful of related programs over the past 12 years. He also was instrumental in forging a network of startup spaces, from the East Bay to near Stanford University, to help dozens more young biotech companies move from bench to bedside. (Leuty, 3/6)
Health IT Firm Plans Expansion Of Workforce, Electronic Records Business
Currently, the company provides IT services for more than 2,400 doctors who care for some 6.4 million patients across the country. It just added another 30 doctors in January.
The Santa Clara Valley Signal:
IT Healthcare Firm Launches With Perfect Timing
If all goes well with lease negotiations this year, MTS Healthcare of Pasadena is planning to move its entire staff to Santa Clarita so that it can expand its work force, said its founder. Providing IT support to medical groups for the myriad medical software applications that physicians and healthcare providers use to create and manage electronic records, MTS Healthcare expects to take over some 4,000 square feet of office space off Avenue Stanford in the Valencia Industrial Center. (Adkins, 3/4)
Mental Health Pilot Program Goes Before Ventura County Board
The measure supervisors are considering would allocate about $600,000 for 12 months, which would allow 20 people to get help. The pilot is envisioned to be 18 months long, with an additional $300,000 to come from the 2017-18 budget cycle.
The Ventura County Star:
Ventura County Mental Health Advocates Continue Support For Laura's Law
It might not be as wide-ranging as some had hoped, but passing even a pilot Laura's Law program will go a long way toward helping a population that can't or won't seek the help it needs. That's the assessment of several mental health advocates and providers who hope the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approves the program aimed at getting treatment to people with severe mental illness. (Martinez, 3/5)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
County Health Plans New $24M Complex In Oceanside
A nearly 60-year-old complex that houses mental and public health services in Oceanside will be demolished early next year, and replaced with a bigger building on the same spot. Officials said the old structure has outlived its usefulness. It was built in the late 1950s, along Mission Avenue a few blocks east of Interstate 5. (Figueroa, 3/4)
In other news, developments on two mental health facilities —
The Press Democrat:
Sonoma County's New Mental Health Facility Opens
Sonoma County has finally mothballed a nearly half-century-old troubled mental health facility that for years evoked a darker era of psychiatric care, a time when patients in crisis were locked away in drab institutions and forgotten. Once considered a model of modern behavioral health care, the severely pared-down Oakcrest psychiatric facility over the years devolved into a Band-Aid effort at caring for the county’s most emotionally and mentally troubled residents. (Espinoza, 3/6)
Simi Valley Leaders To Worried Residents: We Can't Stop Heroin Detox House Plans
The detoxification house is allowed under the Americans with Disabilities and Fair Housing acts, and the city cannot regulate group homes with fewer than seven people.
The Ventura County Star:
Officials Tell Simi Valley Residents They Can't Stop Planned Drug Detoxification House
Assemblyman Scott Wilk and Simi Valley Mayor Bob Huber on Saturday reiterated the bad news for residents of the Texas Tract neighborhood who are opposed to a planned heroin detoxification house there. They're essentially powerless to stop it. Under state and federal law, as long as the house has no more than six residents, the city has no authority to regulate it, the officials told more than 100 people who attended a two-hour Town Hall meeting at Simi Valley City Hall. (Harris, 3/5)
Clinton, Sanders Unite Over Flint Water Crisis At Debate
During the seventh Democratic debate, which was held in Flint, Michigan, the candidates' focus turned to the city's public health crisis, with Hillary Clinton joining Bernie Sanders' call for Gov. Rick Snyder to resign or face a recall election.
The New York Times:
In Democratic Debate, Bernie Sanders Pushes Hillary Clinton On Trade And Jobs
USA Today:
Sanders, Clinton Take On Flint Water Crisis In Democratic Debate
The Washington Post Fact Checker:
Fact Checking The Seventh Democratic Debate
Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance Gaining Interest
The New York Times examines the increasing popularity of this type of insurance policy. Also, the Times looks at how much retirees should save for medical costs.
The New York Times:
Hybrid Long-Term Care Policies Provide Cash And Leave Some Behind
There’s a good reason to have long-term care coverage in your wealth management plan. If you need to go to a nursing home, it can cost more than $90,000 a year for a private room, according to a survey by Genworth Financial, an insurance company. The costs, especially for longer stays because of Alzheimer’s disease, can deplete your estate. The financial impact of prolonged long-term care expenses concerned Brian Cassell, 55, a veterinarian in Denver, and his wife, Linda. Although they had looked at several stand-alone policies for long-term care, they didn’t like them because they were expensive and the premiums could rise. They wanted something more flexible. Working with financial planners, the Cassells looked at a relatively new option, hybrid policies that package coverage for long-term care with a universal life insurance policy or a fixed annuity. (Wasik, 3/4)
The New York Times:
On Eve Of Retirement, Savings For Medical Costs Can Fall Short
William Seavey, 69, does not fret about paying future medical expenses. He and his wife, Eleanor, are healthy. And they both have Medicare and Medigap policies, which can help pay many health costs. So they have not put any money aside in a medical savings account. If they do need cash, said Mr. Seavey, they can sell one of their three homes. Or they can go to Mexico for cheaper medical treatment. Various studies show that people in or nearing retirement have not saved nearly enough for medical expenses, which rise substantially with age. (Gustke, 3/4)
In other national news —
The New York Times:
A Biotech Evangelist Seeks A Zika Dividend
In the expanding realm ruled by Randal J. Kirk, sliced apples don’t brown. Salmon grow twice as fast without swimming upriver to spawn. Beloved cats are reborn. And male mosquitoes are unleashed with the sole mission to mate, pass on a gene that kills their offspring, and die. A few decades ago, the foods and creatures nurtured by Mr. Kirk would have been found only in dystopian fantasies like those written by Margaret Atwood. But Mr. Kirk’s company, Intrexon, is fast becoming one of the world’s most diverse biotechnology companies, with ventures ranging from unloved genetically engineered creatures to potential cancer cures and gene therapies, gasoline substitutes, cloned kittens and even glow-in-the-dark Dino Pet toys made from microbes. (Pollack, 3/5)
The New York Times:
Heroin Epidemic Increasingly Seeps Into Public View
With heroin cheap and widely available on city streets throughout the country, users are making their buys and shooting up as soon as they can, often in public places. Police officers are routinely finding drug users — unconscious or dead — in cars, in the bathrooms of fast-food restaurants, on mass transit and in parks, hospitals and libraries. Nationally, 125 people a day die from overdosing on heroin and painkillers, and many more are revived, brought back from the brink of death — often in full public view. (Seelye, 3/6)
STAT:
Shut Out For Decades, Veterans Slowly Gaining Access To Innovative Cancer Treatments
Veterans have less access to cutting-edge cancer treatments today than at any point in recent history, but a new initiative aims to change that. A major cancer research group is seeking to enroll veterans in clinical trials of experimental therapies. The initiative is in its early stages, and so far only patients with lung cancer can participate. (Tedeschi, 3/4)