San Francisco Chronicle: 1 Million Low-Income Californians Could Be Hurt By Trump Family Planning Rules 
More than 1 million low-income Californians could see new barriers to reproductive care under a proposal that the Department of Health and Human Services sent to the White House Friday. The proposed rule would strip federal funding from family planning clinics that provide abortions or refer patients to places that do. (Thadani, 5/18)

California Healthline: Trump Proposes Cutting Planned Parenthood Funds. What Does That Mean?
The planned revival of a policy dating to Ronald Reagan’s presidency may finally present a way for President Donald Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to “defund” Planned Parenthood. Or at least to evict it from the federal family planning program, where it provides care to more than 40 percent of that program’s 4 million patients. Congress last year failed to wipe out funding for Planned Parenthood, because the bill faced overwhelming Democratic objections and would not have received the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate. (Rovner, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Clinics That Provide On-Site Abortions Stand To Lose Millions Under New Plan
Health centers and programs that provide on-site abortions, or refer women for the procedure, could lose millions of dollars in federal family-planning funds under a new plan advanced by the Trump administration Friday. The proposal targets grants given out under a program known as Title X. The agency would require a separation—both financial and physical—between the grants and any facility or program where abortions are performed, supported or referred as a method of family planning. (Armour, 5/18)

The Associated Press: Trump Thrusts Abortion Fight Into Crucial Midterm Elections  
The Trump administration acted Friday to bar taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions, energizing its conservative political base ahead of crucial midterm elections while setting the stage for new legal battles. The Health and Human Services Department sent its proposal to rewrite the rules to the White House, setting in motion a regulatory process that could take months. Scant on details, an administration overview of the plan said it would echo a Reagan-era rule by banning abortion referrals by federally funded clinics and forbidding them from locating in facilities that also provide abortions. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Colvin, 5/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Sutter Health Tight-Lipped About Cause Of Major Computer Crash
Sutter Health, whose computer network system crashed Monday night and remained down until Wednesday morning — forcing hospitals across Northern California to cancel surgeries and delay appointments — is sharing few details about the cause of the problem. (Ho, 5/18)

Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Patients, Nurses Concerned After Computer Failure
The companywide information system failure at Sutter Health last week is raising concerns among some nurses and at least one patient about how the health-care giant functioned amid the crisis. (Anderson, 5/20)

In other California health industry news —

Sacramento Bee: Here's Who UCD Chancellor Chose To Lead UC Davis Health 
David A. Lubarsky will assume the role of chief executive officer of UC Davis Health and vice chancellor of Human Health Services at the University of California, Davis, the office of UC Davis Chancellor Gary May announced Friday. Since 2012, Lubarsky has been the chief medical and systems integration officer with the University of Miami Health System. (Anderson, 5/18)

Bay Area News Group: California Court Opens World Of Uncertainty For The Dying
For now, the law stays in place. The state attorney general was allowed five days to ask the judge to suspend his judgment while the state appeals the case. If that request is approved, as expected, dying patients will continue to have access to prescriptions for a fatal dose of medication, said Kathryn Tucker, director of UC Hastings College of the Law’s End of Life Liberty Project. The dispute moves next to the Fourth District California Court of Appeal, Division Two, located in Riverside and governing Riverside, San Bernardino, and Inyo Counties. The outcome is uncertain. Linda J. Vogel, a former appellate court attorney from Pomona, called the court “conservative, politically and socially – it does not go out on a limb.” (Krieger, 5/20)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Going This Way? Death Is Still Inevitable, But 'Angels' And Cafes Want To Change Our Last Days
The shroud awaits us all, but it doesn’t have to be a one-size-fits-all garment. A broad-based, loosely-linked movement — call it the New Death — questions how, why and when we depart, as well what constitutes a good death. Inspired by a wide range of beliefs (and non-beliefs), these activists are united by a common desire to make dying less painful and more dignified. Some of these ideas are controversial. Last week, for instance, a court overturned California’s two-year-old physician-assisted suicide law. Advocates insist the measure alleviated unnecesary suffering by the terminally ill. Critics feared it could be used to hasten the departures of the elderly, infirm and inconvenient. (Rowe, 5/20)

San Jose Mercury News: Stanford Ousts Suicidal Students From School, Homes: Lawsuit
Stanford University students who attempt or consider suicide have been banned from campus, ousted from university housing, and ordered to pay hundreds of dollars for getting kicked out, according to a new lawsuit filed by three students and a mental health group. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Jose, alleges that the university’s policies deter troubled students from seeking help from campus counseling and other Stanford services. (Baron, 5/18)

USA Today: '13 Reasons Why' Should Do More To Stop Teen Suicides, Doctors Say
Medical experts say Netflix and creators of the second season of 13 Reasons Why — streaming Friday — aren't doing enough to curb the increase in teen suicides and may be encouraging copycat cases. Data show the teen suicide rate rose by more than 70% between 2006 and 2016 with black teen suicides increasing far faster. The renewed criticism comes despite the series' new embrace of suicide prevention, which includes a collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). (O'Donnell, 5/19)

The Washington Post: Suicidal? Be Prepared To Wait For Care.
Psychiatric boarding — when patients in need of psychiatric treatment wait for prolonged periods in emergency departments due to shortages in mental-health resources, particularly inpatient beds — has become a catastrophe for the U.S. health-care system. In a 2016 survey, roughly three-quarters of emergency physicians reported that psychiatric patients had been waiting for beds during their last shift. Studies suggest that psychiatric patients wait for hospital beds far longer than other patients in emergency departments, sometimes for days or even weeks at a time. (Morris, 5/19)

Sacramento Bee: Police Were Called To Handle An Escalating Mental-Health Crisis. This Is Why They Backed Off 
Under intense scrutiny and in the wake of recurring protests throughout the city, Seyffert said police didn't want to risk a violent encounter with Stevante Clark on that April night. So they did something that had rarely if ever been done in Sacramento before — sent civilians to handle what normally would have been a quick arrest. The results have raised questions about the hard choices police and the city face when it comes to handling mental crises, and what responsibilities and risks are reasonable to ask of residents. (Chabria, 5/20)

Orange County Register: Here’s What A Comprehensive Mental Health Care System For Orange County Could Potentially Look Like 
CHOC’s brand new Mental Health Inpatient Center has 18 bright, airy rooms with common recreational areas and cheery leaf motifs adorning its entryways and walls. Designed for children as young as 3 and youth as old as 18, the $13.2-million facility’s bathrooms have smooth door handles and shower heads, and toilet paper holders that flip to downward position when excessive load is applied — all designed to prevent suicide by hanging. (Bharath, 5/18)

Modern Healthcare: As Families Struggle To Get Behavioral Health Coverage, Enforcement Of Parity Laws Lags 
In the midst of a national epidemic of drug addiction and overdose deaths, many families report similar battles with insurers in getting coverage for needed mental healthcare and/or addiction treatment. This includes situations when patients at high risk of relapse were discharged from residential care over clinicians' objections because their insurer stopped paying, or when patients in acute withdrawal had to wait for their insurer to approve payment for medication-assisted treatment. Some patients reportedly have died due to delays in getting needed coverage and care. Insurers blame access problems on the national shortage of behavioral health professionals and a lack of reliable quality measures for behavioral health facilities. (Meyer, 5/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Shaped By AIDS Crisis, Covered California’s Leader Champions Health Access
In the 1980s, Peter Lee headed for the front lines of the HIV/AIDS crisis. ... It was his first job in health care, and 30 years later, the lessons still resonate as he heads the enormous insurance marketplace known as Covered California. ... Lee now stands firmly on the other side — crafting policy, rather than waving fists. But he is not your typical bureaucrat, despite running one of the most closely watched government agencies in the nation’s most populous state. (Ho, 5/20)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Kaiser Permanente To Commit $200 Million To Help Communities Reduce Homelessness 
Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente plans to invest $200 million in community efforts across the country to reduce homelessness, joining a growing list of health systems that are moving to address the housing crisis afflicting many large cities. The commitment — which Kaiser is announcing Friday morning alongside a coalition of mayors and business leaders — marks one of the largest private-sector initiatives to tackle homelessness. And it underscores the growing recognition among healthcare leaders that safe, affordable and stable housing is at least as important as medical care in improving health. (Levey, 5/18)

The New York Times: Me And My Numb Thumb: A Tale Of Tech, Texts And Tendons
It took me a few months to accept that I had given myself tendinosis in my phone thumb. It is a depressingly modern condition in which the tendons around the thumb inflame as a result of repetitive strain — in my case because I had, for hours a day over years of a life, tapped that right-hand digit onto the glass of my smartphone. (Bowles, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: New Migraine Drugs Offer Hope To Sufferers
Lisa DeLeonardo set a Google alert so she would know exactly when the first in a new class of migraine drugs was approved. It happened Thursday, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Amgen and Novartis ’ application for erenumab, whose brand name is Aimovig. It’s an injectable drug touted as the first treatment designed specifically to prevent migraines, and is expected to be available to patients within a week for an annual price of $6,900. Three other similar treatments are expected to hit the market within the next year. (Reddy, 5/18)

Orange County Register: STDs, Particularly Congenital Syphilis, Spike In Southern California 
Southern California is mirroring a statewide increase in cases of sexually transmitted diseases for the third year in a row. Of particular concern is the spike in the number of congenital syphilis cases, which are triggering a rise in the number of stillbirths caused by syphilis. (Bharath, 5/18)

NPR: How Dangerous Is It When A Mother Sleeps With Her Baby?
Here in the U.S., this is a growing trend among families. More moms are choosing to share a bed with their infants. Since 1993, the practice in the U.S. has grown from about 6 percent of parents to 24 percent in 2015. But the practice goes against medical advice in the U.S. The American Academy of Pediatrics is opposed to bed-sharing: It "should be avoided at all times" with a "[full-]term normal-weight infant younger than 4 months," the AAP writes in its 2016 recommendations for pediatricians. The organization says the practice puts babies at risk for sleep-related deaths, including sudden infant death syndrome, accidental suffocation and accidental strangulation. About 3,700 babies die each year in the U.S. from sleep-related causes. (Doucleff, 5/21)

The New York Times: What Barbershops Can Teach About Delivering Health Care
Heart disease is the most common killer of men in the United States, and high blood pressure is one of the greatest risk factors for heart disease. ... A recent study shows that the means of communication may be as important as the message itself, maybe even more so. Also, it suggests that health care need not take place in a doctor’s office — or be provided by a physician — to be effective. It might, as in this study, take place in a barbershop, an institution that has long played a significant social, economic and cultural role in African-American life. (Carroll, 5/21)

The New York Times: How To Age Well And Stay In Your Home
What will it take to age well in place, in the surroundings we’ve long cherished that bring us physical, social and emotional comfort? What adaptations are needed to assure our safety and comfort and relieve our children’s legitimate concerns for our welfare? Of course, aging in place is not for everyone. Some seniors may prefer to leave the dwelling long shared with a now-gone partner. Some may want the security of knowing that physical and medical assistance is but a bell-ring away. Others may simply be fed up with having to care for a home. (Brody, 5/21)

The Washington Post: Surgery Can Cause Cognitive Losses In Some Seniors
Two years ago, Daniel Cole’s 85-year-old father had heart bypass surgery. He hasn’t been quite the same since. “He forgets things and will ask you the same thing several times,” said Cole, a professor of clinical anesthesiology at UCLA and a past president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. ... His father probably has post­operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) — a little-known condition that affects a substantial number of older adults after surgery, Cole said. (Graham, 5/19)

The Washington Post: Watching But Not Treating Cancer Can Be Hard. Sometimes It’s The Right Approach.
However, there is a good argument to be made for taking the watch-and-wait approach (sometimes called “active surveillance”) over treatments that too often have terrible side effects. A study published in JAMA last week found that 72 percent of men younger than 65 with prostate cancer chose surveillance over surgery or radiation; a decade prior, the numbers were reversed: Only 27 percent chose monitoring. As the study numbers suggest, many physicians are counseling men with low-risk prostate cancer to choose active surveillance over surgery and radiation; not only is this approach less invasive, it can help men avoid the incontinence and impotence often associated with more aggressive treatment — and do so without impacting survival rates. (Petrow, 5/20)

The New York Times: As An Insurer Resists Paying For ‘Avoidable’ E.R. Visits, Patients And Doctors Push Back
Anthem denied thousands of claims last year under its “avoidable E.R. program,” according to a sample of emergency room bills analyzed by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The program, which Anthem has been rolling out in a handful of states in recent years, reviews claims based on the final diagnosis of patients. Emergency room physicians say that, last year, the company did not routinely request medical records for denied patients, and therefore could not review the symptoms that brought them to the emergency room. Anthem says it is now reviewing such records before issuing denials. (Abelson, Sanger-Katz and Creswell, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Theranos Inc.’s Partners In Blood
Much of the attention has focused on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. But another character played a central role behind the scenes in the alleged fraud: Ms. Holmes’s boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, according to more than three dozen former Theranos employees who interacted with Mr. Balwani extensively over a number of years. Mr. Balwani, who met Ms. Holmes when she was a teenager, jointly ran the company with her for seven years as president and chief operating officer and enforced a corporate culture of secrecy and fear until his departure in the spring of 2016, the former employees say. Unlike Ms. Holmes and Theranos, who reached a settlement with the SEC to resolve the agency’s civil charges in March without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Mr. Balwani has denied separate charges the SEC filed against him in a parallel action and is fighting them in a California federal court. (Carreyrou, 5/18)

Stat: Aetna Pressures Whistleblower Who Alleged CVS Caremark Ripped Off Medicare 
Aetna wants an employee to return or destroy documents that formed the basis of a whistleblower lawsuit she filed against CVS Caremark, alleging that the pharmacy benefit manager improperly reported generic drug prices to the federal government, according to a source familiar with the matter. At the same time, CVS Caremark is seeking to redact key portions of the lawsuit, which is currently under seal, before it is made available to the public (although you can read it here). The lawsuit, which STAT first reported last month, revolves around the complicated contracts between pharmacy benefit managers and Medicare Part D plans, as well as the pricing that must be reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Silverman, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: The AI Doctor Will See You Now
Kimberly Bari had her first seizure in 2010 at age 26 and since then has had hundreds. Some rendered her unconscious, others left her confused and terrified. By 2016, her surgery- and drug-resistant condition led her to try something fewer than 2,000 people in the world have attempted: implanting a computer into her brain. The NeuroPace Responsive Neurostimulation System “literally provides peace of mind I never imagined could exist,” she said. And, according to its makers, it would be impossible without a type of artificial intelligence known as machine learning. (Mims, 5/20)

The Washington Post: With The Help Of Virtual Therapists, People With Eating Disorders Tackle Anxiety In Grocery Stores
Individuals with anorexia, binge eating disorder and bulimia often feel anxious and overwhelmed when surrounded by food. This anxiety can make grocery shopping and cooking a challenge. A new form of telemedicine in which people can video-chat with a nutritional counselor while at the supermarket aims to help. (Fraga, 5/20)

In other health IT news —

The New York Times: Technique Used To Find Golden State Killer Leads To A Suspect In 1987 Murders
In 1987, Jay Cook, 20, and Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, a couple from Canada, were brutally killed while they were vacationing in Washington State. On Friday, the Snohomish County sheriff’s office announced that it had a suspect in custody in the rape of Ms. Van Cuylenborg and the murders. William Earl Talbott II, 55, of Seatac, Wash., was arrested on Thursday. An important break came once again as a result of DNA sleuthing techniques similar to the ones used last month to crack the Golden State killer case. (Murphy, 5/18)

Politico: Republicans Claw At Each Other Over Farm Bill Implosion
Speaker Paul Ryan and his leadership team were sure the group of three dozen rabble-rousers would cave. The partisan farm bill, after all, includes historic new work requirements for food stamp beneficiaries that conservatives have demanded for years. ... It is unclear if the conference would get another shot at passing Trump’s work requirements for the food stamp program, though the White House in a statement encouraged the House to try again. Leaders could decide to write a bipartisan bill instead without the food stamp cuts, which would be much easier to pass. (Bade, 5/18)

The Washington Post: They’re The Think Tank Pushing For Welfare Work Requirements. Republicans Say They’re Experts. Economists Call It ‘Junk Science.’
An obscure, Florida-based policy group with ties to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and two of the country’s most conservative Republican governors has become one of the loudest and most persuasive voices in the debate over new work requirements in the food stamp program. The Foundation for Government Accountability — headed by a former adviser to Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) — spent six years testing welfare changes in Kansas, Mississippi and other states before taking its ideas to Washington in 2017. On Friday, those ideas — and the FGA’s leveraging of state political connections and policy one-liners to become a fixture in GOP strategy discussions — were in the spotlight when the House voted on a farm bill that sought sweeping changes to work requirements for food stamp recipients. (Dewey, 5/18)

The Hill: Trump Official On Defensive As Critics Scoff At Drug Plan
President Trump's health chief is struggling to show that the administration is serious about taking on drug companies after its proposals for lowering prices last week left big companies relieved and even spurred an uptick in their stock prices. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar insists that the companies are misreading the administration's plan and that it will bring down drug prices. (Sullivan, 5/19)

The New York Times: Trump’s New Health And Human Services Secretary Is A Joyful Regulator
Alex Azar, President Trump’s new man running health policy, was waving a Pilot ballpoint in front of a room full of reporters. “This pen has a lot of power,” he said, smiling at his own joke. He is right. As Health and Human Services Secretary, Mr. Azar does have a lot of power to change health policy, without having to go through Congress. And in a sharp break from his predecessor — and from most Trump cabinet secretaries — he seems to be relishing the chance to write new regulations, rather than just crossing out Obama-era ones. (Sanger-Katz, 5/18)

USA Today: Trump Picks Robert Wilkie As The Next Secretary Of Veterans Affairs
When he became acting secretary, the VA put out a statement hailing his leadership in uniting everyone at the agency around shared goals after a tumultuous few months, when Shulkin had been feuding with a group of top political appointees. "Under Acting Secretary Wilkie’s leadership, senior VA officials are now on the same page, speaking with one voice to Veterans, employees and outside stakeholders, such as Congress and veterans service organizations, and are focused on a number of key priorities in the short term," VA press secretary Curt Cashour said. (Slack and Jackson, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Oliver North, Incoming NRA Chief, Blames School Shootings On ‘Culture Of Violence’
Two days after a 17-year-old opened fire in his Texas high school, killing at least 10, incoming National Rifle Association president Oliver North said students “shouldn’t have to be afraid” to go to school and blamed the problem on “youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence” in which many young boys have “been on Ritalin” since early childhood. “They’ve been drugged in many cases,” he said. (Stead Sellers and Scherer, 5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: The Spillover Effects Of State Gun Laws
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania had a hunch about gun laws: A place with strict laws surrounded by states with lenient ones would have more shootings. But the data revealed something different. Counties in states with tight gun laws weren’t affected by the loose laws of neighboring states—but counties in states with loose laws had lower rates of firearm homicide when nearby states had tight laws. “It’s a halo effect,” said Elinore J. Kaufman, lead author of the study. “If you lived in a state with lenient laws but neighboring states had stronger laws, you were a little bit protected.” (McGinty, 5/18)

The Hill: Adult Entertainment Industry Group Trolls Trump With Letter Explaining Difference Between HIV And HPV
The top trade association for the adult entertainment industry is trolling President Trump with an open letter explaining the difference between HIV and HPV. The letter from the Free Speech Coalition comes after recently released footage of Bill Gates revealed his claim that Trump had asked him in two previous meetings to explain the difference between the two viruses. (Thomsen, 5/19)