Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Sit, Heal: Dog Teaches Military Med Students The Merits Of Service Animals
Although service dogs are commonly seen at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a retriever mix is a clinical instructor in the Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology. (Julie Rovner, )
Good morning! The Sacramento Bee has a special investigation into how California deals with law enforcement officers who break the law. Check that out below, but first here are your top California health stories of the day.
Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson Dies Unexpectedly In Sleep At Age 60: Bernard Tyson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest managed health care organization, died Sunday. Tyson, who rose through the ranks from intern to the leader of the Oakland-based health care giant in a career that spanned 35 years, died unexpectedly in his sleep, the company said. “Bernard was an exceptional colleague, a passionate leader, and an honorable man. We will greatly miss him,” Kaiser board member Edward Pei said in a prepared statement. Tyson’s ascent to the CEO role coincided with the implementation of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, a transformative time in American health care. The insurer’s revenue grew during his tenure, from $53 billion in the year he took the reins to $79.7 billion last year, according to the company’s website. It oversees health plans for more than 12 million customers, with about two-thirds of those in California. Kaiser named Gregory Adams, an executive vice president and group president, as interim chief executive and chairman.
Read more from Vincent Moleski of the Sacramento Bee; Caleb Melby of Bloomberg; Melanie Evans of The Wall Street Journal; and Erica Teichert of Modern Healthcare.
Meanwhile, a planned five-day strike this week by roughly 4,000 members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers was postponed Sunday after the news of Tyson’s death. The weeklong strike was expected to have an effect on Kaiser Permanente patients for a second holiday season as 4,000 of the company’s behavioral health workers planned to picket lines Monday morning over concerns about access to care. Sal Rosselli, who has led health care unions in California for more than 30 years, said he had known Tyson since the 1980s, when he was a manager at Kaiser in Oakland. “While we had our differences, I had tremendous respect for him and his willingness to collaborate with workers to make Kaiser the model provider of medical services in California,” said Rosselli, who spearheaded the formation of the Coalition of Kaiser Unions. Read more from Cathie Anderson of the Sacramento Bee.
Trauma From Natural Disasters Like Wildfires Can Reopen Old Wounds, Experts Warn: Reactions to wildfires differ from person to person, ranging from social withdrawal to increased irritability to a lack of self-compassion for the feelings they are experiencing, experts say. Psychologists also say it can cause old trauma to resurface. “When we think about asthma, we think about how there's often a reemergence of symptoms when you're around pollen,” said psychologist Chandra Ghosh Ippen. “It’s that same way with trauma. There's a re-emergence of symptoms when you're around reminders.” Read more from Laura Klivans of KQED.
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
Sacramento Bee:
McFarland CA Has History Of Hiring Cops With Troubling Pasts
They hired a cop investigated in an FBI child porn probe, and another caught up in an LAPD burglary ring. They gave a job to an officer who filed a bogus insurance claim for a car his friends dumped in Mexico. And they brought in a cop with a conviction for pulling a gun on his stepdaughter’s friends. The McFarland Police Department knew that many of its officers had dubious backgrounds — but it hired them anyway. And they weren’t the only ones who got a second chance. One cop was accused in a lawsuit of having sex with a teenage police explorer scout; another of threatening to jail women if they didn’t have sex with him. At least three more had DUIs. (Du Sault and Rusch, 11/11)
Sacramento Bee:
How CA Police Officers Commit Abuse & Get Reduced Sentences
A six-month investigation of California’s Criminal Cops by a statewide coalition of news organizations found law enforcement officers who are accused of committing a litany of violent behavior — leaving bloody marks on the arms of an elderly father, giving a daughter a black eye, knocking a wife unconscious — routinely plead down to nonviolent misdemeanors for disturbing the peace or vandalism or unreasonable noise. And those softer charges can allow abusive officers to keep their guns — and keep enforcing the law in the Golden State. (Lewis and Debolt, 11/10)
East Bay Times:
Tzu Chi Free Winter Health Clinic Helps Fill Medical Care Gaps
Michelle Mauldwin has chronic migraines, but hasn’t had much luck in easing the pain with the help of doctors through her Kaiser medical plan.“It’s pretty bad,” she said Sunday. “I just want to try to do whatever I can to prevent them.” So the San Jose resident decided to explore different kinds of treatments, and came to the Tzu Chi Foundation’s winter community outreach health clinic in Milpitas, one of three similar clinics the international nonprofit puts on annually here. (Geha, 11/10)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Two Up, Two Down In Latest Hospital Safety Report Card
Two hospitals saw their grades improve and two slipped a bit in the latest hospital safety report from The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit analysis firm that issues a nationwide medical center report card each spring and fall. This time around, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas saw its grade improve from a C to a B since the spring report while UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center increased from a B to an A. Kaiser’s Zion Medical Center dropped from an A to a B while Paradise Valley Hospital in National City received a C, one letter lower than the B it was awarded in the spring. (Sisson, 11/8)
Capital Public Radio:
Will Paradise Be Rebuilt Without Its Largest Low-Income Housing Complex?
Paradise Village originally was financed through the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, and Internal Revenue Service rules dictate that any destroyed affordable housing must be rebuilt and reoccupied within 24 months or the investors in the project have to repay the federal government. The IRS sometimes waives those rules, but the people who want Paradise Village rebuilt are concerned. (Levin, 11/10)
Capital Public Radio:
Broadway Sacramento Ends Partnership With Dignity Health After Public Criticism Of Its Transgender Health Policies
Broadway Sacramento's downtown theatre won't be named for Dignity Health after theatregoers threatened to boycott over the company's treatment of a transgender patient. The production company announced a new partnership with the health system last month, and planned to turn the current Wells Fargo Pavilion — home of the annual summer Music Circus series — into the Dignity Health Theatre. But some patrons criticized Broadway Sacramento on social media for not looking out for LGBT rights. (Caiola, 11/9)
Ventura County Star:
Team Jill Searches Simi Valley And Beyond For A Hero And A Kidney
In their grief, Jill and her husband, Ed Abele, decided it was time to act. Jill's kidneys had long been failing and now function at less than 15%. Her disease has progressed to the fifth of five phases — the end stage. Working with the UCLA transplant program, she applied and was accepted onto an organ waiting list. She joined more than 90,000 people across the country in need of a kidney transplant amid a dire shortage of donors. It was the first step in a journey that now bears a name — Team Jill. (Kisken, 11/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Weed, And Marijuana Money, Are Dividing This Seaside Town
For the last two years, pot has divided Carpinteria, as Santa Barbara County officials allowed the city to be surrounded by the densest concentration of cannabis farms in the nation. Residents complain the farms saturate their homes and children’s schools with the skunky smell the plant is famous for. Growers counter that they are providing jobs and paying taxes, while installing state-of-the-art odor control systems to mask the funk. (Mozingo, 11/10)
The New York Times:
Examining Conflicting Claims About ‘Medicare For All’
Since Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont drove the idea of “Medicare for all,” or a single-payer health system, to the center of the political debate, few other issues have so divided the Democratic presidential candidates and voters. The result has been a cascade of competing assertions, estimates and statistics about the costs and effects of what would amount to a fundamental overhaul of the size and role of the government and the way Americans receive care. Here’s a fact check of some of these claims. (Qiu, 11/9)
Reuters:
Exclusive: Economist Who Backed Warren Healthcare Plan Has Doubts About Her Wealth Tax
A leading economist who vouched for Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's healthcare reform plan told Reuters on Thursday he doubts its staggering cost can be fully covered alongside her other government programs. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, also voiced skepticism that the wealth tax provision in Warren's plan - a key funding mechanism - will produce predicted levels of revenue because those targeted by the tax will seek to dodge it. (11/8)
The Associated Press:
Harris Zeroes In On Health Care Before Powerful Nevada Union
Presidential candidate Kamala Harris zeroed in on the Democratic Party's debate over health insurance Friday as she made her pitch to one of Nevada's most powerful political forces, the casino workers' union. Leaders and members of the Culinary Union and its parent organization, Unite Here, have made it clear they don't favor "Medicare for all" plans like those proposed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that would eliminate private insurance. (11/8)
The New York Times:
Vaping Illnesses Are Linked To Vitamin E Acetate, C.D.C. Says
A form of vitamin E has been identified as a “very strong culprit” in lung injuries related to vaping THC, health officials reported on Friday, a major advance in a frightening outbreak that has killed 40 people and sickened 2,051. Many patients with the mysterious illness have wound up hospitalized in intensive care units, needing ventilators or even more desperate measures to help them breathe. Most are young, male adults or even teenagers. (Grady, 11/8)
Reuters:
U.S. To Raise Age Limit For Vaping To 21, Trump Says Ahead Of Action Next Week
The United States plans to raise the age limit for vaping to 21, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday, adding that his administration would issue its final report on such products next week. Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, did not give further details about the administration's regulatory plans or give a specific date for any announcements. (11/8)
Politico:
The VA At A Crossroads
The Veterans Administration is facing an existential question. The effort to bring electronic health records to the VA and a push to make it easier for veterans to see doctors outside the VA system are aimed at improving access to care. But some worry those changes will put the VA on the road to privatization. How will the VA preserve its essence and live up to its founding promise even as it seeks to modernize and provide veterans with better care? Join Dan Diamond and Arthur Allen as they examine that question in a series of conversations on the Pulse Check podcast. (11/11)
The New York Times:
Who Owns H.I.V.-Prevention Drugs? The Taxpayers, U.S. Says
After years of prodding by patient advocates, federal officials on Wednesday sued the drug maker Gilead Sciences, charging that it had infringed government patents on the idea of preventing H.I.V. with a daily pill. The suit, by the Department of Health and Human Services, came as a pleasant shock to many critics of the company, including Democratic members of Congress who had pressed the administration to act. (McNeil and Mandavilli, 11/8)
NPR:
Mass Shootings And Lack Of Health Care Access Lead To High Stress In Latinos
Mass shootings, health care concerns and the upcoming 2020 presidential election top the list of Americans' worries these days. That's according to a new survey out this week from the American Psychological Association. Overall, 71% said mass shootings were a significant source of stress in their lives, up from 62% last year. Hispanic adults were most likely to report stress over mass shootings (84%). (Neighmond, 11/9)
The New York Times:
The F.B.I.’s New Approach To Combating Domestic Terrorism: Straight Talk
As a group of prominent black pastors listened, the top federal prosecutor in northern Ohio, Justin E. Herdman, spoke recently at Mount Zion church about the prospect that a gunman could target one of their congregations. The subtext was clear. Mr. Herdman is among a group of federal law enforcement officials who have begun speaking more forthrightly about fighting domestic terrorism from the front lines. They want to reassure a skeptical public that the Justice Department is forcefully combating racist and politically motivated violence in the Trump era, amid their own mounting concerns about a possible surge in attacks sparked by the 2020 election. (Goldman, 11/10)
The Washington Post:
Exploring The Long Fight Against Lead Poisoning In The United States
Pure. Healthy. Modern. Today, you might see those words on a product in a natural foods store or an upscale juice bar. But in the early 20th century, they were used to describe lead. Cheap and durable, lead was ubiquitous in everything from paint to gasoline to plumbing. But though the dangers of lead poisoning were known in the United States, regulation lagged for decades. Meanwhile, lead poisoning became a public health crisis. (Blake, 11/9)