Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
It's Not Just Insulin: Diabetes Patients Struggle To Get Crucial Supplies
The latest technology makes managing Type 1 diabetes much easier. But managing insurance company rules for the supplies is a big obstacle for some patients. (Bram Sable-Smith, )
Good morning! Over the weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released his medical debt forgiveness plan. And concerns over vaping illness cases continues to run high. More on those headlines below, but first here are your top California health news stories of the day:
Jury Selection To Start In Antitrust Lawsuit Against Sutter Health: California's Department of Justice alleges that Sutter Health bought up competing medical providers in Northern California and used that market dominance to increase prices for insurance plans. Sutter recently released a statement defending its business practices. The trial is expected to run for months. The Sacramento Bee and The Associated Press both offer advance looks at the upcoming trial. And Attorney General Xavier Becerra offers on-camera comments about how he views Sutter's business practices.
Nurses In California Go On Strike: Registered nurses at Alameda Hospital and San Leandro Hospital walked the picket line over the weekend. The California Nurses Association accuses hospital management of bargaining in bad faith after months of stalled negotiations on a contract that expired last December. Dylan Bouscher from The Mercury News reports on this dispute.
Also over the weekend, nurses at San Ramon Regional Medical Center in San Ramon, Calif. joined thousands more in three other states for a day-long work stoppage at Tenet hospitals. Aimee Ortiz of The New York Times reports on the national strikes.
Go Behind The Scenes Of The Vaccine Battle: The Los Angeles Times interviewed more than two dozen people to reveal new details about the months of negotiating and lobbying that took place outside of the public's view and shifted Gov. Gavin Newsom's position over the course of the vaccine law debate. Read more about this story by the Los Angeles Times' Melody Gutierrez, Taryn Luna and John Myers.
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
East Bay Times:
A Looming Change In Immigration Policy Is Spooking Bay Area Families
Across the Bay Area, the looming change in what is known as the “public charge” rule is sowing confusion and fear within the immigrant community, causing many people to abandon programs they need for fear of retaliation from immigration authorities, according to nearly two dozen interviews with health care providers, lawyers, nonprofit organizations, and social service agencies. Statewide, the rule could impact more than 2 million Californians, most of whom are not subject to the regulation, and could result in 765,000 people disenrolling from MediCal and CalFresh, according to UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research. (Hellerstein, 9/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco Health Department Pauses Controversial Plan To Shift Long-Term Beds For Mentally Ill
The Department of Public Health said Friday that it will pause its controversial decision to transform a number of long-term care beds for San Francisco’s mentally ill into a temporary respite facility. The announcement came after a month of backlash — from mental health care workers as well as members of the Board of Supervisors — over the department’s decision to stop admitting new clients into the Adult Residential Facility and the Residential Care Facility for the Elderly on San Francisco General Hospital’s campus. (Thadani, 9/20)
Politico California Pro:
High-Stakes Dialysis Fight In Newsom's Hands, With Patient Charity Threatening To Leave
A national nonprofit that funds treatment for low-income kidney failure patients is threatening to withdraw from California if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill that would cap dialysis reimbursement rates, part of an escalating battle over how end-stage renal care is financed. American Kidney Fund President and CEO LaVarne Burton told POLITICO that CA AB290 (19R) by Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa) threatens financial assistance for 3,700 dialysis and transplant patients in California. (Hart, 9/20)
Sacramento Bee:
Blue Shield Tests Free Lyft Rides To Improve Patient Access
Blue Shield of California launched this week a pilot program that will allow more than 1,300 Sacramento-area residents to get free Lyft rides to their primary care appointments, to X-ray or lab visits, and even to pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy. (Anderson, 9/20)
FierceHealthcare:
California House Call App Heal Acquires Doctors On Call, Expands To NYC Market
Technology entrepreneur Nick Desai sees a not-too-distant future where his infant daughter will not have to learn to drive a car, thanks to self-driving cars and ride-hailing services. His children and others in their generation also will likely never need to go to a doctor's office, he predicts. That's the potential impact of technology innovation and on-demand services powered by mobile apps, Desai, co-founder of on-demand doctor house call app Heal, told FierceHealthcare. Case in point—Desai's 11-month-old daughter and 82-year-old father both receive all their primary care services from Heal house calls, he said. (Landi, 9/23)
NewsWeek:
Court Rules Transgender Man Can Sue Hospital That Canceled His Hysterectomy
A California appeals court has given the green light to a lawsuit filed by a transgender man who claims staff at a Catholic hospital violated his civil rights by refusing to all him to undergo a medical procedure as part of his transition. On August 30, 2016, Evan Minton was scheduled to have a hysterectomy at the Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, about ten miles from Sacramento. Mercy is a Catholic hospital, but it was close to Minton's home in Fair Oaks and was covered under his insurance. Additionally Minton's doctor, Lindsey Dawson, had performed numerous hysterectomies there. (Avery, 9/23)
Modesto Bee:
New Pharmacy In Modesto CA Offers Services In Spanish
For the largely Latino population along south Modesto’s Crows Landing Road, a new independent and locally owned bilingual pharmacy has opened to give a personal touch to the daunting task of understanding one’s health. Familia Farmacia debuted last month along the busy thruway, and its owner said it offers an alternative to the more well-known corporate pharmacy chains. (Rowland, 9/22)
The Desert Sun:
New Clinics For Coachella Valley Tribes Including Torres Martinez, Pechanga
A multimillion-dollar upgrade program will bring new health clinics to at least six Native American tribes in Riverside County in the next four years, including two that will start construction this fall. One of the clinics in the works is at the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians reservation in Thermal. The new 11,600-square-foot clinic will cost $6.7 million, said Torres Martinez Tribal Vice Chairman Joseph Mirelez. It is being funded through two Indian Health Service grants totaling $5.4 million, and a $1 million grant from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. The remainder is being covered by the Torres Martinez tribe, Mirelez said. (Johnson, 9/20)
Ventura County Star:
Clinicas Leader Juarez Awarded Medalla Ohtli From Mexico's Consulates
Roberto Juarez, longtime CEO of the Clinicas del Camino Real health system, was awarded Mexico’s Medalla Ohtli by the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard on Sept. 15. The medal is given annually by Mexico’s consulates to recognize contributions made by people of Mexican ancestry in other countries. Juarez was recognized for his work in promoting and providing healthcare for people from Mexico residing in the United States. ...Juarez has led Clinicas since 1978, helping it grow into a countywide system of clinics, mobile units and more than two dozen school-based health sites. It employs more than 800 people and operates on a budget of $100-plus million a year. (9/20)
Sacramento Bee:
Citrus Heights: Mosquito Species That Can Carry Zika Detected
A species of invasive mosquitoes that have the potential to transmit Zika virus and other diseases has been detected in Citrus Heights twice in the past month, the regional mosquito and vector control district said Friday. Aggressive and invasive Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, aka Yellow Fever mosquitoes, were recently detected north of Antelope Road and west of Interstate 80, according to a news release by the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District – not far from Antelope and the Sacramento-Placer county line. (McGough, 9/20)
The New York Times:
Bernie Sanders Calls For Eliminating Americans’ Medical Debt
Bernie Sanders has long wanted to remake the health care system so no one will have to pay directly for medical care again. Now, he also wants to go back and cancel all the medical debts of people who have been billed under the current system. In a plan released Saturday, Mr. Sanders, the Vermont senator and presidential candidate, proposes wiping out an estimated $81 billion in existing debt and changing rules around debt collection and bankruptcy. He also calls for replacing the giant credit reporting agencies with a “public credit registry” that would ignore medical debt when calculating credit scores. (Sanger-Katz and Ember, 9/21)
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Voters Support Expanding Medicare But Not Eliminating Private Health Insurance
Democratic presidential candidates are presenting policy ideas that are broadly popular with Americans, including tuition-free state colleges, but other proposals—such as Medicare for All—could complicate the party’s prospects next year, the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. Two-thirds of registered voters support letting anyone buy into Medicare, similar to an idea that former Vice President Joe Biden and some other Democratic candidates have proposed. (McCormick, 9/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
FDA To Investigate Juul Over SF Ads Claiming Vaping Is Safer Than Cigarettes
The Food and Drug Administration will investigate whether Juul is illegally claiming that vaping products are safer than cigarettes in political ads for Proposition C — the San Francisco ballot measure seeking to overturn the city’s e-cigarettes sales ban — without having received the agency’s authorization to make such claims. Under federal law, tobacco manufacturers including Juul and other e-cigarette makers cannot claim their products are less harmful than cigarettes, or claim that they help people quit cigarettes, unless the FDA has granted them permission after reviewing scientific evidence showing the claims are true. (Ho, 9/21)
The Associated Press:
2 Vaping Companies Settle LA Suit, Won't Sell To Minors
Two vaping companies have agreed not to promote their products to minors under a settlement with Los Angeles prosecutors. The city attorney’s office announced a lawsuit settlement Friday with NEwhere Inc. and VapeCo Distribution LLC. The LA-based companies also will pay $350,000 in fines. LA accused the firms of using marketing that promotes youth consumption of tobacco and selling vaping products online without proper age verification. (9/20)
KQED:
Walmart To Stop Selling E-Cigarettes
Walmart says it will stop selling electronic cigarettes, at namesake stores and Sam's Club locations. The nation's largest retailer is responding to growing health concerns around vaping, especially among young people. Walmart cited "growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity and uncertainty regarding e-cigarettes," saying that its stores will stop selling e-cigarettes once the current inventory is sold. (Selyukh, 9/21)
Bloomberg:
Walmart Ban Shows Vaping’s Fall From Smoking Fix To Health Scare
Vaping has also been at the center of a growing controversy over what U.S. regulators have described as an epidemic of underage use. Last week, the Trump administration said it would take steps to remove almost all flavored e-cigarette products from the market, pending their approval by the Food and Drug Administration. (Boyle and Annett, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Sales Of Illicit Vaping Products Find Home Online
As concerns about the health hazards of vaping mount, a market for illicit cannabis-vaping products and the tools to create counterfeits is thriving online. On Instagram, users offer products ranging from cannabis oils to vaping devices and packaging materials. On Amazon.com Inc., third-party sellers hawk empty packaging for vape products, and on Facebook Inc.’s Marketplace, sellers offer vaping products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the mind-altering ingredient in cannabis. (Hernandez, 9/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Juul Tried To Position Itself As A Responsible Actor. It Backfired.
Juul Labs Inc. pursued a strategy to win over Washington. But the e-cigarette maker wound up further alienating regulators, helping to thrust the once-soaring startup into a crisis that threatens its business. Facing scrutiny stemming from surging teen use of its vaporizers, Juul has tried over the past year to position itself as a responsible actor in an industry with few rules. It overhauled its marketing, halted retail-store sales of its fruity flavors that young people favor and introduced a checkout system to curb illegal sales to minors. But other steps it took backfired and contributed to a perception in Washington that Juul was on the wrong side of a public health crisis. (Maloney and Armour, 9/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
What We Know About Vaping-Related Lung Illness
Health officials are investigating 530 confirmed and probable cases of pulmonary illness in the U.S. related to vaping and e-cigarette products. The illnesses are spread across 38 states and one U.S. territory .... Many doctors and health officials are urging people to stop vaping during the investigation. President Trump has said the administration plans to ban all non-tobacco-flavored vaping products from the market. Here is what health officials know so far about the condition. (Abbott, 9/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Getting Through To Your Teen About The Dangers Of Vaping
How can parents convince their children not to vape? The question has taken on new urgency. ... Vaping’s new dangers and ubiquity at high schools—and even middle schools—is causing understandable parental concern. But parents need to be strategic when talking to their children about e-cigarettes, psychologists and pediatricians say. Here are some tips. (Petersen, 9/21)
NPR:
Pelosi Rejects 'Socialist' Attacks On Her Prescription Drug Bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled legislation this week that would give the federal government sweeping new authority to regulate and lower the cost of prescription drugs. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declared the bill dead on arrival and told Politico it amounts to "socialist price controls." In an exclusive interview with NPR, Pelosi suggested McConnell was in "the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry" and noted that President Trump shares her view that negotiating drug prices is good policy. "As the president said in the course of his run for office and since: 'We're going to negotiate like crazy. We're going to negotiate like crazy.' So perhaps Mitch is talking about the president, as well." (Davis, 9/20)
The Hill:
Trump Family Planning Rule Faces Crucial Court Test
Planned Parenthood, state governments and other health groups will be back in court Monday challenging the Trump administration’s changes to a federal family planning program. They’re asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block a rule issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which bans federally funded family planning providers from referring women for abortions. (Hellmann, 9/22)
The New York Times:
‘Value’ Of Care Was A Big Goal. How Did It Work Out?
For most of its history, Medicare paid for health care in ways that encouraged more services — whether they improved health or not. Critics called it an emphasis on volume, not value. The Affordable Care Act was intended to change that, and Medicare started a number of programs to do so, including several new ones this year. Nearly a decade after passage of the A.C.A., is value-based payment working? (Frakt, 9/23)
The Washington Post:
How Congress Failed To Act On The Fentanyl Epidemic Despite Dire Warnings
[Sen. Kelly] Ayotte almost immediately ran into a roadblock. The Senate was attempting to pass a sweeping criminal justice reform bill that would overhaul sentencing for drugs, including shortening the duration of mandatory sentences. Some thought Ayotte’s bill would clash with the effort and possibly imperil the bill’s passage. The fentanyl-related bills never received a vote. An early warning about fentanyl went unheeded. “Who is for fentanyl?” Ayotte said in a recent interview, recalling her frustration with Washington’s lack of urgency as the drug emerged as a widespread killer. “Fentanyl has not truly been dealt with. There are still people who are dying from it.” (Zezima and Itkowitz, 9/20)
The Washington Post:
The Opioid Litigation Has More Than 2000 Plaintiffs. Here’s What That Involves.
More than 2,000 state, local and tribal governments are suing two dozen pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, arguing that they’ve helped create an opioid crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of American lives. The suits include claims that the industry misled doctors and consumers about the drugs’ safety and negligently allowed opioids to fall into the wrong hands. Most of the litigation has been consolidated in federal district court in Ohio, where trial is set to begin Oct. 21. The government plaintiffs agree that the industry is complicit in the crisis, but the public officials involved disagree on a variety of issues. Several state attorneys general recently criticized the tentative deal between most of the government plaintiffs and OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma. The states and localities have also tangled over who will control the litigation. Why are we seeing these conflicts, and where is this litigation likely to go next? (Provost and Nolette, 9/21)
The New York Times:
Why Can’t We Stop Pancreatic Cancer?
Pancreatic cancer, which will be diagnosed in about 56,770 people in the United States this year, is the only cancer with a rising mortality rate through 2014, although five-year survival has begun to inch up, from 8 percent to 9 percent by 2016. It remains the nation’s third leading cause of cancer deaths, after cancers of the lung and colon, and it is on track to overtake colon cancer within a decade. Three-fourths of people who develop pancreatic cancer die within a year of diagnosis, and only about one in 10 live five years or longer. Perhaps like me you’ve wondered why modern medicine has thus far failed to gain the upper hand against pancreatic cancer despite having achieved major survival advances for more common cancers like breast and colon. What follows is a large part of the answer. (Brody, 9/23)
The New York Times:
Exploring A Possible Link Between C-Sections And Autism
Cesarean delivery can save a baby — or a mother — at a moment of medical danger. However, cesarean births have been linked to an increased risk of various long-term health issues for both women and children, and a recent study shows an association between cesarean birth and the risk of developing autism or attention deficit disorder. The study, published in August in JAMA Network Open, was a meta-analysis. It looked at data from 61 previously published studies, which together included more than 20 million deliveries, and found that birth by cesarean section was associated with a 33 percent higher risk of autism and a 17 percent higher risk of attention deficit disorder. The increased risk was present for both planned and unplanned cesarean deliveries. (Klass, 9/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Hope, Frustration Mark New Era Of Sickle Cell Disease
The coming decade may completely transform treatment for sickle cell disease. More than a dozen new drugs are in various stages of development to treat the inherited blood disorder — some may be on the market as early as next year. Scientists harnessing gene editing and stem cell tools are working on cures too, some of which already seem to be working for a handful of patients around the country.But for many of the tens of thousands of people living with sickle cell disease, excitement for what’s to come is tempered by the hardships they now face around basic access to care and fair, unbiased treatment. (Allday, 9/22)
Stat:
Genome Editing Needs A Dose Of Slow Science
The hubris of some scientists knows no bounds. Less than a year after He Jiankui, a Chinese biophysicist, drew scorn and censure for creating gene-edited twins, Denis Rebrikov, a Russian molecular biologist, boldly announced his plan to follow in He’s genome editing footsteps. Rebrikov’s initial stated goal for his proposed research was to prevent the transmission of HIV from infected women to their offspring, though he later suggested other targets, including dwarfism, deafness, and blindness. (Francoise Baylis, 9/23)
USA Today:
Who Helps The Caregiver? Penn Counselor's Suicide Highlights How Experts Aren't Immune From Struggles
When University of Pennsylvania counseling center director Dr. Gregory Eells died by suicide earlier this month, many expressed shock that the tragedy involved an expert in the field of mental health. But college counseling directors nationwide say they can face a struggle to seek help and support amid mounting pressures in their jobs. Their message? No one is immune to the public health issue of suicide. (Cohen, 9/21)
The New York Times:
Roundup Weedkiller Is Blamed For Cancers, But Farmers Say It’s Not Going Away
From his farm in northwestern Wisconsin, Andy Bensend watched as first one jury, then another and another, delivered staggering multimillion-dollar verdicts to people who argued that their use of a weedkiller sold at nearly every hardware and home-improvement store had caused their cancer. Mr. Bensend has been using that product, Roundup, on his 5,000 acres for 40 years, but he said that those blockbuster awards would not alter his farm practices one whit. Neither would the 20,000 lawsuits still pending. (Cohen, 9/20)