Mercury News: CA Prescription Drug Measure Has Big, Early Lead
The California Drug Price Relief Act would require the state to pay no more for prescription drugs than the Department of Veterans Affairs pays for the same medication. The federal agency negotiates drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, paying on average one-quarter less for drugs than other government agencies. The poll shows support for Proposition 61 is broad-based. Subgroups of likely voters most in favor include Democrats, liberals, voters in the nine-county Bay Area and Los Angeles County, college graduates, those under age 30 and Latinos. (Seipel, 9/24)

East Bay Times: No Legalized Pot: Walnut Creek Council Formally Opposes Recreational Use Initiative
According to the website NoOn64.net, Walnut Creek is the first East Bay city to take such a stand on Prop. 64 itself, and one of a dozen cities statewide (including Scotts Valley, Citrus Heights and Oceanside, as well as Solano County), along with Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-Dublin, and a host of law enforcement officials. (Richards, 9/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: Brown Signs Raft Of New Health Laws 
California consumers will have the strongest protections in the nation against getting blindsided by unexpected out-of-network medical bills as part of legislation signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. AB72 was one of 10 consumer-protection measures — eight related to health care — signed Friday by the governor. They include a law that will require health insurers to notify their policyholders when regulators think their price hikes are too high, and one that will allow people to be informed of their rights to timely access to health care and to an interpreter. The surprise medical bill legislation is designed to prevent patients, many of whom checked in advance to make sure their doctor and hospital were in their insurer’s list of contracted providers, from getting hit with out-of-network charges after undergoing a procedure or agreeing to services. (Colliver, 9/23)

KPBS Public Media: Scripps Health Inaugurates Emergency And Trauma Center 
Scripps Health cut the ribbon Friday on a $33 million emergency department and trauma center at the Scripps Memorial Hospital campus. The 33,000-square-foot Barbey Family Emergency and Trauma Center is scheduled to go into operation on Monday, according to Scripps Health. The facility, which includes 51 beds and four ambulance bays, is located on the first floor of the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute. (9/23)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Scripps Memorial To Open Extra Large ER
The new emergency department at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla is six times larger than its predecessor by square footage, has twice as many beds and features up to four times as much capacity for trauma patients. Consuming the entire first floor of the recently opened Prebys Cardiovascular Institute right next door to Scripps Memorial’s main tower, the 33,000-square-foot, $33 million facility is part of a growing trend toward larger emergency spaces. (Sisson, 9/23)

In other hospital news —

KPCC: Transgender Man Sues Dignity Health For Not Covering Transition Care 
A transgender man who works for San Francisco-based Dignity Health is suing the Catholic-associated hospital chain for sex discrimination over its refusal to cover gender transformation treatments.Joe Robinson is a registered nurse at Dignity's Chandler Regional Medical Center in Arizona, and gets his health insurance through the company. He says he has paid thousands of dollars out of pocket to obtain medical care for gender dysphoria, because Dignity's insurance plan excludes coverage for transition-related treatments and procedures. (Plevin, 9/26)

Mercury News: More Children Infected At California Dental Clinic Losing Permanent Teeth
As the outbreak of infections among children treated at an Anaheim pediatric dental clinic climbed to 20 cases Friday, a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Orange County said the affected children have not only undergone extensive surgeries and received powerful antibiotics, but many have also lost permanent teeth. Five doctors and a team of hospital staff have been caring for the 20 children, who remain hospitalized at CHOC for several days now, said Antonio Arrieta, the hospital’s Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Doctors and staff have been taking X-rays of the children’s jaws and chest area to detect infected areas, and all children have required surgery to rid their bones of the infection, he said. (Bharath, 9/24)

In other news —

LA Daily News: Dental Victory Tempered For Grieving Family: ‘How Many More Kids Have To Die?’
The family initially wanted a law that would require two providers during oral surgery — one to operate, and another who specializes in anesthesia. Dental lobbyists resisted, saying that could prevent some patients from getting care. The family scaled back its ambitions, and negotiated many versions of the bill before it was sent to the governor last week with the support of the dental lobby. (Rosenhaul, 9/25)

Sacramento Bee: Exercise Equipment Can Be Dangerous To Your Health 
About 460,000 injuries involving exercise equipment – primarily treadmills – are treated in hospital emergency rooms annually, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.Despite such dangers, consumers are largely on their own in avoiding injury while exercising. Local and state authorities do not inspect how gym or fitness centers place their equipment, whether it’s dumbbells, elliptical machines or treadmills. ... But a lawsuit by a south Sacramento grandmother against one of the country’s biggest fitness chains could be “a game changer,” at least in how gym equipment is situated. (Buck, 9/26)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Expanding Choices To Help Shrink Waistlines
Most people, in San Diego County or elsewhere, can’t afford to take off for the better part of a year to lose weight. But as a major center for health care, the county offers a full range of weight-loss options. In San Diego County, hospital systems such as Sharp Healthcare, Palomar Pomerado Health System, Scripps Health and UC San Diego Health offer dietary and exercise programs, along with various forms of bariatric surgery. (Fikes, 9/24)

Los Angeles Times: Got Kidney Stones? Try Riding A Roller Coaster To Dislodge Them
Just ask any one of the 300,000 Americans who, in any given year, develop kidney stones: What if the excruciating pain of passing one of those little devils could be prevented by strapping yourself into a make-believe runaway mine train, throwing your hands in the air and enduring G-forces as high as 2.5 for about three minutes? Would you do it? (Healy, 9/26)

Mercury News: UCSF: Human Cell Transplants Treat Mice With Spinal Cord Injury
Researchers have successfully transplanted healthy human cells into mice with spinal cord injuries, bringing the world one step closer to easing the chronic pain and incontinence suffered by people with paralysis. The research team did not focus on restoring the rodents’ ability to walk; rather, it helped remedy these two other debilitating side effects of spinal cord injury. If successful in humans, the findings could someday ease the lives of those with these distressing conditions, said Dr. Arnold Kriegstein, co-senior author of the study and director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UC San Francisco. (Krieger, 9/23)

Los Angeles Times: Health Officials Confirm Riverside County Child Has Leprosy
Health officials in Riverside County confirmed Friday that an elementary schoolchild has Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy. The child appears to have contracted the rare disease from “someone that had been diagnosed with Hansen’s disease who had prolonged, close contact with the child,” said Barbara Cole, director for disease control for the Riverside County Department of Public Health. (Karlamangla, 9/23)

LA Daily News: Leprosy Worries Remain For Some Jurupa Valley Parents
Lab tests have confirmed that a Jurupa Valley child has leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, which has some parents jittery. The findings by the National Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Laboratory Research Program in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, supported a local doctor’s diagnosis that a student at Indian Hills Elementary School had leprosy. (Hurt, 9/24)

The Washington Post's Fact Checker: Trump’s Claim That Obama Is Trying To ‘Delay’ Obamacare Enrollment Until After The Election
This is one of Trump’s go-to lines about premium increases under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. He warns of premium increases of 40, 50, 60 percent — and alleges that the Obama administration is trying to delay open enrollment, scheduled for Nov. 1, until after the election because the drastic rate hikes will be “election-defying.” Are his claims accurate? (Lee, 9/26)

In other national health care news —

The Wall Street Journal: The Revolution In EMS Care
There’s a revolution taking place in emergency medical services, and for many, it could be life changing. From the increasingly sophisticated equipment they carry and the new lifesaving techniques they use, to the changing roles they play in some communities—providing preventive care and monitoring patients at home—ambulance crews today are hardly recognizable from their origins as “horizontal taxicabs.” (Landro, 9/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Record Mix-Ups A Common Problem, Study Finds
A patient in cardiac arrest was mistakenly not resuscitated because clinicians confused him with a patient who had a do-not-resuscitate order on file. Another patient was given an okay to undergo surgery based on a different patient’s records and was found dead in his hospital room the next day. Such patient-identification mix-ups are common and can have deadly consequences, according to a report from the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit research group that studies patient safety. (Beck, 9/25)

The New York Times: Why Do Obese Patients Get Worse Care? Many Doctors Don’t See Past The Fat
You must lose weight, a doctor told Sarah Bramblette, advising a 1,200-calorie-a-day diet. But Ms. Bramblette had a basic question: How much do I weigh? The doctor’s scale went up to 350 pounds, and she was heavier than that. If she did not know the number, how would she know if the diet was working? The doctor had no answer. (Kolata, 9/25)

The New York Times: As Their Numbers Grow, Home Care Aides Are Stuck At $10.11
The analysts at P.H.I., a nonprofit research and consulting group, sift through federal data each year to see how the nation’s swelling corps of home care workers is faring. That’s how we know that the aides who care for disabled people and older adults in their homes — helping them bathe and dress, preparing their meals, doing laundry and housekeeping — earned a national median of $10.21 an hour in 2005, adjusted for inflation. (Span, 9/23)