Latest California Healthline Stories
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 30, 2025
LA County Worker Strike Disrupts Health Care, More: Nonurgent health clinics were closed Tuesday — and expected to remain closed today — as a sea of SEIU Local 721 workers descended on downtown L.A. over a contract dispute. Union members decried the industry's reliance on high-paid contractors. “How would you feel if someone comes into your hospital for three weeks and makes four times your salary and leaves you,” one person said. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Governor Closing Loophole Used At Psychiatric Hospitals: Gov. Gavin Newsom is moving to impose nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in California’s psychiatric hospitals in response to a Chronicle investigative series that spotlighted rampant abuse and neglect in many of the locked facilities. The administration intends to deploy the state’s emergency regulations process. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Monday, April 28, 2025
Covered California Website Sent Sensitive Personal Data To LinkedIn: The website that lets Californians shop for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, coveredca.com, has been sending sensitive data to LinkedIn. The information included whether someone was blind, pregnant, transgender, used a high number of prescription medications, or was a possible victim of domestic abuse. Read more from CalMatters.
Daily Edition for Friday, April 25, 2025
Behavioral Health Court Marks A Milestone: This spring’s class of the Behavioral Health Court boasts 26 graduates, its largest ever. The 16-year-old San Diego Superior Court program is designed to help felony criminal defendants who have a diagnosis of a serious mental illness by giving them the tools they need to navigate life. Read more from The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Daily Edition for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Blue Shield Of California May Have Exposed Patients' Health Data: The Oakland-based health insurance giant said a misconfiguration in Google Analytics led to the private health data of 4.7 million members potentially being shared with Google Ads. Google may have used that information to conduct targeted ad campaigns. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle and Fierce Healthcare.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
EPA Demands That Mexico Fix Sewage Crisis: EPA administrator Lee Zeldin vowed Tuesday in San Diego to pressure Mexico to stop the decades-long Tijuana River sewage crisis. “Mexico needs to fulfill its part in cleaning up the contamination that they caused,” he said. “They cannot view this as a U.S. problem just because their contamination reached U.S. soil.” Read more from The San Diego Union-Tribune and Times of San Diego.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Naloxone Now Available Directly Through CalRx For $24: California residents can buy the overdose reversal nasal spray naloxone directly from the state through the CalRx program, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday. Previously, only government entities and businesses could purchase naloxone at the below-market-rate cost of $24 per two-pack. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Monday, April 21, 2025
KP Unveils Electrical Microgrid: Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente says it has activated the largest hospital-based renewable energy microgrid in the U.S. at its Ontario Medical Center. The microgrid provides daily electrical power for the hospital and serves as its initial backup system during outages. It can supply emergency power for 10 consecutive hours. Read more from Becker’s Hospital Review.
Daily Edition for Friday, April 18, 2025
Californians Can Air Their Social Security Grievances: Attorney General Rob Bonta has launched oag.ca.gov/socialsecurity, an online portal for residents to report issues related to accessing services, such as disability benefits. Complaints registered on the site will help inform any future legal action. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Thursday, April 17, 2025
Fatal Drug Overdoses Rise in San Francisco: Accidental drug overdose deaths in San Francisco rose for the fourth straight month after showing a promising decline last year, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the Office of the Medical Examiner. Sixty-five people fatally overdosed in March, bringing the monthly average to 64 over the past three months. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.