Fresno Bee: Fresno County Selling Old Hospital For $6 Million 
Fresno County once again wants to find a buyer for the abandoned University Medical Center hospital in southeast Fresno. The old UMC campus located on East Kings Canyon Road and South Cedar Avenue is again for sale for an asking price of $6 million. (Montalvo, 4/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Here Are The Problems That Almost Killed S.F.’s Laguna Honda Hospital
On a foggy July morning in 2021, a doctor at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda nursing home checked on a woman who had been behaving strangely, scratching fiercely at her face and claiming her mattress was on fire. Now she wasn’t waking up. Emergency room tests revealed fentanyl, methamphetamine and amphetamine in the woman’s system. Laguna Honda staff searched her room and found syringes, white powder and a vial of liquid. (Asimov, 4/13)

VC Star: Ventura County Board Approves Pay Raises For Union Nurses
About 700 nurses and health care professionals employed by Ventura County will receive healthy pay raises and cost-of-living adjustments to their pensions in a contract unanimously approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors Tuesday. (Kisken, 4/12)

Becker's Hospital Review: California Hospital Names CEO As County Considers Single Healthcare District
El Centro (Calif.) Regional Medical Center has been looking for a new leader since its CEO and CFO resigned in January. That search has come to an end, hospital officials said at an April 12 news conference. Pablo Velez, PhD, RN, will helm the hospital, which is an affiliate of UC San Diego Health. He has more than four decades of experience in the healthcare industry; most recently, he served as senior vice president and CEO of Chula Vista (Calif.) Medical Center, a 449-bed hospital belonging to San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare. (Kayser, 4/12)

Los Angeles Daily News: Middle School Students Rub Elbows With Medical Pros At Northridge Hospital 
Northridge Hospital Medical Center (NHMC) and its Family Medicine Residency Program hosted a “Mini Medical School” for more than 40 students from Northridge Middle School, who got a chance to learn about the healthcare profession from doctors and medical students. (4/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Texas Ruling Could Create A De Facto National Abortion Ban
A federal judge’s decision to overturn the government’s 23-year-old approval of the medication used in more than half of all abortions in the United States faces an uncertain future in higher courts. But if the ruling is upheld, it could result in a nationwide ban on abortions — not just by pills, but by surgery as well. (Egelko, 4/12)

CapRadio: California Stockpiles Abortion Pills As Dueling Federal Court Rulings Leave Providers In Limbo
Nearly 10 months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, another legal challenge is putting reproductive care in limbo. This latest legal fight involves medication abortions — specifically the abortion pill mifepristone — which, when combined with another medication, misoprostol, accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S. (Gonzalez, 4/12)

The New York Times: Appeals Court Says Abortion Pill Can Remain Available But Imposes Temporary Restrictions 
A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the abortion pill mifepristone could remain available, but the judges blocked the drug from being sent to patients through the mail and rolled back other steps the government had taken to ease access in recent years. The three-judge panel said its ruling would hold until the full case is heard on appeal. (Belluck, 4/13)

NBC News: Biden Officials Propose Tightening Privacy Rules Around Abortion
The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed new health privacy protections to prevent protected health information from being used to investigate or sue people who facilitate abortions. The changes, put forth by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights, would bolster reproductive health care privacy. (Richards, 4/12)

ABC News: With Mifepristone In Limbo, Harris Reaffirms White House Commitment To Abortion Access
With Americans' access to the abortion pill mifepristone still in limbo, Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday convened a meeting of a White House task force on reproductive health care during which Cabinet officials expanded on a new way they intend to protect a person's privacy when it comes to abortion access. The meeting fell just hours after the Department of Health and Human Services announced it had drafted a new federal rule intended to make clear to doctors and other medical professionals that divulging details of a person getting an abortion violates the privacy law HIPAA. (Cathey, 4/12)

Los Angeles Times: Feinstein's Continued Senate Absence Sparks Call For Resignation
Weeks after announcing she had been diagnosed with shingles, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s extended absence from the Senate has left Democrats in a tight spot given the party’s slim majority in the chamber, spurring some high-profile calls for her resignation. Without Feinstein, who at 89 is the oldest sitting senator, the confirmation of President Biden’s judicial and administrative nominees has been complicated. (Petri, 4/12)

Politico: Feinstein's Condition Sparks Concern She Won’t Return To The Senate 
After Dianne Feinstein announced she’d contracted the shingles in early March, her staff said she planned to return to the Senate within a matter of weeks. But multiple Democrats close to her, as well as top-ranking congressional aides, are growing increasingly concerned that she may never come back to Washington at all. Three people who have visited with the senator in recent weeks or been briefed on her status say her diagnosis appears to have taken a heavy toll on her. (Cadelago, Haberkorn and Tully-McManus, 4/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Toni Atkins Bill Aims To Curb Jail Deaths, Improve Oversight 
Frustrated with the pace of reforms inside San Diego County jails, where record numbers of people have died in recent years, state Sen. Toni Atkins is introducing a bill that would grant county supervisors authority to assume control of local detention facilities. (McDonald and Davis, 4/13)

CapRadio: Sacramento Begins Dropping People From Medi-Cal, Local Organizations Brace For Impact
At the Maple Neighborhood Center in South Sacramento, Gloria Torres handles all things Medi-Cal. Torres is a community health worker at the center, which is run by the nonprofit La Familia Counseling Center. She helps dozens of individuals and families get enrolled in California’s free or low-cost health insurance program every month. Before the pandemic began, she was responsible for helping them stay enrolled in the program — reminding them to fill out their annual renewal packets when a copy was sent to the center. (Wolffe, 4/12)

Reuters: July Goal Set For Final US Medicare Drug Negotiation Guidance 
The U.S. government aims to publish the final guidance for its Medicare drug price negotiation program in early July and is currently talking to companies about its contents, a top health official said on Wednesday. The guidance will finalize the details of how President Joe Biden's signature drug pricing reform will be carried out. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) released a draft in March and gave a 30-day window for public comments. It is unclear how much will change in the final guidance. (Aboulenein, 4/12)

Stat: Senate Hashing Out Policy Details On Generics, PBMs, Insulin
Senators are slightly delaying their latest legislative push on health care, but as they do, a clearer picture is emerging about what’s in — and out — of the mix. The Senate health committee was expected to mark up legislation related to generic drugs, pharmacy benefit managers, and some leftovers from the Food and Drug Administration’s user fee agreements next week, but leaders are planning to reschedule the meeting, several sources told STAT. (Cohrs and Wilkerson, 4/12)

Stat: Sen. Sanders Plans To Haul In Insulin CEOs To Testify In Senate
Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to call the chief executives of the country’s largest insulin manufacturers to testify before his health committee, according to insulin maker Eli Lilly and two sources familiar with the plans. The move will keep the pressure on the companies over their prices despite the fact that they have said they plan to lower the list price of their older insulin products. (Cohrs and Wilkerson, 4/12)

KQED: Walmart, CVS Set To Pay San Francisco $19 Million In Opioid Settlements
San Francisco will receive up to $18.8 million to abate the opioid overdose epidemic thanks to settlements with Walmart and CVS Pharmacy for their alleged negligent oversight of opioid prescription practices. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved the two settlement agreements, both part of nationwide opioid-related lawsuits, which include up to $6.8 million from Walmart (PDF) over the next six years and up to $12 million over 10 years from CVS Pharmacy (PDF). (Johnson, 4/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Months Before Whole Foods Closed S.F Store, Man Died There Of Overdose
Seven months before Whole Foods abruptly closed at Trinity Place in San Francisco’s troubled Mid-Market neighborhood, a man overdosed from fentanyl and methamphetamine and died in the grocery store’s bathroom, The Chronicle has learned. (Li, 4/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Apparently Unhoused Woman Gives Birth On San Francisco Sidewalk
An apparently unhoused woman who gave birth in public on a sidewalk in San Francisco last week is in stable condition – along with her newborn – at a local hospital, officials said Wednesday night. San Francisco fire officials said the woman gave birth on April 6. Video posted on Instagram on April 8 showed a woman who had just given birth on a San Francisco sidewalk. (Umanzor, 4/12)

Voice Of San Diego: Photos: The Faces Of Homelessness 
Officials have made it clear that the conditions on public property won’t be allowed to continue. They’re now trying to ban encampments and offer shelter as an alternative. Over the last several months, I have spoken to nine people about how they got to where they are, what obstacles they face and what they feel is missing from the region’s response. (Drehsler, 4/11)

Los Angeles Times: 988 Hotline Mental Health Crisis System Remains Dependent On Police
While campaigning for mayor in mid-August, Karen Bass spoke about a brand-new three-digit mental health crisis hotline — 988 — and its promise to save lives of people suffering from mental illness by avoiding deadly confrontations with police. As a member of Congress, she had examined more than 100 lethal police encounters throughout the country and found that at least 40% involved a mental health crisis, she said. The figure dwarfs the often-cited national statistic that a quarter of all people who die at the hands of law enforcement have serious psychiatric problems. (Seidman, 4/13)

Voice of OC: District Attorney Says Santa Ana Police Failed To Oversee Inmate Who Committed Suicide 
A new report by Orange County’s top prosecutor found Santa Ana police officers failed to follow department protocols before an inmate hung himself with a bedsheet under their watch in 2020. The investigation focused on the final hours of Jason Ray Jones, a 47-year-old inmate known to suffer from substance abuse who lost both his parents during the four months he was in the city jail, according to a report by OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s office. (Biesiada and Pho, 4/12)  

The Wall Street Journal: Suicide Rates Rose In 2021 After Two Years In Decline 
Suicide rates rose in 2021 after two years in decline, federal data showed, driven by more deaths among men in nearly every age group. Suicides rates increased 4% in 2021 from a year earlier to 14.1 deaths per 100,000 people, the National Center for Health Statistics said on Thursday, the largest one-year increase in data collected from 2001 to 2021. For men, the rate was 22.8 deaths per 100,000, roughly four times that for women.  (Wernau, 4/13)

CalMatters: Stockton Guaranteed Income Study Finds Pandemic Dampened Positive Results
Stockton’s experiment in guaranteed income — which paid more than 100 residents $500 a month with no strings attached — likely improved the recipients’ financial stability and health, but those effects were much less pronounced during the pandemic, researchers found. The study of the two-year experiment that began in 2019 shows the promise and limitations of a guaranteed income, said Amy Castro, a study author and founding director of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania.  (Kuang, 4/12)

Santa Cruz Sentinel: Court Rules California Charter Cities Can Implement Sugary Drink Tax Without Penalty
In a ruling at the end of March, the California Third District Court of Appeals found that charter cities such as Santa Cruz cannot be financially penalized by the state for lawfully implementing a sugary drink tax, or soda tax, on residents. (Sleeper, 4/12)

Los Angeles Times: The Actor, The Hairstylist And The Eye Surgeon: Drugs And Death In A Malibu Beach House
The death of troubled eye surgeon Mark Sawusch in his Malibu oceanfront house exposes how a Fresno hairstylist and Hollywood actor took over his home, dropped acid with him and drained his fortune. (Finnegan, 4/12)