- California Healthline Original Stories 1
- CalPERS Health Chief Wields The Power Of Data To Tame Costs
- Hospital Roundup 1
- Closure Of Tri-City Psych Ward Delayed A Month, But Pleas For Longer Extension Fail To Sway Board
- Public Health and Education 1
- California Scientists Trying To Better Understand Gene Mutation Linked To Alzheimer's, Other Diseases
- Around California 1
- ER Program To Help Homeless In Mental Health Crises Helps Them Get More Specialized Care
- National Roundup 3
- GAO Tells Administration To Do More To Manage Health Law Sign-Ups, But Also Praises Some Of Its Efforts
- Justice Department Goes After Doctors, Foreign Nationals, Black Market In Latest Crackdown On Opioid Epidemic
- Education Department Considering Plan To Allow School Districts To Arm Teachers Using Federal Funds
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
CalPERS Health Chief Wields The Power Of Data To Tame Costs
Liana Bailey-Crimmins brings her information-technology expertise to CalPERS’ health division, aiming to curtail spending on otherwise costly procedures and drugs. (Alex Leeds Matthews, )
More News From Across The State
Critics Say VA Is Not Prepared For The Oncoming 'Gray Tsunami'
Over the next eight years, the number of veterans in the VA healthcare system who are 70 years or older is expected to increase by 30 percent.
KPBS:
As America's Veterans Grow Older, The VA Faces A Long-Term Care Crisis
Over the next eight years, the number of veterans in the VA healthcare system who are 70 years or older is expected to increase by 30 percent. The population the VA is required to cover for nursing home care - veterans who have a service-connected disability rating higher than 70 percent - is expected to double by 2024, hitting one million patients. The VA simply can't afford to care for all these veterans in traditional nursing home settings, said Teresa Boyd, the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Clinical Operations at the agency. (Denkmann, 8/23)
Closure Of Tri-City Psych Ward Delayed A Month, But Pleas For Longer Extension Fail To Sway Board
“We’re already seeing an increase in the calls for mental health-related services and now we’re seeing a reduction in options as far as where to take people to get help in these emergencies,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Schaller. “This is a ripple that will affect countywide.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Tri-City Board Delays Psych Ward Closure Until Oct. 2 But Rebuffs Pleas For Longer Stay
Tri-City Medical Center directors acted Tuesday night to delay the indefinite suspension of the hospital’s psychiatric ward by more than one month but rejected pleas from a wide range of constituents to keep the vital resource open through the end of the year. On a 5-2 vote after hours of testimony from the public, law enforcement, elected officials and medical staff, the board adopted a proposal from the county’s behavioral health services department to shutter the unit on Oct. 2 rather than Aug. 26 as originally planned. Tri-City officials said the unit will stop admitting new patients on Sept. 22, the earliest date that such an action could take place, according to the county. (Sisson, 8/22)
KPBS:
Tri-City Postphones Suspension Of North County Inpatient Psychiatric Unit
Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Schaller said the whole region will be affected by the closure of Tri-City’s inpatient beds. “We’re already seeing an increase in the calls for mental health-related services and now we’re seeing a reduction in options as far as where to take people to get help in these emergencies,” he said. “This is a ripple that will affect countywide.” (St John, 8/22)
In other news —
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Sonoma West Medical Center To Shutter Emergency Room, Become Long-Term Acute Care Hospital
Sonoma West Medical Center, which is expected to run out of money by the end of the month, would lose its emergency department under a plan to transform the struggling Sebastopol facility into an extended-stay hospital under new management. The move was given a green light last week when the Palm Drive Health Care District, which owns the hospital, approved a management services agreement with Modesto-based American Advanced Management Group. The new operator plans to transform the hospital into a long-term acute care hospital, which provides hospital-level care for patients with complex medical conditions who must remain in the hospital setting for 25 days or more. The nearest such facility is in Kentfield. (Espinoza, 8/22)
Sacramento Bee:
A Larger UC Davis Outpatient Clinic Will Open In Roseville
UC Davis Health plans to open a new outpatient clinic in Roseville by late 2019 or early 2020 to meet the needs of an increasing number of patients in the city. The clinic will replace the health provider’s current clinic, located off of Douglas Boulevard. (Holzer, 8/22)
Although the specific disorder the researchers are looking at is an orphan disease, researchers will be able to start to learn more about cell growth, cell degeneration, cancers, plaques, proteins and healthy aging by studying it.
Sacramento Bee:
How UCD Research Could Unlock Clues To Alzheimer’s
Medical researchers know the enemy that 12-year-old Jordan Lang and at least 66 other children are confronting. It’s a gene mutation that also has been linked to autism, Alzheimer’s disease and even cancer. What researchers lack is a treatment or cure and — until now — the funding for the work they must do to find one, said UC Davis researchers Kyle Fink and Jan Nolta. (Anderson, 8/22)
In other public health news —
Capital Public Radio:
California Could Make It Legal To Sell Home-Cooked Meals
Home cooks rallied at the state Capitol Wednesday in support of AB 626, a bill that would make California the first state to permit and regulate the small-scale sale of meals from home kitchens. Oakland farmer Brandi Mac said the bill will provide economic opportunities to women, immigrants, and people of color that live in urban communities. (Sebai, 8/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Alameda County Cracks Down On Pop-Up Restaurants; San Francisco Says They’re Legal
Pop-ups — fledgling, unpermitted businesses that operate within an established restaurant — emerged out of the 2008 recession, as well as the underground restaurant movement, which operated entirely outside the law. ...While San Francisco currently has a little-known procedure for permitting pop-ups, Alameda County doesn’t acknowledge their existence. Furthermore, the health department’s interpretation of state code could have a much bigger impact on the East Bay restaurant scene. (Kauffman, 8/22)
ER Program To Help Homeless In Mental Health Crises Helps Them Get More Specialized Care
St. Joseph Hospital's Emergency Clinical Decision Unit also frees up the emergency department to triage other patients.
Orange County Register:
ER Program For Homeless Patients In Mental Distress Offers Special Care, A Chance At Housing
St. Joseph opened the ECDU in May 2015, addressing a pressing need to better accommodate patients experiencing the twin crises of acute mental distress and homelessness. The hospital has set aside Room 53 in the emergency room for their immediate triage before moving them as soon as possible to a calmer atmosphere one floor up. The ECDU, initiated by the hospital’s head of emergency nursing and behavioral health services, Glenn Raup, has helped free up space in the emergency room while providing specialized treatment for a troublesome population, sometimes referred to as “frequent fliers” for their multiple and costly visits to emergency rooms. It has cut their average wait for care in half, from 24 to 12 hours. (Walker, 8/22)
The report from the Government Accountability Office will likely be used by Democrats in the upcoming midterms to support their message that the Trump administration is undermining the health law. But the GAO also credited the government's efforts to reduce call center wait times and stabilize the ACA website.
The Associated Press:
Report: Trump Administration Needs To Step Up On 'Obamacare'
A congressional watchdog said the Trump administration needs to step up its management of sign-up seasons for former President Barack Obama's health care law after mixed results last year in the throes of a failed GOP effort to repeal it. The report due out Thursday from the Government Accountability Office is likely to add to Democrats' election-year narrative that the administration actively undermined "Obamacare" without regard for the consequences to consumers. (8/23)
In other national health care news —
Stat:
Medicare Struggles To Set The Agenda As It Considers How To Pay For CAR-T
Medicare can’t seem to figure out how to pay for pricey CAR-T cancer therapies. The latest glaring example of the struggle? A daylong advisory meeting Wednesday in Baltimore, ostensibly convened to discuss how patient-reported data should fit into the way Medicare pays for the pricey therapies, devolved into a confusing debate about what the meeting was supposed to be about in the first place. (Swetlitz, 8/23)
Stat:
A Rare Spotlight On The Chemists Working To Develop New Drugs
For a few hours on Wednesday, the most exciting thing in drug development wasn’t the patients or potential payoffs. Instead, it was all about the chemists. Scientists from Merck, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline were providing a detailed look at their preclinical development programs at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in Boston, disclosing information about what their drug candidates look like and how the structures are built, chemically speaking. (Sheridan, 8/23)
The New York Times:
Immunotherapy Drugs Slow Skin Cancer That Has Spread To The Brain
A new study offers a glint of hope to people in a desperate situation: Patients with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, that has spread to the brain. A combination of two drugs that activate the immune system shrank brain tumors in many melanoma patients and prolonged life in a study of 94 people at 28 medical centers in the United States. The drugs were ipilimumab (brand name Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo), and they belong to a class called checkpoint inhibitors. (Grady, 8/22)
The New York Times:
Air Pollution Is Shortening Your Life. Here’s How Much.
Air pollution is shaving months — and in some cases more than a year — off your life expectancy, depending on where you live, according to a study published Wednesday. Worldwide, outdoor air pollution reduces the average life expectancy at birth by one year. The effect is much more pronounced in some countries: It cuts the average Egyptian’s life span by 1.9 years and the average Indian’s by 1.5 years. In Russia, it’s around nine months. (Sengupta, 8/22)
The New York Times:
How You Felt About Gym Class May Impact Your Exercise Habits Today
Think for a moment about your school gym classes. Did you just grin with fond reminiscence or reflexively shudder? A revealing new study suggests that these disparate responses to memories of physical education classes are both common and consequential. (Reynolds, 8/22)
Los Angeles Times:
Found: An Ancient Hominin Hybrid Who Had A Neanderthal For A Mother And A Denisovan For A Father
Anthropologists have just hit the genomic jackpot. Among the thousands of bone fragments excavated from an ancient cave in the Altai mountains in Siberia, scientists have identified an inch-long shard that belonged to a rare hominin hybrid: a female with a Denisovan dad and a Neanderthal mom. (Netburn, 8/22)
“Today’s announcements are a warning to every trafficker, every crooked doctor or pharmacist, and every drug company, every chairman and foreign national and company that puts greed before the lives and health of the American people,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions says.
The New York Times:
Snaring Doctors And Drug Dealers, Justice Dept. Intensifies Opioid Fight
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced another crackdown on Wednesday on opioids, targeting doctors and drug dealers alike in cases that spanned physicians’ offices in Ohio, drugmakers in China and online black markets. ... His announcement came a week after President Trump asked Mr. Sessions during a cabinet meeting at the White House to sue companies that supplied opioids and to investigate opioid trafficking from China and Mexico, calling the flood of drugs from those countries “almost a form of warfare.” The president, who campaigned on targeting the opioid crisis, has also set a goal to reduce opioid prescriptions by one-third in three years. (Benner, 8/22)
The Associated Press:
AG Jeff Sessions Addresses US Opioid Epidemic In Cleveland
Those actions included the country's first-ever civil injunction that has barred two Ohio doctors from prescribing drugs; the indictment of two Chinese nationals accused of shipping powerful synthetic opioids around the globe; and a recent operation to shut down the country's biggest "dark net" distributor of drugs. Sessions said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated there were 72,000 fatal drug overdoses in the country last year, adding that recent data show the number of deaths may be leveling off. (Gillispie, 8/22)
The Washington Post:
Justice Department Fights Opioid Abuse On Dark Web And In Doctors’ Offices
Federal prosecutors allege that Matthew and Holly Roberts of San Antonio were two of the biggest drug dealers on the dark web, completing nearly 3,000 verified transactions on various underground marketplaces between 2011 and 2018 — including the largest number of verified fentanyl transactions on the dark web. Prosecutors said they operated under the name “MH4Life.” They could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In addition to the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, which has caused the number of overdose deaths nationwide to skyrocket, authorities allege the couple possessed and distributed fentanyl analogues, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, Xanax and other drugs. They allegedly bought postage with cryptocurrency to conceal their intent and used glow bracelets and other items to hide that they were mailing drugs, authorities said. Customers used digital currency to buy the drugs and conceal the deals, prosecutors said. (Zezima, 8/22)
Education Department Considering Plan To Allow School Districts To Arm Teachers Using Federal Funds
The $1 billion student support program, part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, is intended for academic and enrichment opportunities in the country’s poorest schools, but it makes no mention of prohibiting weapon purchases. News on guns and public health comes out of Las Vegas, as well.
The New York Times:
Betsy DeVos Is Said To Weigh Letting School Districts Use Federal Funds To Buy Guns
The Education Department is considering whether to allow states to use federal funding to purchase guns for educators, according to multiple people with knowledge of the plan. Such a move appears to be unprecedented, reversing a longstanding position taken by the federal government that it should not pay to outfit schools with weapons. And it would also undermine efforts by Congress to restrict the use of federal funding on guns. As recently as March, Congress passed a school safety bill that allocated $50 million a year to local school districts, but expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms. (Green, 8/22)
The Associated Press:
Doctor Facing State Inquiry About Vegas Shooter Drug Records
A doctor accused of improperly looking up prescription records of the dead gunman in last October's mass shooting in Las Vegas will invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination at an upcoming disciplinary hearing, his lawyer said Wednesday. Dr. Ivan Goldsmith is the focus of a "witch hunt" for the source of a newspaper report about Stephen Paddock's prescriptions in the days after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, attorney E. Brent Bryson said. (8/22)