KQED: Covered California's Enrollment Deadline Now Extended To Feb. 9
The deadline to enroll in a health care plan through Covered California — the state’s health insurance marketplace that offers hundreds of low-cost coverage plans — has been extended until Friday, Feb. 9.Previously, the deadline to sign up for a plan was Wednesday, Jan. 31. State officials made the announcement through a press release on Wednesday, explaining that Covered California’s service center was recently taken offline in response to a cybersecurity incident that affected the third-party vendor that supports its phone lines. Many residents who tried to sign up for a health care plan by calling the service center experienced long wait times, the release said, which also noted that “at this time,” there was no indication that any members’ personal information was compromised. (Cabrera-Lomelí, 1/31)

Modern Healthcare: Cedars-Sinai CEO Thomas Priselac To Retire 
Longtime Cedars-Sinai President and CEO Thomas Priselac will retire after a successor is named and brought onboard, the nonprofit health system said Wednesday. Cedars-Sinai did not provide details on the expected timeline for the search. Priselac was named president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1994 and the subsequent Cedars-Sinai Health System. He joined Cedars-Sinai more than 40 years ago, starting as an assistant administrator. (Hudson, 1/31)

Becker's Hospital Review: California System Taps Specialty Pharmacy Partner
Sharp HealthCare, a seven-hospital system in San Diego, partnered with a specialty pharmacy solutions provider Jan. 30. Patients at the health system will soon receive personalized specialty care, including side effect and adherence management, regular follow-ups, access to financial assistance, and free medication delivery.  (Twenter, 1/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: 'We've Got A Lot Of Good Retention': Keck Medicine Of USC Leaders Discuss Leadership Programs, Strategies
As many hospitals and health systems continue battling staffing shortages, high turnover rates and burnout, Los Angeles-based Keck Medicine of USC is tackling these issues head-on. "It is working with our faculty. It's working with our front-line. It's being a facilitative leading group, listening to our people in a way and making sure that we're able to do things that are satisfying some of the challenges that come with healthcare," Rod Hanners, CEO of Keck Medicine of USC, told Becker's. (Ashley, 1/30)

Modern Healthcare: CVS To Shutter 25 MinuteClinic Sites In Los Angeles
CVS Health will close 25 MinuteClinic sites in the Los Angeles area by Feb. 25, the pharmacy chain giant said Wednesday. A CVS spokesperson did not share the exact locations of the closures or how many employees would be affected. Some will be moved to other roles at the company, and others will be eligible for severance benefits, the spokesperson said. (Hudson, 1/31)

Reuters: GSK Settles Another Zantac Lawsuit In California
GSK said on Thursday it had agreed to settle another lawsuit in California that alleged its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer, the latest in a series of settlements to end costly litigation. The case was set to go to trial on Feb. 20 and instead, will now be dismissed, the British drugmaker said in a statement. (2/1)

Reuters: US FDA Says 561 Deaths Related To Philips Machines Since 2021 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday there have been 561 deaths reported since 2021 related to the use of Philips' recalled ventilators and machines for treating obstructive sleep apnea. The health regulator added that in 2023, between July and September, it received more than 7,000 medical device reports, including 111 reports of deaths related to the use of these machines. (1/31)

The New York Times: Senators Denounce Tech Companies Over Child Sex Abuse Online 
Lawmakers on Wednesday denounced the chief executives of Meta, TikTok, X, Snap and Discord, accusing them of creating “a crisis in America” by willfully ignoring the harmful content against children on their platforms, as concerns over the effect of technology on youths have mushroomed. In a highly charged 3.5-hour hearing, members of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee raised their voices and repeatedly castigated the five tech leaders — who run online services that are very popular with teenagers and younger children — for prioritizing profits over the well-being of youths. Some said the companies had “blood on their hands” and that users “would die waiting” for them to make changes to protect children. At one point, lawmakers compared the tech companies to cigarette makers. (Kang and McCabe, 1/31)

The Hill: 4 Takeaways From A Heated Hearing With Tech CEOs 
Zuckerberg faced the brunt of criticism from senators on both sides of the aisle over how the company that owns Facebook and Instagram poses risks to children online.  ... Zuckerberg turned his back to the Senate panel to face the audience filled with parents holding photos of children they said were victims of harms of social media. ”I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through. The things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer,” he said. (Klar and Shapero, 1/31)

The New York Times: Will Lawmakers Really Act To Protect Children Online? Some Say Yes.
The question is whether this time will be different. And already, there are indicators that the topic of online child safety may gain more traction legislatively. At least six legislative proposals waiting in the wings in Congress target the spread of child sexual abuse material online and would require platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to do more to protect minors. The efforts are backed by emotional accounts of children who were victimized online and died by suicide. (McCabe and Kang, 2/1)

AP: Mark Zuckerberg's Long Apology Tour: A Brief History
Mark Zuckerberg has accumulated a long history of public apologies, often issued in the wake of crisis or when Facebook users rose up against unannounced — and frequently unappreciated — changes in its service. It’s a history that stands in sharp contrast to most of his peers in technology, who generally prefer not to speak publicly outside of carefully stage-managed product presentations. But it’s also true that Facebook has simply had a lot to apologize for. (Hamilton, 2/1)

CapRadio: Sacramento County Is Seeing Success Adding Mental Health Clinicians To Schools, But Progress Is Slow
Souchoy Saechou’s fourth grade class at Ethel I. Baker Elementary School in south Sacramento begins their day with a community circle. On this day, they’re completing Martin Luther King Jr.’s most memorable line. “I have a dream that everyone around the world will understand that girls can like soccer and boys can wear dresses,” one student says. (Prabha, 2/1)

Los Angeles Times: California Could Require Workplaces To Stock Naloxone
A new bill would require California workplaces to stock their first-aid kids with a nasal spray that can prevent opioid overdoses. ... AB 1976, introduced Wednesday by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), would build on existing requirements for California employers to have “adequate first-aid materials” for workers. Including naloxone in the kits would ensure its availability in stores, repair shops and other work sites, giving bystanders more places to turn for the lifesaving medication when they see that someone is overdosing, Haney said. (Alpert Reyes, 1/31)

AP: EBay Will Pay $59 Million Settlement Over Pill Presses Sold Online As US Undergoes Overdose Epidemic
The e-commerce giant eBay will pay $59 million in a settlement with the Justice Department over thousands of pill press machines sold on the platform, the Justice Department said Wednesday. The machines can be used to manufacture counterfeit pills that look just like prescription pills but instead can be laced with substances like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug that is largely fueling the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history. (Whitehurst, 1/31)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County Looks To Expand Street Medicine Programs For Homeless People 
San Diego will work in the coming months to better tie together disparate street medicine programs already serving unhoused residents, using the region’s existing base of community clinics to anchor medical outreach efforts aimed at preventing the kinds of severe health care situations that frequently cause visits to hospital emergency departments. (Sisson, 1/31)

Voice of San Diego: 'They're Medically Cleared, Get Them Out': Why Homeless Hospital Patients End Up On The Street 
Early one December morning, 62-year-old Edward lay in the grass next to a utility box steps away from Scripps Mercy Hospital’s emergency room. He shivered as he tried to sleep.  A walker lay flat on the grass beside him. Atop the utility box was a purple plastic hospital bag, a bus pass and his hospital discharge paperwork from the night before. (Halverstadt and Peattie, 1/31)

San Diego Union-Tribune: The Health Investigation Is Over At A Homeless Campsite. It Still Isn't Clear What Made People Sick. 
On the plus side, the outbreak never seemed to spread beyond a few dozen people. But almost two weeks after staff and residents at San Diego’s newest homeless camping area got diarrhea, public health investigators are wrapping up their work at O Lot without clear answers. (Nelson, 1/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Just Counted Homeless Population
Outreach workers fanned out in the darkness across San Francisco on Tuesday night to count as many homeless people as they could find. While they may not have felt it personally, the stakes were high. The results of the tally, which won’t be released until the summer, will have broad implications for San Francisco and the upcoming mayor’s race. (Angst and Fagan, 1/31)

KQED: Here’s How San Francisco Counts Unhoused Residents
Elester Hubbard sees San Francisco’s housing crisis up close on a daily basis. As a supervisor for San Francisco’s homelessness outreach team, he works every day to connect unhoused people with social services. But late in the night on Tuesday, while winding through residential and industrial areas of the Bayview neighborhood, Hubbard had a realization. (Johnson, 2/1)

San Diego Union-Tribune: After Surveying San Diego Homelessness, A United Nations Expert Left Comforted And Troubled 
Balakrishnan Rajagopal isn’t sold on San Diego’s safe sleeping sites where homeless people may camp in tents. The United Nations expert is also concerned that the large amount of land in the city reserved for single-family homes prevents the spread of more affordable housing. (Nelson, 1/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: CDC Offers Doctors Guidance On Testing For PFAS, ‘Forever Chemicals’
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new guidance for doctors on how to manage and test patients who may have been exposed to “forever chemicals” — potentially harmful substances found in drinking water, food wrappers, cookware and assorted everyday items that have been linked to high cholesterol, organ damage and other health problems. The new guidance, issued Jan. 18 by the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, marks an expansion of the agency’s previous thinking on how health care providers should address patients’ concerns about exposure to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. (Ho, 2/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: EPA Ok's Use Of Controversial Herbicide Paraquat Tied To Parkinson's
At the request of farmworkers and environmentalists, the Biden administration agreed in 2022 to reconsider its 15-year re-approval of paraquat, a widely used herbicide that studies have linked to Parkinson’s disease. But the Environmental Protection Agency now says its review supports paraquat’s continued use. Paraquat has “high benefits for numerous crops” including cotton, soybeans, peanuts, bulb vegetables and vineyards, the EPA said in a preliminary report issued Tuesday. While studies have shown some risk of Parkinson’s disease in animals subjected to high doses of the herbicide, the agency said, research does not indicate that amounts applied to crops will cause the illness in humans. (Egelko, 1/31)

Associated Press: Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Tied To A Range Of Cancers, CDC Study Says
Military personnel stationed at Camp Lejeune from 1975 to 1985 had at least a 20% higher risk for a number of cancers than those stationed elsewhere, federal health officials said Wednesday in a long-awaited study about the North Carolina base's contaminated drinking water. (Stobbe, 1/31)

Stat: Biogen Walks Away From Aduhelm, Years After Polarizing Approval
Biogen is giving up its ownership of Aduhelm, the Alzheimer’s disease treatment whose 2021 approval led to scrutiny and outrage, turning the page on a tempestuous chapter in the company’s long history. (Garde, 1/31)

Politico: Alzheimer’s Program Renewal On The Way, Lawmakers Say
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) sees a way to get Alzheimer’s legislation to the president’s desk. In an interview at the “How Fast Can We Solve Alzheimer’s” POLITICO live event Wednesday evening, Kaine said the Senate HELP Committee members are looking to combine their two bipartisan priorities from recent months — reforming pharmacy benefit manager operations and boosting the health workforce — into one health package. (Payne, 1/31)

Politico: Five Takeaways From POLITICO’s ‘How Fast Can We Solve Alzheimer’s’ Event 
Senior lawmakers and health policy experts said Wednesday that the United States is well-positioned to move forward on new diagnostics and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease — poised to build on new technologies. But they also pointed out several challenges — including patient access and high care costs. (Lim, 1/31)

Stat: Some Dementia Cases Could Be Undiagnosed Liver Disease 
The descent into dementia can feel like traversing a minefield, coming across new symptoms without the hope of a cure. But some dementia patients, even up to 10% of people diagnosed with the condition, might actually have undiagnosed liver disease and accompanying neurological problems, a new study in JAMA Open Network suggests. Most importantly, it’s possible their liver-related brain symptoms could be resolved with treatment. (Cueto, 1/31)

The New York Times: U.S. Makes Initial Offers In Medicare Drug Price Negotiations
The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it was sending initial offers to the makers of the first 10 prescription drugs that have been selected for price negotiations with Medicare under a landmark federal program intended to reduce drug spending. The medicines selected for negotiations are taken by millions of Americans to treat conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart disease. The administration identified them in August, beginning a lengthy process intended to result in an agreed-upon price that would take effect in 2026, assuming the negotiation program survives legal challenges. (Weiland, 2/1)

Stat: Biden Administration Opens Offers In Medicare Drug Price Negotiations
The offers will not be made public unless a manufacturer chooses to publicly disclose information about the talks, a senior administration official said. Companies have until March 2 to either accept the government’s offer or propose a counteroffer. The Biden administration will publish the final prices by Sept. 1 of this year after the negotiation process ends. (Cohrs, 2/1)

Los Angeles Times: Why The Department Of Justice Wouldn't Let Go Of Charles Lynch’s 16-Year Old Marijuana Case
For nearly 17 years, the federal government has been after Charles Lynch for running a medical marijuana dispensary. Prosecutors refused to drop their criminal case against him even as marijuana became fully legal in California and 23 other states. They refused to let it go when Congress forbade the Department of Justice from using its funds to criminally prosecute medical marijuana activities that were consistent with state law. (Mejia, 1/31)