Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Hospitals Block ‘Surprise Billing’ Measure
California lawmakers on Wednesday pulled legislation that would have protected some patients from surprise medical bills for emergency care, citing opposition from hospitals. They vowed to resurrect the bill next year. (Ana B. Ibarra, )
Good morning! Here are your top California health stories for the day.
Fierce Opposition From Hospitals Leaves California Surprise Medical Bill Legislation On Life Support: Democratic Assemblyman David Chiu said Wednesday that he’s pulling his surprise medical bill legislation for now due to staunch opposition from hospitals, but that he plans to continue negotiations on the bill and try again next year. “We are going after a practice that has generated billions of dollars for hospitals, so this is high-level,” said Chiu. “This certainly does not mean we’re done.” Chiu’s bill would have capped what emergency patients pay at their copays and deductibles, even if they got treatment at a hospital outside of their insurance network. It would have capped how much hospitals could then seek from insurance companies. The legislation, co-sponsored by State Sen. Scott Wiener, was a response to intense media coverage of S.F. General, the city’s sole trauma center, slapping privately insured patients with huge, unexpected bills. Because S.F. General doesn’t contract with any private insurance companies, insurers could pay whatever portion of a patient’s bill they liked and the patients would get stuck with the rest. Read more from Heather Knight of the San Francisco Chronicle; Ana B. Ibarra from California Healthline; and The Associated Press.
PG&E Knew For Years That Its Outdated Equipment Could Spark Fires, WSJ Investigation Shows: The Wall Street Journal obtained documents that show PG&E knew about the dangers associated with their outdated towers for years. In a 2017 internal presentation, the large San Francisco-based utility estimated that its transmission towers were an average of 68 years old. Their mean life expectancy was 65 years. The oldest steel towers were 108 years old. The danger posed by PG&E’s neglect of its transmission lines increased around 2013, when a historic drought dried up much of California, creating extraordinary fire conditions. In its 2017 internal presentation, the company said it needed a plan to replace towers and better manage lines to prevent “structure failure resulting [in] conductor on ground causing fire.” Following the release of the WSJ investigation, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered PG&E Corp. to respond, “on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis.” Read more from Katherine Blunt and Russell Gold of The Wall Street Journal.
California Has Worked Hard To Improve Maternal Care, But For African-American Women Improvement Remains Elusive: For the past decade-and-a-half California has made strides to address the problem of poor maternal care, and the state has seen such good results that it is held up as a national model. But the improvements weren’t across the board. Statewide as well as nationally, black women are substantially more likely than white women to suffer life-threatening complications during pregnancy, give birth prematurely, die in childbirth and lose their babies. Mortality rates among black infants in California are triple those of white infants, according to state birth records. California Department of Public Health statistics show the rate of preterm births among black mothers to be nearly twice that of white mothers, and the rate of maternal mortality to be quadruple, in part because of complications from underestimated or undiagnosed cardiovascular conditions. Democratic state Sen. Holly Mitchell is carrying legislation that would, among other things, make California the first state to mandate implicit bias training for obstetricians. Read more from Adria Watson of CALmatters.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
Modern Healthcare:
Bill Targeting Kaiser Executive Compensation Disclosure Moves Forward
California's Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill that aims to boost not-for-profit health systems' public disclosure requirements for executives' deferred compensation. AB 1404, drafted by California state Assembly member Miguel Santiago, a Democrat, would close an alleged loophole that allows not-for-profit systems to hide deferred compensation when not-for-profit entities are used to provide a supplemental retirement plan to employees that work for a for-profit arm of the company. (Kacik, 7/10)
KQED:
Kaiser Permanente Therapists Hold One-Day Strike In San Francisco Over Staffing Shortages
Kaiser Permanente therapists held a one-day strike on Wednesday to protest what they said were conditions that make it difficult for children and adults in San Francisco to access mental health care services, including staffing shortages and weeks-long waits for appointments. Chanting “What’s this about? Patient care!” a few dozen people, including psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, protested outside Kaiser’s mental health clinic on Geary Boulevard— the hospital's only one in San Francisco. (Klivans, 7/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Breast Cancer Patient Accused Doctor Of Sex Abuse In 2014. But UCLA Let Him Continue Working
UCLA Medical Center learned in 2014 that a breast cancer patient had made abuse allegations against gynecologist Dr. James Mason Heaps, but officials did not move to fire him until four years later, after more accusations came to light, university records and interviews show. The patient said she told UCLA Health that she was “completely shocked and embarrassed” by what she claimed were inappropriate sexual touching and comments during a medical consultation. She also filed a complaint with the California Medical Board. (Winton and Watanabe, 7/11)
Capital Public Radio:
Emergency Alert: Will You Be Notified If A Wildfire Is Heading Toward Your Town?
During its first 150 minutes, Butte County Emergency Communications Center staff used a computer program called Code Red to attempt a total of 28,600 phone calls to reach 15,000 cell and landline numbers, according to records acquired and reviewed by CapRadio. But the calls, and the nearly 5,900 texts and emails that were also sent, too often never reached their destinations.Today, local governments throughout California are working to upgrade how they alert residents. (Moffitt, 7/11)
Los Angeles Times:
California Moves To Block Trump From Rolling Back Its Environmental Protections
Trump’s recently installed Interior secretary, David Bernhardt, was a former lobbyist for the San Joaquin Valley’s Westlands Water District, the nation’s largest irrigation district. Bernhardt has long advocated weakening Endangered Species Act protections so valley farmers could get more delta water and fish get less. That would be blocked under the legislation, SB 1, carried by the powerful Senate president pro tem, Toni Atkins (D-San Diego). The bill is lengthy and complex, but basically it decrees that the state will step in and adopt any federal environmental protection that Trump or Bernhardt try to eviscerate. (Skelton, 7/11)
Stat:
University Of Calif. Loses Access To New Journal Articles From Elsevier
Researchers in the University of California system on Wednesday lost subscription access to the major publisher Elsevier, the result of a closely watched fight between the two parties over how academic research should get read and paid for. The UC system, one of the largest in the country, has long paid Elsevier so that its affiliates could access hundreds of Elsevier journals. (Robbins, 7/10)
KPBS:
Despite A Growing Latino Middle Class, California Families Face Hurdles Getting There
Experts say that even as Latinos’ economic fortunes have risen in the U.S., with rising median incomes and the Latino poverty rate at an all-time low, according to census data, many families face a host of obstacles to upward mobility, especially as housing and living costs increase. Unsteady work hours and a lack of access to banking and credit are among the issues that can get in the way. (Berestein Rojas, 7/11)
Bloomberg:
J&J Gets A New Trial After Jury Awards $417 Million In Talc Case
Johnson & Johnson deserves a new trial after a jury ordered the world’s largest maker of healthcare products to pay $417 million to a woman who blamed the company’s iconic baby powder for causing her cancer, an appeals court concluded. Although there was sufficient evidence to uphold the jury’s finding that a J&J unit improperly failed to warn Eva Echeverria about the health risks of talc-based powder, conflicting evidence about the product’s cancer links warrants another trial, the Los Angeles court said Tuesday. (Feeley and Pettersson, 7/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Desperate To Get Rid Of Homeless People, Some Are Using Prickly Plants, Fences, Barriers
With dirt, they can weigh hundreds of pounds. The makeshift planter boxes are Peter Mozgo’s creations — roughly 140 of them lined up on the sidewalk to prevent homeless people from pitching tents outside his business. Mozgo acquires the boxes from a Bell Gardens company that imports ginger, paints them firetruck red, pays $120 per cubic yard for dirt and then uses a $900 trailer to haul it all back to his neighborhood on the south end of downtown Los Angeles. (Oreskes, 7/10)
Los Angeles Times:
To Block Homeless Shelter, San Francisco Residents Are Suing On Environmental Grounds
A group of San Francisco residents filed a lawsuit Wednesday to block construction of a 200-bed temporary homeless shelter, another instance of the state’s environmental laws being used to derail such projects. The coalition, Safe Embarcadero for All, had been threatening for months to bring the case as the planned homeless shelter, proposed for a parking lot on the Embarcadero, wound its way through the approval process. They raised at least $100,000 and organized robust protests at city meetings since Mayor London Breed first proposed it in March. (Oreskes, 7/10)
Capital Public Radio/KXJZ:
State Funds Restorative Justice Pilot Program In San Joaquin County
Now the state is spending $5 million to test a pilot program called Restorative Justice in the county, which advocates say will reduce mass incarceration. In the Restorative Justice model, the offender meets with the victim, makes amends and receives counseling to help find a job, housing and education.In turn, they avoid a criminal conviction — although not every offender will be eligible. (Ibarra, 7/10)
The New York Times:
Trump Proposes Ways To Improve Care For Kidney Disease And Increase Transplants
President Trump issued a sweeping set of proposals aimed at improving medical care for the tens of millions of Americans who have kidney disease, a long-overlooked condition that kills more people than breast cancer. “This is a first, second and third step. It’s more than just a first step,” Mr. Trump said in a speech Wednesday, which was attended by patients, advocates and industry executives. (Abelson and Thomas, 7/10)
The Washington Post:
Trump Signs Executive Order Revamping Kidney Care, Organ Transplantation
In an executive order signed by President Trump Wednesday morning, the administration also committed to move many people receiving kidney dialysis away from commercial centers to less expensive, more convenient in-home care. By 2025, the administration wants 80 percent of newly-diagnosed kidney failure patients to receive a transplant or get dialysis at home. Trump, speaking at a morning ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, said the order delivers “groundbreaking action to millions of Americans suffering from kidney disease. It’s a big deal.” (Bernstein, 7/10)
The Hill:
Trump Signs Executive Order Aimed At Improving Kidney Disease Treatment
A key part of the plan would shake up a multibillion-dollar industry, run by two dialysis companies, that favors expensive treatment in health centers instead of home-based services that can be easier for patients. Currently, only 12 percent of dialysis patients receive treatment at home. Patients who receive dialysis in centers often go multiple times a week. (Hellmann, 7/10)
USA Today:
Trump Signs Executive Order Aimed At Helping Kidney Disease Patients
Officials cited a study that suggests long term it may be possible to find 17,000 more kidneys and 11,000 other organs from deceased donors for transplant every year. “It’s truly an exciting day for advancing kidney health in our country,” Trump said. (Cummings, 7/10)
The New York Times:
Trump’s Assault On Obamacare Could Undermine His Own Health Initiatives
In court, the Trump administration is trying to get all of Obamacare erased. But at the White House, President Trump and his health officials are busily using the law to pursue key proposals. Last week, the president highlighted a policy in the works meant to narrow the gaps between what drugs cost in the United States and overseas. On Wednesday, he signed an executive order to transform care for patients with kidney disease. Both measures were made possible by a provision in the Affordable Care Act, and both would be effectively gutted if the administration’s position prevailed in court. (Sanger-Katz, 7/11)
The Associated Press:
Asylum-Seeker Talks About Daughter's Death After US Custody
A Guatemalan mother seeking asylum told a House panel Wednesday that she came to the United States seeking safety, but instead watched her infant daughter die slowly and painfully after the baby received shoddy medical care while they were in immigration custody. As Yazmin Juárez spoke, an image of her brown-eyed baby girl, Mariee, was put up on television screens in the hearing room. (7/10)
Reuters:
'World Should Know,' Migrant Tells U.S. Congress Of Toddler's Death
Yazmin Juarez told a House of Representatives subcommittee that it was “like they tore out a piece of my heart” when just weeks after they were released her daughter Mariee died at 19 months old. She said she left a hospital with nothing but a piece of paper with two handprints in pink paint that staff had made for her, and described through a translator how she missed her daughter’s hugs. (Pietsch, 7/10)
The Associated Press:
New Holding Center For Migrant Children Opens In Texas
A former oilfield worker camp off a dirt road in rural Texas has become the U.S. government's newest holding center for detaining migrant children after they leave Border Patrol stations, where complaints of overcrowding and filthy conditions have sparked a worldwide outcry. (7/10)
The New York Times:
A Drastic Drop In Migrant Arrivals On The Border: What’s Happening?
At its peak, the nonprofit shelter run by Jewish Family Service of San Diego held more than 300 migrants dropped off by United States immigration authorities after they crossed the border from Mexico. Some days this spring were so busy that new arrivals had to be sent to overflow sites. Now, the shelter is almost eerily empty. The number of people arriving there has plunged in recent weeks amid a precipitous decline in arrivals along the southern border, where the Department of Homeland Security said that apprehensions dropped 28 percent in June. (Jordan and Semple, 7/10)