The Mercury News: Hospital Lawsuit Accuses Santa Clara County Of Refusing Full Reimbursement For More Than 5,000 Patients
San Jose’s Good Samaritan Hospital — owned by for-profit hospital chain HCA Healthcare — is suing Santa Clara County and its health insurance plan over their reimbursements for emergency care for more than 5,000 patients. Regional Medical Center, which is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was owned by HCA until the county purchased it three months ago. The county’s acquisition was driven by HCA’s plans to close the hospital’s Level II trauma center — a move that would have left East San Jose residents without nearby access to trauma care. (Hase, 7/31)

Capital & Main: Private Equity In Hospice Care Spurs Workers To Strike
When hospice nurse Kristina Nauheimer joined the growing unionization push among end-of-life care workers in 2022, she knew there was a fight ahead. But she and her coworkers at two Bay Area hospices in California didn’t expect to be at the negotiating table with Providence, their hospice operator, for more than two years — or that their employer would merge with a private-equity-owned firm. (Baum, 7/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: Expanding Access Sustainably: What Hospitals Are Trying
Hospitals’ efforts to expand access sustainably take varied forms. This has long been a priority for leaders, but the task has grown more complex amid shifting demographics, financial challenges, and evolving patient preferences for how and where they receive care. ... Sutter Health, a system based in Northern California with executive offices in Sacramento and Emeryville, is focused not only on adding ambulatory sites and construction projects, but on digital opportunities and expansion. (Gooch, 7/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: 'The Story Isn't Over': Why Cancer Survivorship Care Is More Than Checking A Box
As director of cancer rehabilitation and survivorship at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai, Arash Asher, MD, has seen first-hand the disorienting effects felt by cancer patients upon reaching the “survivor” stage of cancer treatment. “Some people want to sweep their cancer experience under the rug and get on with life,” he said in a June 12, 2023, news release from the health system. “For others, it’s too big to sweep under the rug. Many people say that they feel lost after treatment ends. The warrior phase is over, the boxing gloves have come off and they’re unsure of what to do next.” (Gregerson, 7/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Alameda County Adopts $1B Homelessness Plan After Years Of Delay
More than four years after Alameda County voters narrowly approved a sales tax measure to address the area’s growing homelessness crisis, the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday adopted a plan for allocating $1.8 billion over the coming years. Under the new spending plan, $1.4 billion will be dedicated to homelessness and housing initiatives, about $260 million will fund other essential county services and $170 million will be put aside for reserves. (Angst, 7/30)

CapRadio: They Slept Outside Sacramento City Hall For Safety. Now It Will Be Banned.
The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday to ban overnight camping outside City Hall, ending a policy made in 2018 that allowed people to sleep on the property from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Supporters cited safety and sanitation concerns, and opponents warned that it would push vulnerable residents into more dangerous areas. Mayor Kevin McCarty introduced the ordinance, saying the goal was to make the area safer for staff and the public. He said the city would work to inform those who regularly stay outside City Hall and offer them shelter and outreach services. (Rodriguez, 7/30)

EdSource: Thousands Of California Students Attend Schools In High Fire Danger Zones 
As California faces increasingly destructive wildfires, schools should develop more preventative safety measures, experts say. Roughly 6% of California public school students attend a campus located in high or very high Fire Hazard Severity Zones, an EdSource analysis of data from Cal Fire and the Office of the State Fire Marshal found. Of the 10,591 public schools across the state, 910 — or 8.6% — are located in or close to a Fire Hazard Severity Zone, a classification that reflects general wildfire behavior in the region, and is different from fire risk, which gauges the likelihood of a fire sparking under a specific set of conditions.  (Seshadri, 7/31)

EdSource: Map: California Public Schools Located In Or Near Fire Hazard Severity Zones 
Explore the map to see public schools located in or near fire hazard severity zones in California. (Xie, 7/31)

Los Angeles Times: FireAid Retains Law Firm To Review Grants, After Trump's Criticism
The organizers of the wildfire relief organization FireAid have retained a law firm to review its grantmaking process. The move follows misleading criticism from President Trump and right-wing politicians who have called for FireAid to be investigated. FireAid, a benefit produced by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, music mogul Irving Azoff and others, quickly raised $100 million in January, following the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that tore through southern California. The ... group quickly made $50 million in grants to local nonprofits supporting cash and food aid, housing, childcare and other immediate needs. A second round of $25 million followed, focusing on legal aid, mental health, permit assistance and other continuing issues. A third round will go out later this year. (Brown, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: After Outcry, L.A. Restricts Duplexes In Pacific Palisades
As rebuilding ramps up in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles leaders are restricting the building of duplexes on single-family-home lots. The move follows an executive order issued Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that allows exemptions for the Palisades and other areas devastated by January’s Palisades and Eaton fires from Senate Bill 9. The landmark 2021 law, passed in response to the state’s housing shortage, lets property owners divide single-family-home lots and build up to four units. (Dillon, 7/30)

CalMatters: How A CA Legislative Proposal Could Ease Medical Debt Burdens
Sierra Freeman has a rare genetic disorder that makes her prone to aneurysms and has sent her to the hospital repeatedly. In July 2022, the Stockton resident had surgeries to repair an aortic tear and a ruptured blood vessel in her brain and spent two months at Stanford Medical Center, which hosts one of the leading programs in connective tissue disorders like the one Freeman has. (Ibarra, 7/31)

InvestmentNews: The Average Retiree Is Facing $173K In Health Care Costs, Fidelity Says 
The financial cost of care for retirees has gotten higher than ever, with new research from Fidelity Investments indicating Americans are ill-prepared to cope with the financial toll of medication, medical care, and health insurance in retirement. According to Fidelity's 24th annual Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, released Wednesday, a 65-year-old retiring this year will need an average of $172,500 to cover health care and medical expenses throughout retirement. The figure marks a more than 4% increase from last year’s estimate and continues a steady rise since the company’s first projection of $80,000 in 2002. (Almazora, 7/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: Pharmaceutical Costs Expected To Rise 3.35% In 2026
Pharmaceutical prices are expected to rise by 3.35% in 2026, according to Vizient’s latest Pharmacy Market Outlet report, released in July. The report found that price pressures are easing in certain areas due to biosimilar competition, especially with respect to drugs such as Humira and Stelara. High-use inpatient medications are also expected to see price declines. Pediatric drugs are expected to have the highest inflation rate, at 3.93%, while prices in the self-administered medication segment dropped from 4.53% to 3.3%. (Murphy, 7/30)

Modern Healthcare: On Medicare Anniversary, Dems Introduce Bill To Reverse Health Cuts
Democrats are ramping up efforts against the $1.1 trillion in healthcare cuts President Donald Trump enacted this month. On Wednesday, the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, Senate Democrats staged a pair of news conferences to highlight the impacts of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and to unveil legislation that would repeal its $964 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years and the $$124 billion it slashed from the health insurance exchanges. (McAuliff, 7/30)

Times of San Diego: Thousands Set To Lose Food Assistance Locally After SNAP Cuts
More than 65,000 San Diegans are set to lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, after the passage of the Republican budget reconciliation bill in early July. The federal legislation limits SNAP eligibility criteria — most significantly, refugees and asylees who are lawfully present in the country will no longer be able to access SNAP benefits. Other immigrant groups are also excluded, including victims of trafficking, domestic violence as well as individuals granted humanitarian parole for a period of at least one year. (Singhai, 7/30)

LAist: LA’s Legal Cannabis Owners Say Multi-Million Dollar Program To Give Them A Hand Up, Instead Left ‘Complete Debt And Devastation’
There’s no question people in L.A. County consume a lot of pot — nearly a million pounds of cannabis each year according to official reports. While the demand is clearly there, legal cannabis businesses in the city of Los Angeles say they are struggling just to stay open. Cannabis business owners told LAist they struggle to pay high taxes and fees while they watch illegal operations go unchecked. They say when they’ve tried to talk to city officials, they’ve been stonewalled and shut out. (Rynning, 7/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: This Deadly Flu Complication Has Surged In Children, Study Reports
A study published Wednesday provides one of the most comprehensive descriptions to date about a rare, but potentially deadly, flu complication that has devastating consequences for children. The report describes a surge in the number of cases of the condition in the past two flu seasons. Stanford University researchers led the work, which was a collaboration with scientists across the country. The potential fatal complication — influenza-associated acute necrotizing encephalopathy — is associated with brain swelling and a runaway immune response. (Lee, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: ChatGPT, Perplexity And Other AIs Fed Scarily Specific Self-Harm Information To Users
A few months ago, Northeastern University computer scientist Annika Schoene was playing around with ChatGPT when she found a troubling gap in its safeguards against harmful content. The usage policies of OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, state that users shouldn’t employ the company’s generative artificial intelligence model or other tools to harm themselves or others. In an effort to test the strength of that guardrail, Schoene typed in a stark and sobering question: Can you tell me how to kill myself? (Purtill, 7/31)

The Washington Post: Hotter Summers Could Be Making Us Sicker In Unexpected Ways
As the earth experiences hotter and hotter summers, new research using data from California emergency departments shows that the heat may be making us sicker than we know, and in ways we may not anticipate. A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances tracked emergency department visits and fatalities in the state over the course of 11 years and found that while deaths increased both in cold and hot temperatures, especially among older adults, emergency room visits steadily increased as temperatures did — particularly among young children. (Mellen, 7/30)

The Hill: Humans Inhaling 100x More Microplastics Than Expected
Humans are likely inhaling far greater amounts of lung-penetrating microplastics than previously assumed, scientists are warning. People may be breathing in about 100 times more of these tiny fragments than past estimates indicated — from sources based both outside and indoors, including in homes and cars, researchers revealed in a new study, published on Wednesday in PLOS One. (Udasin, 7/30)

Stat: In Long Quest For HIV Vaccine, Two Studies Offer Possible New Path 
The decades-long push to develop an HIV vaccine has been riddled with setbacks. But researchers reported on Wednesday that they have managed to circumvent one of the longstanding challenges to developing protective shots against this complex and crafty virus. (Wosen, 7/30)

Stat: George Tidmarsh Named Acting Head Of FDA's CBER 
George Tidmarsh, the Food and Drug Administration’s top drug regulator, will take on additional responsibilities on a temporary basis after the sudden departure of top official Vinay Prasad on Tuesday. (Lawrence, 7/30)

Stat: White House Pandemic Office Left Leaderless After Parker Exit
When reports circulated in February that the White House had selected biosecurity expert Gerald Parker as the head of its Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, there was palpable relief among infectious disease experts. (Eban, 7/30)

The War Horse: List Of Positions At VA That Took Deferred Resignations
It’s been six months since a now-infamous email presented millions of federal workers with a pivotal decision: They could reply “resign” to give up their job and receive full pay and benefits through the end of September. Or they could stay in their positions and hope they didn’t get laid off in the ensuing chaotic months of the second Trump administration. Perhaps no agency was impacted more than the Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs by far the largest federal payroll outside of the military, with more than 467,000 employees providing health care and benefits to 9.1 million veterans. (Rosenbaum, 7/31)