Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Trump Administration Rule Would Undo Health Care Protections For LGBTQ Patients
Supporters of the rule say it would strengthen health care professionals’ freedom of conscience, but opponents say it “empowers bad actors to be bad actors.” (Emmarie Huetteman, )
Good morning! In a class-action complaint filed this week, two plaintiffs allege that Sutter Health is secretly sharing their medical information with Facebook, Google, Twitter and other third parties. Read more about the lawsuit below, but first here are some of your other top California health stories for the day.
California Poised To Become First-In-The-Nation To Offer Subsidies To Middle-Class Families Purchase Plans Under Health Law: Lawmakers are expected to approve a state budget today that includes subsidies targeting Californians who earn between 400% and 600% of the federal poverty level. Under the Affordable Care Act, consumers who earn more than 400% of the federal poverty level don’t get any help purchasing health insurance on the individual market. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Department of Finance and Covered California both say the $429 million in subsidies are still being designed and calculated. But, depending on factors that include location and cost of health insurance coverage, the average subsidy will be more than $100 a month. To help pay for the subsidies, an individual mandate will be reinstated in the state. “People that under the Affordable Care Act got no help — middle-class Californians paying a huge share of their income towards premiums — are going to get big assistance to make health care truly affordable for them,” said Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee. Read more from Ben Adler of Capital Public Radio.
Chronic Absenteeism, Made Worse By Devastating Wildfires, Weighs Heavily On Rural School Districts: Statewide more than 700,000 students, or about 11 percent, were chronically absent during the 2017-18 school year. About 10 percent of the 1,000 districts statewide had rates near the level of 26% or higher. Most of those districts were in rural areas, the analysis found. Chronic absenteeism takes a toll on almost all aspects of student success and well-being, according to a large body of research. A student can fall significantly behind in their classwork after missing just a week. As more time is missed, the connections to school begin to fray. Students become more likely to use drugs and engage in other unhealthy behaviors, the research shows. And in the end, they are more likely to drop out. “We were already hurting for school-based interventions for mental health…How do we deal with absenteeism? How do we deal with a growing sense of students not feeling a part of their system and their community?” said Matt Reddam, a consulting trauma therapist with the Butte County Office of Education. “And the fires really just magnified that.” Read more from David Washburn of EdSource.
Since Being Ordered By Supreme Court To Fix Overcrowded Prisons, California’s Inmate-On-Inmate Homicides Have Risen 46% In County Jails: The increase in violent deaths in jails began soon after California officials approved sweeping reforms called “realignment” in response to the Supreme Court ruling. The result has meant the conditions in many jails now mirror those in the once-overcrowded prisons, with inmates killing each other at an increasing rate. Inmates have stabbed, bludgeoned or strangled their cellmates, moved bodies and wiped away blood before guards noticed, autopsy reports show. Staff at the jails have missed several of the crimes entirely, only finding the bodies hours later. The surge in killings in county jails is particularly significant because the population there is vastly different than in prisons. The majority of people in jails statewide are accused of crimes, innocent under the law, whereas prisons only hold those who have been convicted of felonies. Jails mix both populations, and the result has been deadly for some. Read more from Jason Pohl and Ryan Gabrielson of the Sacramento Bee.
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
Capital Public Radio:
California Looks To Clean Air Funds To Pay For Clean Drinking Water
Overall, more than a million Californians don't have access to clean drinking water. But advocates are hoping that could change with a major increase in state funding coming in the next budget. This weekend state lawmakers decided to address water contamination by taking $130 million yearly out of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund as part of budget talks. (Romero, 6/12)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Lawsuit Alleges Sutter Shares Patient Information
In a class-action complaint filed this week in Sacramento Superior Court, two plaintiffs allege that Sutter Health is secretly sharing their medical information with Facebook, Google, Twitter and other third parties, impinging on their privacy and opening them up to targeted internet advertising. ...Sutter spokeswoman Amy Thoma Tan said the company had not yet been served the complaint but that Sutter takes the safety and security of its patients’ information very seriously. (Anderson, 6/13)
The New York Times:
Former U.C.L.A. Gynecologist Charged With Sexual Battery
A gynecological oncologist who worked at a University of California, Los Angeles, student health center has been charged with two counts of sexual battery, according to his lawyer. The doctor, James Heaps, was employed at the clinic from about 1983 to 2010 and was hired by U.C.L.A. Health in 2014, the school said in a statement on Monday. The university said it was made aware of the accusations of sexual misconduct last year and began an investigation. Dr. Heaps has pleaded not guilty to both charges, his lawyer, Tracy Green, said. (Garcia, 6/12)
Stat:
GSK Partners With CRISPR Pioneer Doudna To Find New Drugs
The drug maker GlaxoSmithKline announced Thursday that it would team up with some of the nation’s most prominent CRISPR researchers to use the gene-editing technology in a search for new medicines, establishing a new lab in San Francisco and spending up to $67 million over five years. Jennifer Doudna, the University of California, Berkeley, researcher who co-invented the CRISPR enzyme technology, will help lead the effort, along with Jonathan Weissman, a UC San Francisco researcher who has been using CRISPR to understand the function of individual human genes and how they work together. Both are Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. (Herper, 6/13)
NPR:
More Wildfires Bring Focus On How All That Smoke May Harm Firefighters
When Timothy Ingalsbee thinks back on his days in the 1980s and '90s fighting wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, he remembers the adventure of jumping out of a helicopter into the wilderness, and the camaraderie of being on a fire crew. "We just slept in a heap," he says, "on the ground under the stars, or smoke-filled skies." But Ingalsbee, who went on to found the Eugene, Ore.-based Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, doesn't like to remember all that smoke. (Burns, 6/12)
KQED:
Microplastic: It's Not Just For Fish Anymore
You may be eating, drinking or breathing 74,000 to 121,000 particles of plastic every year, according to researchers. We all know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the spread of microplastic across the globe, including massive amounts deep in the oceans. Now scientists are pointing out just how much plastic is in us. (Fiore, 6/12)
The Associated Press:
California Court: Prison Pot Is OK - If Inmates Don't Inhale
A California appeals court says it's legal to have small amounts of marijuana in prison — so long as inmates don't inhale. The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that California voters legalized recreational possession of less than an ounce (28 grams) of cannabis in 2016, with no exception even for those behind bars. But the court says state law does prohibit smoking weed in prison. Prison officials can also still punish pot possession as a rules violation. (6/12)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Who Was Shot In Random Attack Has Died
Surrounded by family and fellow law enforcement officers, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Solano lay motionless inside the hospital where he once stood guard over prisoners needing medical care. The 50-year-old had been in grave condition since Monday night, when a Utah man shot him in the head at an Alhambra fast-food restaurant for no apparent reason, investigators said. (Queally and Lau, 6/12)
The Hill:
First Major 'Medicare For All' Hearing Sharpens Attacks On Both Sides
Supporters of “Medicare for All” notched a victory Wednesday when one of Congress’s most powerful committees debated the progressive proposal, but the venue also gave Republicans an opportunity to paint proponents as socialists. Democrats and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee were at odds with each other, and at times with the lively audience of Medicare for All advocates, over how to pay for a program that’s estimated to cost in the tens of trillions of dollars. (Hellmann, 6/12)
Modern Healthcare:
Arbitration For Surprise Medical Bills Splits House Panel
Lawmakers of the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee appeared split on Wednesday over whether they should give physicians and hospitals a chance to appeal to an arbiter in a balance billing dispute. The divisions over how to handle balance billing didn't fall along party lines and peeled both Democratic and GOP representatives from the committee leaders' bipartisan proposal to set a benchmark price according to the patient's in-network rate. Committee Chair Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who produced a draft policy with ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.), put his stake in the ground for transparency and price concerns. (Luthi, 6/12)
The Hill:
Pelosi To Change Drug-Pricing Plan After Progressive Complaints
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is making changes to her drug pricing plan after complaints from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). Pelosi told lawmakers, including the heads of the Progressive Caucus, during a private meeting Wednesday night that she had heard their complaints. (Sullivan, 6/12)
Stat:
House Progressives Invite Six Drug Makers Back To Capitol Hill
House progressives on Wednesday called for executives from six drug companies to appear on Capitol Hill next week to justify what the lawmakers termed unjustifiable price increases — the latest public display of displeasure from the Democratic Party’s left flank regarding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s approach to lowering pharmaceutical costs. (Facher, 6/12)
Reuters:
House Panel Approves Permanent Sept. 11 Victims' Compensation
A U.S. congressional committee on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation to extend the fund compensating first responders to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center for the next 70 years, a move that would avoid steep benefit reductions over a lack of money. The House Judiciary Committee acted one day after television personality and comedian Jon Stewart castigated lawmakers at a hearing for their slow response to helping New York City firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel who rushed to the scene of the attacks that left two of Manhattan's most well-known skyscrapers in rubble. (6/12)
The New York Times:
Planned Parenthood To Host Women’s Health Forum For 2020 Democrats
Planned Parenthood Action Fund is set to host a forum on reproductive rights for the Democratic primary field this month, as the issue of abortion emerges as a central topic in the 2020 presidential race. The forum, hosted by Planned Parenthood’s political arm, is the first event in recent presidential campaigns singularly focused on women’s health. The candidates will be individually questioned for 15 minutes about their positions and records on issues like abortion rights, access to health care and contraception. (Lerer, 6/12)
The New York Times:
‘If We Do This Right’ Maybe H.I.V. Will Be Forgotten
If the 50 years since Stonewall has ultimately been about social and legal progress for L.G.B.T.Q. people, it has also been about one of the most devastating and, at first, mysterious medical events of modern times: The AIDS epidemic. While history now tells us that H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, probably made its move to humans from chimpanzees in central Africa in the early 1900s, its arrival in the United States in the 1980s brought to the public consciousness a disease that has so far killed more than 35 million people worldwide. (Dubin, 6/12)
The New York Times:
N.I.H. Head Calls For End To All-Male Panels Of Scientists
The word “scientist” does not specify a gender. And yet, for eons — well, ever since conferences and symposiums emerged from the primordial academic soup — the majority of prominent scientific speakers and panelists have been men. This phenomenon has been documented in studies and spawned many mocking monikers: “manference,” “himposium,” “manel.” People have tried to understand why the Y chromosome so dominates the dais and explain that there really should be more X. (Belluck, 6/12)
USA Today:
Opioid Overdoses, Alcohol Deaths, Suicide Hit Millenials The Most
Young adults were more likely than any other age group to die from drugs, alcohol and suicide over the past decade, underscoring the despair Millennials face and the pressure on the health care system to respond to a crisis that shows little sign of abating. Drug-related deaths among people 18 to 34 soared 108% between 2007 and 2017, while alcohol deaths were up 69% and suicides increased 35%, according to an analysis out Thursday of the latest federal data by the non-profit Trust for America's Health and Well Being Trust. (O'Donnell, 6/13)
The New York Times:
Inside The Elementary School Where Drug Addiction Sets The Curriculum
Inside an elementary school classroom decorated with colorful floor mats, art supplies and building blocks, a little boy named Riley talked quietly with a teacher about how he had watched his mother take “knockout pills” and had seen his father shoot up “a thousand times.” Riley, who is 9 years old, described how he had often been left alone to care for his baby brother while his parents were somewhere else getting high. (Levin, 6/12)