The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sebastopol’s Sonoma Specialty Hospital Misses Deadline For Repayment Of $1.2 Million County Loan 
Sonoma County is stepping up its demand on Sonoma Specialty Hospital in Sebastopol to repay a $1.2 million promissory note for failing to operate an urgent care center. (Espinoza, 6/12)

KVPR: Valley Children's Healthcare CEO Speaks Out After Salary Criticism
The CEO of Valley Children’s Healthcare has issued public comments for the first time since outrage sparked over his multi-million dollar salary. In a video statement posted Tuesday, Todd Suntrapak said he has no part in deciding his compensation other than “what the board committee says it’s going to be.” (Quintanilla, 6/12)

The Desert Sun: Les Zendle Won't Seek Re-Election To Desert Healthcare District Board
Desert Healthcare District and Foundation Director Les Zendle, who represents Zone 1, announced Wednesday that he will not seek a third term on the Board of Directors, which comes as the board has been in tense hospital lease negotiations with Tenet Health. (Sasic, 6/12)

KQED: Newsom Proposes Cuts To Medi-Cal Amid Budget Deficit
The single largest cut in Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal is payments to health care providers who treat low-income Californians on the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. Guy talks about that with CalMatters reporter Kristen Hwang, as well as how the back-room budget negotiations at the state capitol are closely linked to the ballot measure campaigns going before voters in November. (Marzorati, 6/12)

Reuters: U.S. Healthcare Spending Rises To $4.8 Trillion In 2023, Outpacing GDP
Healthcare spending in the U.S. is projected to have risen 7.5% in 2023 to $4.8 trillion, federal data showed on Wednesday, outpacing the projected annual gross domestic product growth rate of 6.1%. Spending on Medicaid and private health insurance drove the growth, with the insured share of the population surging to a historic high of 93%, data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) showed. (Aboulenein, 6/13)

CIDRAP: Black, Hispanic Adults At Double The Risk Of Losing Medicaid After COVID Emergency Ended, Study Finds 
Black and Hispanic adults were twice as likely than their White peers to be unable to renew their Medicaid enrollment after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) in spring 2023, a Northwestern University–led study estimates. For the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the researchers analyzed data from seven waves of the US Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey to estimate the racial distribution of adult Medicaid disenrollment from March to October 2023.  (Van Beusekom, 6/12)

Roll Call: Bipartisan Prior Authorization Legislation Introduced 
Two key lawmakers reintroduced a bill on Wednesday that would essentially codify parts of a Biden administration rule that aims to streamline the use of prior authorization in Medicare Advantage. The bill, introduced by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., would require Medicare Advantage plans to establish electronic prior authorization programs for health care providers beginning in 2027. (Hellmann, 6/12)

Los Angeles Times: Scams Tied To Ozempic And Other New Weight-Loss Drugs Are Surging. How To Protect Yourself
Ozempic, Wegovy and other new weight-loss drugs have proved so good at helping users shed pounds, they’ve quickly become a multibillion-dollar industry. The prescription-only medications have also been in consistently short supply, which is why they’ve grown increasingly popular — with scammers. (Healey, 6/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Biotech News: Startup Gets Funding For Drug That Tackles Overeating
Local biopharmaceutical startup, Aardvark Therapeutics landed $85 million in financing to support its lead drug that tackles overeating and obesity. (Rocha, 6/12)

Voice Of San Diego: Father Joe's To Replace 350-Bed Shelter With Detox Facility 
Father Joe’s Village’s Paul Mirabile Center has for years sheltered up to 350 homeless San Diegans each night. Now, the nonprofit is preparing to step away from the city shelter contract it has held for the East Village facility for nearly a decade and instead offer detox and sober living beds backed by private donors. The shift is expected to simultaneously supply 45 sorely needed detox beds for patients with Medi-Cal insurance who now can rarely access those services on demand and reduce the roster of city-funded shelter beds. Father Joe’s does, however, expect to provide at least 250 shelter beds in what it’s dubbing a new sober and recovery shelter for homeless San Diegans. (Halverstadt, 6/13)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Shelter Evictions Drive Homeless Moms To Despair
One week after a Sacramento homeless shelter evicted Brittany Anderson and her two young sons, she managed to take her older child to school. Every drop-off and pickup since the eviction had been an ordeal. But the smiley Britain, who was 4 when they were forced out of the shelter in February, loved his pre-K program at Suy:u Elementary School in Fruitridge Manor. With no place to stay and everything going wrong, Brittany, 36, was clawing to keep something steady for her little boy. (Lange, 6/13)

USA Today: Exclusive: Data Reveals Startling Fact About US Soldiers And Suicide
U.S. soldiers were almost nine times more likely to die by suicide than by enemy fire, according to a Pentagon study for the five-year period ending in 2019. The study, published in May by the Defense Health Agency, found that suicide was the leading cause of death among active-duty soldiers from 2014 to 2019. There were 883 suicide deaths during that time period. Accidents were the No. 2 cause with 814 deaths. There were 96 combat deaths. (Vanden Brook, 6/11)

CalMatters: Federal Court Upholds California’s Ban On Gun Sales On State Property
You can talk about guns at California state fairgrounds. You can advertise guns there, too. You can even, in the words of a gun rights group, host “a celebration of America’s gun culture.” What you cannot do, according to a ruling today by a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is buy or sell a firearm on property owned by the state. (Duara, 6/11)

The Hill: Federal Judge Blocks Rule Closing 'Gun-Show Loophole' In Four States
A federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to close the so-called gun show loophole on Wednesday, expanding a prior temporary ruling to impact Texas, Louisiana, Utah and Mississippi. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled last month that the requirement to run a background check before purchasing a firearm could not go into effect in Texas. His final ruling Wednesday expands that injunction to the three other states. (Robertson, 6/12)

CBS News: UC Berkeley Researchers To Have Human Subjects In Psilocybin Study
A UC Berkeley research center seeks to understand why psilocybin alters the visual experience in a study with human subjects. The study marks UC Berkeley's first experiments on humans with a Schedule I substance — those which the federal government considers to have no currently accepted medical use. The drug appears in select mushrooms, often dubbed "shrooms" or "magic mushrooms," according to the National Institutes of Health. (6/12)

NPR: Trouble For Ecstasy? What MDMA’s FDA Setback Could Mean For Psychedelics
The psychedelic drug MDMA is near the end of a decades-long effort to enter mainstream medicine but instead of celebrating, supporters now find themselves wondering if the treatment will actually make it to market anytime soon. Last week, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration pored over shortcomings and missteps in the research and overwhelmingly rejected the evidence supporting MDMA as an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. (Stone, 6/13)

NBC News: CDC Warns Of Illnesses Linked To Diamond Shruumz Mushroom Chocolates
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning the public to avoid Diamond Shruumz chocolates, cones and gummies following an outbreak of severe illnesses that has led to 10 hospitalizations. In an alert Wednesday to health care providers, the CDC said that a dozen people in eight states have gotten sick after eating the brand’s “microdosing” mushroom edibles. All but two needed to be hospitalized. (Bendix, 6/12)

Roll Call: FDA, DOJ Hammered On Response To Illegal Vapes 
Senators from both sides of the aisle took the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Justice to task Wednesday over what they described as a failure by both agencies to stop the sale of illegal e-cigarettes through online retailers, gas stations and vape shops across the country. (Hellmann, 6/12)

CBS News: Drug-Resistant "Dual Mutant" Flu Strains Now Being Tracked In U.S., CDC Says
At least two human cases of the new so-called "dual mutant" strains of H1N1 influenza have been detected in U.S. patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday, with genetic changes that could cut the effectiveness of the main flu antiviral that hospitals rely on. An analysis of the new H1N1 flu viruses with these two concerning mutations – which scientists call I223V and S247N, describing changes to key surface proteins of the virus – was published this week in the agency's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. (Tin, 6/12)

CIDRAP: Study: Previous COVID-19 Infection May Protect Against Common Colds 
Infection with COVID-19 may offer protection against other, less severe endemic coronaviruses (eCOVs) that are often behind the common cold, according to a study today in Science Translational Medicine. COVID vaccines, however, don't appear to afford similar protection. (Soucheray, 6/12)

Reuters: Two Dozen Companies Working To Find Bird Flu Vaccine For Cows, US Agriculture Secretary Says 
Twenty-four companies are working to develop an avian flu vaccine for cattle, as the virus spreads among U.S. dairy herds, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters on Wednesday. Bird flu has infected 90 dairy herds across 12 states since late March, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Three dairy farm workers also have been infected with the virus, two in Michigan and one in Texas. (Douglas, 6/12)

The New York Times: 171,000 Traveled For Abortions Last Year. See Where They Went. 
More than 14,000 Texas patients crossed the border into New Mexico for an abortion last year. An additional 16,000 left Southern states bound for Illinois. And nearly 12,000 more traveled north from South Carolina and Georgia to North Carolina. These were among the more than 171,000 patients who traveled for an abortion in 2023, new estimates show, demonstrating both the upheaval in access since the overturn of Roe v. Wade and the limits of state bans to stop the procedure. The data also highlights the unsettled nature of an issue that will test politicians up and down the ballot in November. (Escobar, Walker, McCann, Reinhard and Rosales, 6/13)

AP: Democrats Set To Force A Vote On Women's Right To IVF In Election-Year Push
Senate Democrats are seeking to highlight Republicans’ resistance to legislation that would make it a right nationwide for women to access in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments, holding a vote on the matter Thursday as part of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s effort to drive an election-year contrast on reproductive care. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran who has used the fertility treatment to have her two children, has championed the bill, called the Right to IVF Act. The bill would also expand access through insurance as well as for military members and veterans. (Groves, 6/13)

The Washington Post: Southern Baptist Convention Votes To Oppose In Vitro Fertilization
The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday approved a measure opposing in vitro fertilization as “dehumanizing” and asking “the government to restrain” the practice, a sign of the broadening effort by conservative evangelicals and the antiabortion movement since the fall of Roe v. Wade. The vote thrust the denomination into a national dispute over a medical procedure that is immensely popular among Americans and has already played a role in an intense election season. (Boorstein, 6/12)

Reuters: About 4% Of US Adults Age 65 And Older Have A Dementia Diagnosis, Survey Finds 
Some 4% of U.S. adults aged 65 and older say they have been diagnosed with dementia, a rate that reached 13% for those at least 85-years old, according to a report of a national survey released on Thursday. The report issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was based on the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 18 and older. The survey in 2019 added the option to report dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, to its questions on doctor-diagnosed health conditions. (Santhosh, 6/13)

NPR: African Ancestry Genes Linked To Higher Risk For Alzheimer’s, Stroke
Black Americans are known to be at higher risk of some neurological disorders, and the reasons for this disparity remain unclear. Now, after examining the postmortem brains of 151 people, researchers in Baltimore have identified genes that may help explain why. In those people, who all identified as Black or African American, the scientists analyzed the influence of two different ancestries: African and European. They found that genes associated with African ancestry appear to affect certain brain cells in ways that could increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. (Hamilton, 6/12)

Capital & Main: California Program To Treat Chronic Conditions Through Healthy Diets Could End
When Nazifa Hakimzada met with her doctor in 2022, she was warned she had hypertension and was pre-diabetic. She was also managing chronic pain and depression. The 56-year-old woman asked if there was an option other than prescription drugs. Fortunately, there was indeed an alternative. Her doctor’s office at the Hayward Wellness Center in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Hayward was practicing a new treatment called “food as medicine.” Instead of drugs, Hakimzada’s doctor prescribed fresh produce, which would be delivered to her home for free. Less than two years later, she is no longer pre-diabetic. (Sanchez-Tello, 6/12)

Los Angeles Times: Hollywood Slowdown Taking Mental Health Toll As TV, Movie Jobs Scarce
People across the entertainment industry rolled up their sleeves to get back to work after the strikes by writers and actors ended last year. Instead of taking off like a rocket, however, production has been slow to resume, yielding little to no job opportunities and taking a toll on workers’ mental health. (Garcia, 6/13)