The North Bay Business Journal: MarinHealth To Open New Multispecialty Clinic In Petaluma
MarinHealth is putting the final touches on a new multispecialty clinic that will open Dec. 3 in Petaluma, the Greenbrae-based health care system announced this week. (Sarfaty, 11/12)

USC Center For Health Journalism and World Journal: Undocumented Chinese Immigrants Fill Caregiver Gap, Working Long Hours 
The Chinese community, like many others, has a growing elderly population while facing a critical shortage of caregivers. As the largest Asian ethnic group aged 65 years and older, Chinese Americans are projected to grow to 7.9 million by 2060, more than tripling from 2.5 million in 2019. With more Chinese American adult children moving away from traditional expectations of caregiving, the need for care has increased. Chinese seniors often struggle to find caregivers who can speak the language and attend to their needs. As a result, undocumented Chinese workers are increasingly entering  the workforce to address the shortage of caregivers for older Chinese adults. (Zhao, 11/11)

ProPublica: Lincare Made Billions While Repeatedly Defrauding Medicare. Feds Did Little To Rein It In. 
For Lincare, paying multimillion-dollar legal settlements is an integral part of doing business. The company, the largest distributor of home oxygen equipment in the United States, admitted billing Medicare for ventilators it knew customers weren’t using (2024) and overcharging Medicare and thousands of elderly patients (2023). It settled allegations of violating a law against kickbacks (2018) and charging Medicare for patients who had died (2017). The company resolved lawsuits alleging a “nationwide scheme to pay physicians kickbacks to refer their patients to Lincare” (2006) and that it falsified claims that its customers needed oxygen (2001). (Lincare admitted wrongdoing in only the two most recent settlements.) (Elkind, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Aetna, Cigna, Elevance Cut Medicare Advantage Commissions 
Aetna, Cigna and Elevance Health sell Medicare Advantage plans. But that doesn't necessarily mean they want people to buy them. Partway through the Medicare annual enrollment period for 2025, which started Oct. 15 and ends Dec. 7, those three insurers stopped offering commissions to brokers and other third-party marketers who steer new customers toward some of their Medicare Advantage products. Sam Melamed, CEO of the dental and vision insurer NCD and founder of a social media platform for brokers and agents called Insurance Forums, has never seen anything like it. (Tepper, 11/13)

Axios: Medicare Spent $2B On Unneeded Back Surgeries
Hospitals performed more than 200,000 unnecessary back surgeries on Medicare beneficiaries in the U.S. over three years, according to a new analysis. Roughly $2 billion was spent on the "low value" procedures while patients were put at risk of poor outcomes, researchers from the Lown Institute wrote. (Reed, 11/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: Genomic Test Shows Promise In Diagnosing Complex Infections
A diagnostic test developed by researchers at the University of California San Francisco aims to help physicians identify causes of severe infections by analyzing DNA and RNA to detect a range of pathogens. Unlike traditional diagnostic tests, which focus on specific substances like proteins or hormones, the new test sequences all genetic material from a blood, tissue or body fluid sample, comparing it against a database of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites, according to two studies. One was published Nov. 12 in Nature Medicine and the second was published in Nature Communications. (Murphy, 11/13)

Los Angeles Times: Oakland Health Clinic Scores Win On Medical Device Risk Disclosure
The pulse oximeter, a device that measures the degree to which red blood cells are saturated with oxygen, is one of healthcare’s most fundamental tools. So when Dr. Noha Aboelata learned that research stretching back decades showed that the devices routinely failed patients with darker skin tones, she took action. (Purtill, 11/14)

CBS News: 23andMe Customer? Here's What To Know About The Privacy Of Your Genetic Data. 
23andMe, the struggling ancestry tracing company, continues to spiral, raising questions about its business prospects and what could happen to its sensitive customer genetic testing data. CEO Anne Wojcicki has said she intends to take the company private and is not considering third-party takeover proposals. Customer data collected from its genetic testing tools makes up the company's most valuable asset. Because 23andMe is not a health care company, health privacy laws don't apply, raising questions about what the business might opt to do with its 15 million users' personal genetic data. (Cerullo, 11/13)

The Hill: Ozempic And Wegovy May Help With Alcohol Addiction
The weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy may be beneficial for people struggling with alcohol addiction, a study published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry said. The study examined about 228,000 people in Sweden who had alcohol use disorder and Type 2 diabetes. The people who were taking drugs like semaglutide were less likely to be hospitalized for alcohol-related issues. Of the nearly 228,000 individuals, 58.5 percent experienced alcohol-related hospitalization. The study noted that while semaglutide drugs “substantially decreased” the risk of hospitalization, the results were not associated with suicide attempts. (Irwin, 11/13)

Yahoo Finance: Hims & Hers Launches GLP-1 Tracker In Response To FDA's Shortage Decision
Hims & Hers is launching a new GLP-1 tracker in its efforts to fight back against the FDA’s decision to end compounded GLP-1s on the market. The tracker allows patients to self-identify, provide their location, and say which brand of GLP-1 drug they are not able to find. The data will be aggregated and regularly published by Hims in order to provide proof to the FDA that the shortages of the branded drugs haven’t ended, according to co-founder and CEO Andrew Dudum. (Khemlani, 11/13)

Stat: FDA Still Lacks Enough Inspectors, GAO Says
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration continues to struggle with a lack of investigators needed to inspect domestic and foreign pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and has not yet developed a plan to keep needed staff, a U.S. government watchdog found. (Silverman, 11/13)

CalMatters: Will Trump Housing Plans Worsen California’s Crisis?
As California Democrats attempt to “Trump-proof” the state and Republicans celebrate their party’s sweeping victory, the mood among some of the state’s most prominent housing advocates is glum. “Trump’s extremist economic agenda is going to tank the housing market and housing construction,” Sen. Scott Wiener, one of the Legislature’s loudest YIMBY voices, said in an interview Friday. (Mello, 11/14)

Voice of OC: Irvine Looks To Crackdown On Illegal Camping After Homeless Shelter Reversal
Irvine City Council members are beefing up the city’s anti-camping law to make it easier for city officials to clear out homeless camps in the wake of the city backing out of a homeless shelter at the 11th hour after public pushback. The council voted 4-1 to strengthen the city’s anti-camping ordinance, which prohibits unauthorized camping on public and private property. Councilmember Kathleen Treseder voted no. (Hicks, 11/13)

Los Angeles Times: Could L.A.'s Rezoning Plan To Boost Housing Supply Displace Tenants?
Sandra Sanchez described the headaches as strong. They come on when she starts thinking where she, her husband and two sons will live. In order to build a larger apartment complex, her landlord plans to demolish the six-unit bungalow court in South Los Angeles that the family has called home for decades. With her husband earning only $38,000 a year at a nearby factory, and rent in nearby apartments costings hundreds of dollars more than they now pay, the stress can be overwhelming. (Khouri, 11/14)

The New York Times: Gaetz, Gabbard And Hegseth: Trump’s Appointments Are A Show Of Force 
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s appointments for top government jobs continued to roll in fast and furiously on Wednesday, and his promise to build a presidential administration fueled by retribution quickly came into view. Those plans were perhaps best summarized by Representative Matt Gaetz, who wrote of his enthusiasm for the wholesale elimination of federal law enforcement agencies just hours before Mr. Trump announced he’d chosen the Florida Republican to lead the Justice Department: “We ought to have a full-court press against this WEAPONIZED government that has been turned against our people,” Mr. Gaetz wrote on social media on Wednesday. “And if that means abolishing every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to get going!” (Rogers, 11/13)

The 19th: Where Trump AG Pick Matt Gaetz Stands On Abortion, LGBTQ+ Rights And Criminal Justice
The attorney general could influence pressing questions of abortion policy, such as whether to enforce the 1800s anti-obscenity law known as the Comstock Act, which abortion opponents believe could be used to ban the mailing of abortion pills — or even to ban abortion entirely. The current Department of Justice has not endorsed this view. as a member of Congress, Gaetz has opposed abortion rights, earning an A+ rating from the anti-abortion advocacy group SBA Pro-Life America. He voted against a bill that would have protected the right to contraception and in 2021 co-sponsored a proposed national ban on abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, typically around six weeks of pregnancy. In Congress, Gaetz has also opposed federal LGBTQ+ protections such as the Equality Act. (Norwood, Luthra, Rummler and Becker, 11/13)

Military Times: Could Trump Drop The VA And DOD Abortion Access Policies Right Away?
Conservative lawmakers hope that scrapping abortion access policies at the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will be among the first major changes when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. But overturning those policies may not be as easy as a quick executive order. Advocates say that public protests and legal fights — especially in the case of VA rules — could create roadblocks for the incoming president in the months ahead. (Shane III, 11/13)

NBC News: Trump’s Pick For Defense Secretary Doesn't Want Women Serving In Combat
Pete Hegseth, 44, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, has said that he believes women should not serve in combat and that he wants to see the military purged of “woke” officials who support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. ... “I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on the podcast. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.” The Pentagon first opened all combat roles to women in 2015, a historic policy shift meant to reflect the changing attitudes of gender-based barriers within the military. Women are more than 17% of the military’s active duty force, according to the Defense Department, and they have proven themselves in training, excelled as fighter pilots in overseas combat and broken ground in top roles throughout the armed forces. (Kirell and Ortiz, 11/13)

ABC News: Gun Violence Prevention Groups Brace For Trump To Keep Promise Of 'Concealed Carry Reciprocity' 
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to move back into the White House, gun violence prevention advocates are bracing for him to keep his campaign promise to sign a nationwide "concealed carry reciprocity" law. The move would allow gun owners with concealed carry permits to travel with their weapons to all 50 states, even those that do not honor out-of-state permit holders from doing so. (Hutchinson, 11/13)

NBC News: House Democrat To Introduce Resolution Reiterating Trump Can Serve Only Two Terms As President
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., plans to file a resolution in the House on Thursday that would express support for the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution, which sets the term limits for the president. Term limits are already enshrined in the Constitution in the 22nd Amendment, so the resolution would have little tangible effect, and it's unclear whether it will get a vote on the House floor, which Republicans control. However, he could introduce it as a privileged resolution to force Republicans to vote on the matter. (Shabad and Kapur, 11/13)

Stat: GOP Keeps Control Of House, Giving Trump Broad Power On Health Care
With full control of the House and Senate, President-elect Trump and his fellow Republicans have the power to assert their will over health care policies. The GOP is set to have at least 218 seats in the House of Representatives, maintaining control of the chamber, according to CNN, NBC, and ABC. The party has at least 52 seats in the Senate. (Wilkerson, 11/13)

Roll Call: New Congress Brings Churn In Health Policy Leadership 
Congress’ most influential health panels will see dramatic changes next year, with several advocates on specific issues like mental health, Medicare and drug pricing retiring or losing their reelection bids. The biggest changes will be in store at the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose wide-ranging jurisdiction includes health insurance, biomedical research, and drug and device safety. (Raman, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Trump Aides Explore Plans To Boost Musk Effort By Wresting Control From Congress
President-elect Donald Trump’s aides are readying unconventional strategies to implement at least some recommendations from a new government spending commission with or without congressional approval, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations. ... Although changes to government spending typically require an act of Congress, Trump aides are exploring plans to challenge a 1974 budget law in a way that would give the White House the power to unilaterally adopt the Musk commission’s proposals, one of the people said. ... That effort, if successful, could give Trump far greater authority to remake the federal budget on his own, altering the balance of power among the branches of government. (Stein, Dwoskin, Zakrzewski and Bogage, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: CDC Director Warns About RFK Jr.’s Skeptical Vaccine Views 
The top US public health official warned about the threat of curtailing vaccination efforts as longtime skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepares for an influential role in the incoming Trump administration. “We have a very short memory of what it is like to hold a child who has been paralyzed with polio, or to comfort a mom who lost their kid from measles,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen said Wednesday at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit in Washington. “I don’t want to have to see us go backward in order to remind ourselves that vaccines work.” (Smith, 11/13)

NBC News: RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Group Lost $3 Million Last Year
After years of financial growth, Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recorded a more than 30% drop in revenue last year, to $16 million, according to recent tax filings. The pandemic boosted the profiles and pocketbooks of anti-vaccine organizations and activists, but none more than Children’s Health Defense and Kennedy. The nonprofit doubled its revenue in 2020 to $6.8 million, then grew again to $16 million in 2021 and $23.5 million in 2022. Last year was the first substantial loss in the organization’s history, of about $3 million, driven by a reduction in contributions, according to the filings.  (Zadrozny, 11/13)

Stat: Can RFK Jr. Get Confirmed? Moderate GOP Senators Avoid The Question 
Moderate Republican senators, some of whom have bucked President-elect Trump in the past, are reluctant to criticize Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who could be nominated for a Senate-confirmed health care leadership role in the next Trump administration. Kennedy has recently tried to distance himself from the anti-vaccine rhetoric that’s made him famous, claiming he just wants more data about vaccines. But for decades, Kennedy has pushed the unfounded theory that vaccines cause autism. (Zhang, Wilkerson and Owermohle, 11/13)

The Washington Post: RFK Jr. Faces Battles In Quest To Change America’s Food 
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faults Democrats for failing to prioritize healthy food. “The fact that Democratic sachems are debating whether their party should support public health as a political strategy rather than embracing it as a core value is testimony to how out of touch and morally bankrupt the party has become,” Kennedy told The Washington Post. “Healthy food and clean, uncorrupted government agencies ought not to be partisan issues.” (Roubein, Weber, Scherer and Ovalle, 11/14)

The New York Times: R.F.K. Jr. Scorns Trump’s Fast Food Habit: ‘Really, Like, Bad’
What happens when a 78-year-old, Diet Coke-drinking, McDonald’s-consuming president-elect buddies up with an alternative medicine aficionado like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? He gets publicly chided for his eating habits. Mr. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic whose ideas about remaking the nation’s public health system include getting processed food off grocery store shelves, spared no niceties in passing judgment on Mr. Trump’s food choices during a recent interview with Joe Polish, a marketing industry podcaster. His remarks were first reported by The Daily Beast. “The stuff that he eats is really, like, bad,” Mr. Kennedy said, recounting the offerings on Mr. Trump’s plane. (Stolberg, 11/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Sees Surge In Whooping Cough Cases; Bay Area Hit Hard
California is experiencing a sharp rise in whooping cough cases, with several Bay Area counties reporting their highest numbers in a decade. Nearly 1,800 cases of pertussis, the bacterial disease that causes whooping cough, have been confirmed this year by the state’s Department of Public Health as of the end of September, the month with the most recent statewide data. That marks a significant increase from the 644 cases reported for all of 2023. (Vaziri, 11/13)

CBS News: Many More Seniors Are Getting COVID Shots This Year, CDC Reports 
Nearly 4 in 10 seniors have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine so far this year, new survey data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests, marking a steep increase in vaccination rates compared with the same time last year. The data from the CDC's National Immunization Survey estimates that 37.6% of Americans ages 65 and older had gotten a shot of this season's updated COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 2, compared with 22.6% of older adults by the same week in 2023. (Tin, 11/13)

AP: E. Coli Cases Climb To 104 In McDonald’s Outbreak Tied To Slivered Onions
At least 104 people have been sickened, with 34 hospitalized, in an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers, federal health officials said Wednesday. Cases have been detected in 14 states, according to an update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person died in Colorado and four people have developed a potentially life-threatening kidney disease complication. (Aleccia, 11/13)

CIDRAP: CDC Data Show Sharp Rise In Rates Of Meningococcal Disease 
Surveillance data released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that rates of meningococcal disease have risen sharply in the United States since 2021 and now exceed pre–COVID-19 levels. A total of 438 confirmed and probable cases of meningococcal disease were reported in 2023, the most US cases reported since 2013. (Dall, 11/13)

Stat: Canadian Teen's Bird Flu Infection Is Not The Version Found In Cows
A Canadian teenager who is in critical condition after contracting H5N1 bird flu was infected with a version of the virus that is different from the one circulating in dairy cattle in the United States, Canadian authorities announced Wednesday. (Branswell, 11/13)

Voice of San Diego: Air Pollution Cops Launch New South Bay Stink Alert System
Communities adjacent to the polluted Tijuana River can now check both the air around them for contamination before they decide to venture outdoors. The region’s air pollution cops just released an air quality tracking and alert system designed to protect the most sensitive populations from hydrogen sulfide, a gas that can become toxic commonly produced by sewage (which pollutes the river) or oil refineries. The board of the Air Pollution Control District requested an air quality alert system for the gas back in September after local university researchers publicized what they said were extremely dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide emanating from the river. (Elmer, 11/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Sewage Pollution Affecting Chula Vista, Not Just Border Communities. So, City Leaders Declare Local Emergency. 
Leaders of San Diego County’s second-largest city unanimously voted Tuesday to declare a local state of emergency due to the impacts of the Tijuana River sewage crisis reaching Chula Vista. (Murga, 11/13)

Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles Moves Ahead With Water Recycling Project
Los Angeles will soon begin building a $740-million project to transform wastewater into purified drinking water in the San Fernando Valley, expanding the city’s local water supply in an effort to prepare for worsening droughts compounded by climate change. The city plans to break ground next month to start construction of new facilities at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys. When completed, the facilities will purify treated wastewater and produce 20 million gallons of drinking water per day, enough to supply about 250,000 people. (James, 11/14)

CIDRAP: Report: Pathogens Clinging To Microplastics Can Weather Water Treatment, Pose Health Risk 
Foodborne and opportunistic pathogens can survive wastewater treatment when they hitch a ride on microplastics in the water and quickly form a supportive and protective microbial biofilm, posing a potential threat to human and environmental health when the treated water is reused for things like drinking and crop irrigation, suggest researchers from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. (Van Beusekom, 11/12)

CBS News: Opioid Overdose Deaths Drop For 12th Straight Month, Now Lowest Since 2020 
Opioid overdose deaths have now slowed to the lowest levels nationwide since 2020, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This marks the 12th straight month of decline since a peak last year. Around 70,655 deaths linked to opioids like heroin and fentanyl were reported for the year ending June 2024, the CDC now estimates, falling 18% from the same time in 2023.Almost all states, except for a handful in the West from Alaska through Nevada, are now seeing a significant decrease in overdose death rates. Early data from Canada also suggests overdose deaths there might now be slowing off of a peak in 2023 too. (Tin, 11/13)

The New York Times: Theodore B. Olson, Conservative Lawyer Who Took Up Liberal Causes, Dies At 84 
Theodore B. Olson, a leading Supreme Court litigator who built a sturdy reputation as a conservative power lawyer during the 1980s and ’90s, and then surprised colleagues and foes alike when he took up traditionally liberal causes like gay marriage and the children of undocumented immigrants, died on Wednesday in Fairfax, Va. He was 84. It was a shock to many when, in 2009, Mr. Olson signed on to a lawsuit against the state of California over Proposition 8, a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage that had passed in 2008. (Risen, 11/13)