Stat: Life Sciences Industry Rallies Behind Calif. Bill To Prevent Nightmare Scenario
Drug companies here are rallying behind legislation that they say would fix a state consumer privacy law that threatens to jeopardize the integrity of clinical trial results and drive scientists out of California. The bill, called SB-1121, would prevent patients from accessing and deleting some of their data from clinical trials. The idea is to make sure that clinical trial participants can’t use the consumer privacy law to prohibit their data from being used by researchers, or to find out if, say, they’re receiving an active treatment or a placebo. (Robbins, 9/20)

Los Angeles Times: More Than Six Women Accuse Orange County Surgeon And His Girlfriend Of Sexual Assault
As more than half a dozen women came forward Wednesday to accuse a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend of sexually assaulting them, one alleged victim described the couple as a “Bonnie and Clyde” team who drugged her and then forced her to participate in sexual acts, according to court documents. The new accusers have come forward just one day after Orange County prosecutors charged Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 38, and Cerissa Laura Riley, 31, with rape by drugs, oral copulation by anesthesia, assault with intent to commit sexual offenses and other crimes. (Winton and Fry, 9/19)

The Mercury News: More Women Allege Sexual Assaults By California Surgeon Who Appeared On Bravo Reality Show And His Girlfriend
Investigators still are combing through thousands of images and videos of apparently intoxicated women believed to have been filmed by Robicheaux and Riley, Schroeder said. The videos – along with the pair’s travels to a variety of high-profile festivals across the country – led prosecutors on Tuesday to hold a news conference asking anyone with information, or who believes they may have been a victim, to come forward. (Emery, 9/20)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Union Pickets Palomar Health Hospitals 
Union workers picketed Palomar Health hospitals Wednesday alleging “chronic short staffing” and working conditions that “contribute to high turnover and undermine the quality of patient care.” Palomar, however, saw different motivations in the protest by the California Nurses Association and its affiliate, the Caregiver Healthcare Employees Union, saying in a statement that the motivation to picket might not have anything to do with its labor practices but rather with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. ...Published on June 27, the Janus ruling declared that unions can no longer require employees to pay union dues, otherwise known as “agency fees,” if they decide they don’t want to be represented along with their fellow employees. (Sisson, 9/19)

In other hospital news —

The Bakersfield Californian: Adventist Health Cuts 13 To 15 Jobs In Bakersfield
Adventist Health Bakersfield said Wednesday it plans to eliminate more than a dozen hospital jobs as part of a restructuring move. The 254-bed hospital formerly known as San Joaquin Community Hospital said 13 to 15 duplicate positions will be cut effective Nov. 16, though there is an expectation some affected employees will find jobs elsewhere within the organization. Communication manager Teresa Adamo said most of the employees whose positions are being eliminated are laboratory assistants who draw patients' blood. Their duties are being absorbed by others at the hospital, she said, adding that not all Adventist's lab assistants are being laid off. (Cox, 9/19)

The Mercury News: UCSF Receives $20 Million From Dolby For Depression Research
Could depression be eased by fixing the brain’s flawed electrical circuitry? A $20 million gift from the family of audio pioneer Ray Dolby to UC San Francisco will help find an answer, through research at the new Dolby Family Center for Mood Disorders. Drugs and other therapies can help many of the millions of Americans who live with depression. But some people struggle with severe symptoms that are beyond the reach of current remedies. (Krieger, 9/18)

In other public health news —

Ventura County Star: School Leader's Suicide Story Hits Home At Forum
The annual forum, “Help & Hope,” packed the school’s performing arts building. The speakers who opened the program didn’t talk about Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade or other celebrities who killed themselves in the past year.Instead, they focused on numbers, some of them projected on a massive screen: 41 people in Ventura County committed suicide in the first six months of the year. 80 percent of them were men. 25 percent were senior citizens. ...Crisis counselors stood in the aisles just in case someone wanted to talk. In a cluster of booths outside the center, groups ranging from a support group for young adult survivors of suicide to the Vista del Mar psychiatric hospital answered questions and handed out information. (Kisken, 9/19)

The Mercury News: Are Household Cleaners Making Your Kids Fat?
Most moms feel strongly that keeping the house spick and span is the secret to keeping the family healthy, right? Not so fast. You might want to think twice before you give your kitchen a good scrub with a disinfectant. Common cleaning products may be linked to childhood obesity, according to research recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Scientists now say disinfectants and other multi-surface cleaners could contribute to weight gain in children by altering the gut bacteria of infants. (D'Souza, 9/19)

Sacramento Bee: How This Sacramento Business Let Clients Go And Yet Hired More Health Care Workers 
Kaiser was paying the full cost of the program, known as Inner City Capital Connections, for any business owner who qualified, but only 50 people would get a seat. Businesses must be based in an economically distressed or underserved community or, alternatively, 40 percent of their employees must live in such neighborhoods. Kaiser said its goal in sponsoring the program is to improve health and wellness of residents in these neighborhoods by ensuring residents have good jobs that provide health care benefits for workers and their families. (Anderson, 9/20)

In other news from across the state —

Fresno Bee: Sex Offenders Want To Be Deported 
The undocumented men at Coalinga State Hospital are in a unique predicament that seems to be nobody’s jurisdiction. They aren’t prisoners, they are “civil detainees.” They entered the country illegally, committed crimes and served their prison sentences. But a state-mandated mental evaluation of sex offenders – a policy that went into effect in 1996 – put them in Coalinga instead of back into society. (Mays, 9/19)

KQED: California’s Plan To Store Water Underground Could Risk Contamination
To contend with the likelihood of future extreme droughts, some of these new strategies rely on underground aquifers — an approach far removed from traditional dam-based water storage. While diversifying the toolbelt of water management strategies will likely help insulate the state against loss, a group of researchers at Stanford University are drawing attention to a risk they say has long ridden under the radar of public consciousness: the introduction of dangerous chemicals into California groundwater, both through industrial and natural pathways. (Heidt, 9/19)

Politico: Republicans ‘Duck And Cover’ On Pre-Existing Conditions
Republicans are struggling to convince voters they will protect people with pre-existing conditions as Democrats trying to build a blue wave for November pound them for threatening to take away sick people’s health care. Republicans have sought for weeks to defuse public angst over the issue, alternately vowing to protect coverage for vulnerable Americans while trying to fire up opposition to Democrats’ growing embrace of single payer. (Cancryn, 9/19)

In other national health care news —

The Associated Press: Administration Sends States $1B In Grants To Battle Opioids
The Trump administration is awarding more than $1 billion in grants to help states confront the opioid epidemic, with most of the money going to expand access to treatment and recovery services. Officials say more than $900 million comes from a grant program Congress approved this spring as part of a budget bill. Lawmakers are working on another bipartisan bill to address the opioid problem and hope to have final legislation to President Donald Trump by year's end. (9/19)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump's Undue Credit For Slowing Health Costs
What a difference a year makes. From predicting that the Affordable Care Act would "implode" and "explode," President Donald Trump is now claiming credit for modest average premium increases expected next year. In remarks this week, Trump appeared to cite a recent analysis by Avalere Health and The Associated Press in asserting that premium costs are now "far lower" than they would have been under a Democratic president, because his administration has been managing premiums "very, very carefully." Not so. (9/19)

The New York Times: They Were Seeking Mental Health Care. Instead They Drowned In A Sheriff’s Van.
Nicolette Green had decided to get better. The medication she was taking to treat her schizophrenia had calmed her and cleared her head. On Tuesday morning, her oldest daughter, Rose, with whom she had spent the weekend waiting out Hurricane Florence, drove her to her regular counseling session. A new therapist saw Ms. Green, 43, that day. And within a half-hour of evaluating her, he wanted her committed, said Donnela Green-Johnson, Ms. Green’s sister. ... Then Rose watched, troubled, as sheriff’s deputies patted her mother down and put her in a van to take her to a hospital almost two hours away. Rose, 19, recalled the deputies having handcuffs out when they frisked her mother, though she did not know if they put them on.(Pager, Robertson and Dixon, 9/19)

The Associated Press: Maria's Death Toll Climbed Long After Rain Stopped
Disabled and elderly people were discharged from overwhelmed hospitals with bedsores that led to fatal infections. Medical oxygen ran out. People caught lung infections in sweltering private nursing homes and state facilities. Kidney patients got abbreviated treatments from dialysis centers that lacked generator fuel and fresh water, despite pleas for federal and local officials to treat them as a higher priority, according to patient advocates. (9/20)

Stat: Gawande-Led Venture Taps Consulting Giant To Hone Strategy For Chronically Ill 
The health venture led by Dr. Atul Gawande is working with a global consulting powerhouse to hone its strategy for improving care of chronically ill patients who account for the vast majority of medical costs, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. The partnership with Boston-based Monitor Group, the business consulting arm of Deloitte, signals a desire to deliver stepped-up services — enabled by data and modern technology — to frequent users of health care within Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase, the companies that hired Gawande to rein in their 1.2 million employees’ health spending. (Ross, 9/20)

The New York Times: Apple Watch Series 4 Review: Faster, Bigger, With A Promise To Be Healthier
A few days ago, I sat in a medical recliner at the University of California, San Francisco. A cardiologist placed 10 stickerlike electrodes onto my limbs and chest and then connected the wires to a dated-looking contraption with a screen and a keyboard on a cart. About a minute later, a printer produced a chart of my heart’s electrical activity on red graph paper. The procedure I had undergone was an electrocardiogram, or an EKG, which is used to diagnose cardiac problems like arrhythmia and heart attacks. (Chen, 9/19)

The Associated Press: Flu Shots: A Pinch In The Arm, But Not Always In Your Wallet
It's flu shot season, but the pinch of a shot doesn't have to also hurt your wallet. Health officials recommend that nearly all Americans get flu vaccinations to blunt the impact of a disease that annually infects millions. Roughly 145 million Americans get flu shots each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That count represents about 60 percent of children and 40 percent of adults. (9/19)

The New York Times: Kavanaugh’s Supporters And His Accuser Are At An Impasse Over Her Testimony
The confrontation between Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and his accuser devolved into a polarizing stalemate on Wednesday as Democrats and Republicans advanced competing narratives to convince voters that the other side has been unfair in the Supreme Court confirmation battle. Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who alleged that Judge Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, said a Senate hearing set for Monday to hear her allegation would not be fair and Democrats insisted that an F.B.I. investigation take place first. Backed by President Trump, Senate Republicans rejected any F.B.I. inquiry, and said that Monday was her chance to be heard. (Baker and Fandos, 9/19)

The Washington Post: Senate Republican Signal They Will Forge Ahead On Embattled Nominee Kavanaugh
GOP senators who fretted earlier this week about the prospects for President Trump’s pick are now largely pushing for a vote on Kavanaugh, who is accused of sexually assaulting now-professor Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers, amid signs that she may decline to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And Trump is more convinced he should stand by Kavanaugh than he was two days ago, people close to the White House say. (Kim, Dawsey and Wagner, 9/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Republicans Plan To Push Ahead On Kavanaugh Confirmation
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the hearing would start at 10 a.m. Monday, and he pressed Dr. Ford to testify. In a letter to her lawyers, he gave her a deadline of 10 a.m. Friday to submit her biography and prepared remarks if she planned to testify. Dr. Ford’s attorneys issued a statement late Wednesday calling for more witnesses to be involved in the hearing—not just Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford. It didn’t say whether Dr. Ford would attend the hearing. “The rush to a hearing is unnecessary, and contrary to the Committee discovering the truth,” the attorneys wrote. (Andrews, Peterson and Hughes, 9/19)

The Washington Post: Republicans Push To Confirm Kavanaugh Amid Fears It Will Come At A Political Cost
Already burdened by an unpopular president and an energized Democratic electorate, the male-dominated GOP is now facing a torrent of scrutiny about how it is handling Kavanaugh’s accuser and whether the party’s push to install him on the high court by next week could come at a steep political cost with women and the independent voters who are the keystone for congressional majorities. The uncertainty in Republican ranks evoked uneasy memories of how the hearings for Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination spurred what became known as the “Year of the Woman” in 1992, when a wave of Democratic women won office, and underscored widespread GOP disquiet over the fast-changing culture and the power of the #MeToo movement. (Costa, 9/19)

Los Angeles Times: GOP Pushes Kavanaugh Accuser To Testify About Sexual Assault Allegation, But Risks A #MeToo Backlash
“There’s a real risk, it seems to me. It further inflames Democratic and independent women,” said David Brady, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a think tank. “[Those groups] are the big danger in the midterms anyway. I’d be polling the [heck] out of this.” President Trump raised doubts Wednesday about Ford’s story. Ford, a Palo Alto University psychology professor, says Kavanaugh pinned her down, groped her and covered her mouth to silence her when the two were high school students in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations. Trump said it's "very hard for me to imagine anything happened," calling the accusation “unfair.” Trump added he hoped to hear from Ford. (Wire and Haberkorn, 9/19)