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California Healthline Original Stories
Cancer Is Especially Dangerous For Immigrants In South Texas. Here's Why.
When an undocumented immigrant in a Texas border county gets a cancer diagnosis, it can be a death sentence because of a lack of public hospitals. (Charlotte Huff, )
Good morning! A trustee report paints a grim picture of Medicare’s insolvency, opening a line of attack from Trump officials on the push for “Medicare for All.” More on that below, but first here are some of your top California health stories for the day.
Lawyers For Elizabeth Holmes Lament Sheer Enormity Of Documentation U.S. Has Compiled On Theranos Scandal: At a hearing on Monday to set the date of a trial for Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her deputy Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, Judge Edward J. Davila appeared sympathetic to the lawyers' plight. “It’s only millions of pages,” Davila said wryly. “What’s the problem?” Davila discussed the potential of a start in April of next year, but delayed the decision until July. Homes and Balwani are facing charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in their alleged role in defrauding investors out of millions of dollars. Holmes claimed Calif.-based Theranos could run full medical tests using just a few drops of patients’ blood at a much lower cost than traditional lab testing. From those claims, Holmes persuaded wealthy individuals including News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and the Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune, to invest $700 million. The trial is likely to draw the eyes of many in the health industry when it is held. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle, The Mercury News, Stat and the Wall Street Journal.
Alliance Of Parents, Health Professionals And Religious Groups Protests Proposed Vaccination Rule Removing Doctors From Exemption Decision: State Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) has introduced legislation that would leave vaccination exemptions in the hands of a state public health official rather than doctors. Pan says the bill protects public health against doctors who have often faked, exaggerated — or in some instances, sold — medical exemptions to vaccine-skeptical and denying parents. However, critics say that the lawmakers is trying to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship. “Doctors are the only ones who know their patients well enough to make medical decisions such as which vaccines a child should or shouldn’t receive,” said Dr. Shannon Kroner, an educational therapist. Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
A look at the outbreaks in California: Los Angeles officials have identified five cases in the area—linked to international travel--which are the first measles incidents confirmed among LA County residents and the first cases of transmission within LA County in 2019. Meanwhile, in Northern California, health workers are trying to control a growing outbreak in a region decimated by the Camp fire last November. As of Friday, at least 15 Californians had been diagnosed with measles as part of the outbreak that began last month in Butte County, according to health officials. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Study Finds Significant Number Of Homeless, Mentally Ill Behind Bars Would Be Good Candidates For Government Help Instead: A study from the California Department of Health Services, found that if enough housing and services were available, nearly 3,000 homeless or mentally ill people in custody at any given time would be eligible for release — either before their trials or before finishing their sentences. “Our jails should not be used to house people whose behavior arose out of acute mental health crisis merely because it is believed, whether correctly or otherwise, that there is no other place to take that person to receive treatment,” says LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey. Officials did not specify where the funds would come from or exactly how much it would take to expand the current diversion program. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
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. And have a healthy weekend.
More News From Across The State
The Washington Post:
California Police Promote Measure To Limit Fatal Shootings
Round two gets underway Tuesday in California’s fight over how best to limit fatal shootings by police through nation-leading reforms. State legislators are debating a measure that proponents said would set a national precedent by creating statewide guidelines on when officers can use lethal force and requiring that every officer be trained in ways to avoid opening fire. (Thompson, 4/23)
The California Health Report:
School-Based Clinic Offers Vision Care For Students And Community Members In Need
Launched in 2017, Oakland Unified School District’s vision clinic at the Youth Heart Health Center, is the first center for vision care to be based at a school in the Bay Area. The clinic is located in the same complex as Las Escuelita Elementary, is adjacent to Metwest High, and located across the street from the Dewey Academy. The clinic serves both Alameda County students and members of the community between the ages of 3-21 and provides both comprehensive vision exams and prescribing eyeglasses if necessary. (Childers, 4/22)
Capital Public Radio:
City Of Sacramento Considering Age Restrictions To Buy Cannabis ‘Dabs’ And Extracts
Sacramento's cannabis enforcement office says it is getting complaints from parents about the effects cannabis is having on their children. ...[Joe Devlin] He’s working on a proposal that would require cannabis users under 21 to obtain a state or county-issued medical card to buy concentrates. A doctor’s note would no longer be accepted. (Moffitt, 4/22)
Capital Public Radio:
Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates Continue To Rise In California
Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are up in California over the past five years, including in places like San Francisco county, where people are contracting chlamydia at nearly twice the rate of the rest of California. Gonorrhea among women is up 47 percent, and there’s a concerning spike in the number of babies being born with congenital syphilis. (Caiola, 4/22)
Fresno Bee:
Contaminated Water: California Town May Get Help From Neighbor
Members of the Tooleville Mutual Nonprofit Water Association, with help from other organizations, have lobbied the neighboring city of Exeter for help. Last May, Exeter agreed to undergo a review of its own water system and consider a connection for Tooleville. After years of unwillingness from city leaders, residents now hope the several parts in motion could soon fix Tooleville’s troubles. (Rodriguez-Delgado, 4/22)
NPR:
Alphabet's Google And Verily Develop AI For Health
One of the biggest corporations on the planet is taking a serious interest in the intersection of artificial intelligence and health. Google and its sister companies, parts of the holding company Alphabet, are making a huge investment in the field, with potentially big implications for everyone who interacts with Google — which is more than a billion of us. The push into AI and health is a natural evolution for a company that has developed algorithms that reach deep into our lives through the Web. (Harris, 4/22)
The Associated Press:
Medicare, Social Security Face Shaky Fiscal Futures
The financial condition of the government's bedrock retirement programs for middle- and working-class Americans remains shaky, with Medicare pointed toward insolvency by 2026, according to a report Monday by the government's overseers of Medicare and Social Security. It paints a sobering picture of the programs, though it's relatively unchanged from last year's update. Social Security would become insolvent in 2035, one year later than previously estimated. (4/22)
The New York Times:
Social Security And Medicare Funds Face Insolvency, Report Finds
Meanwhile, Medicare’s hospital insurance fund is expected to be depleted in 2026 — the same date that was projected a year ago. At that point, doctors, hospitals and nursing homes would not receive their full compensation from the program and patients could face more of the financial burden. “Lawmakers should address these financial challenges as soon as possible,” the trustees of the program wrote. “Taking action sooner rather than later will permit consideration of a broader range of solutions and provide more time to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare.” (Rappeport, 4/22)
Reuters:
Medicare Hospital Fund Reserves Likely To Be Exhausted In 2026: U.S. Report
U.S. healthcare costs are expected to be a hot topic during the 2020 presidential campaign, with uncertainty around possible cost-cutting solutions already weighing on healthcare stocks this year. Senator Bernie Sanders, among a large field of contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, has unveiled a "Medicare-for-All" plan that would eliminate private insurance and shift all Americans to a public healthcare plan. (4/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Medicare B Costs For Retirees Projected To Rise
Medicare’s trustees projected Monday that the standard monthly premium in 2020 for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits and other types of outpatient care, will increase by $8.80 a month to $144.30. A final figure is expected in the fall. The increase comes after the Part B premium for most people rose modestly in 2019 to $135.50, from $134 in 2018. Even though Medicare Part A, which covers hospitalization, is free for most people 65 and older, Medicare Part B charges a monthly premium that currently ranges from $135.50 to $460.50, depending on a beneficiary’s income. (Tergesen, 4/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Social Security Costs To Exceed Income In 2020, Trustees Say
More broadly, rising Social Security and Medicare costs are also expected to weigh on the federal budget. Both programs together account for 45% of federal spending, excluding interest payments on the national debt, and have contributed to larger deficits that are set to exceed $1 trillion a year starting in 2020. Monday’s projections “almost mislead people into a false sense of complacency, when in the meantime these are the programs that are going to drive up budget deficits,” said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank. Over the next 10 years, he estimates, Social Security and Medicare benefit shortfalls will account for 90% of larger budget deficits. (Davidson, 4/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Administration Launches Program To Rein In Medicare Costs
The Trump administration is launching a program to offer new ways of paying primary-care doctors, including flat monthly payments to physicians and higher payments for medical practices specializing in the chronically ill, as a way to lessen the costs of Medicare’s usual fee-for-service system. Seema Verma, the Medicare administrator under President Trump, said the flat-fee method and other payment alternatives could be a path for the Medicare payment system to achieve better outcomes for patients instead of the current fee-for-service method that creates “perverse incentives to offer more care.” (Burton, 4/22)
Stat:
U.S. Health Officials Unveil Experiment To Overhaul Primary Care
Federal health officials on Monday unveiled a new primary care experiment that seeks to pay doctors for providing stepped-up services that keep patients healthy and out of the hospital, an effort they say will transform basic medical services for tens of millions of American patients. The initiative, called CMS Primary Cares, includes five new payment options for small and large providers, allowing them to take varying levels of financial responsibility for improving care and lowering costs. It broadly seeks to change how primary care is delivered in the U.S. by rewarding doctors for improving management of patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and averting expensive trips to the hospital. (Ross, 4/22)
Bloomberg:
Top Trump Health Official Rips ‘Medicare for All’ After New Forecast
The Trump administration’s top Medicare official used an annual report on the program’s fiscal outlook to attack proposals by some Democrats to expand government health-care coverage to all Americans. The federal trust fund that finances much of the health-care program for the elderly and disabled is projected to run out in 2026, the same year forecast in the most recent projections published in June, trustees for Medicare said in a report Monday. (Tozzi, 4/22)
The Associated Press:
New York Outbreaks Drive US Measles Count Up To 626
Outbreaks in New York state continue to drive up the number of U.S. measles cases, which are approaching levels not seen in 25 years. Health officials say 71 more cases were reported last week, with 68 of them from New York. That brings this year's total to 626. That is already the most since 2014, when 667 were reported for the whole year. The most before that was 963 cases in 1994. (4/22)
The Hill:
Trump Poised To Roll Back Transgender Health Protections
The Trump administration appears ready to roll back health care protections for transgender people, and advocates are gearing up for a fight. A proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that’s expected in the coming days would make it easier for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies to deny care or coverage to transgender patients, as well as women who have had abortions. (Weixel, 4/23)
The New York Times:
ICE Faces Migrant Detention Crunch As Border Chaos Spills Into Interior Of The Country
Federal immigration authorities faced with overburdened detention centers are scouring the country to find space to house migrants as the crush of asylum seekers that has overwhelmed the Southwest border spreads deep into the nation’s interior. With mounting federal initiatives to hold more and more migrants in custody, officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees long-term detention centers for migrants, are looking for additional space that can be rented inside existing jails, as well as fast-tracking the deportations of current detainees and releasing as many migrants as possible into the country to make room for newcomers. (Dickerson, 4/22)
The New York Times:
The Military Wants Better Tests For PTSD. Speech Analysis Could Be The Answer.
Post-traumatic stress disorder has long been one of the hardest mental health problems to diagnose because some patients try to hide symptoms while others exaggerate them. But a new voice analysis technique may be able to take the guesswork out of identifying the disorder using the same technology now used to dial home hands-free or order pizza on a smart speaker. A team of researchers at New York University School of Medicine, working with SRI International, the nonprofit research institute that developed the smartphone assistant Siri, has created an algorithm that can analyze patient interviews, sort through tens of thousands of variables in their speech and identify minute auditory markers of PTSD that are otherwise imperceptible to the human ear, then make a diagnosis. (Philipps, 4/22)
Stat:
PBMs, Under Fire From Trump, Spend A Record Sum On Lobbying
Lobbying disclosures filed on Monday revealed a flurry of pharmaceutical industry activity, including the largest-ever expenditure for the trade group representing pharmacy benefit managers. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association spent a record-breaking $1.49 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2019, the most it has ever spent in a three-month span, according to a STAT analysis of the latest lobbying disclosures. The all-time record comes as the lobbying organization is vocally opposing a Trump administration proposal to ban certain rebates from drug companies to PBMs that could fundamentally threaten the industry’s business model. (Facher, 4/23)