Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Strong Effort By Lawmakers To Stabilize Covered California Draws More Insurers
States increasingly expect to see insurers enter or re-enter ACA marketplaces next year. That’s a critical sign that these exchanges are growing less risky for insurers despite ongoing political and legal battles over the ACA. (Steven Findlay, )
Good morning! Here are your top California health stories of the day:
California To Fight 'Vile Rule,' Becerra Says: The Trump Administration's release of its so-called "public charge" regulation -- that would deny green cards to many legal immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance -- was met with threats of a court challenge by California and other states. The Hill reports on Attorney General Xavier Becerra's reaction.
Scroll down to the next section for more news stories on the local impact of the move on people living in California. Also, the Los Angeles Times looks at the potential economic hit.
For even more coverage of the 837-page rule, take your pick of national stories: Los Angeles Times | The Associated Press | The Washington Post | The Wall Street Journal | The New York Times | Bloomberg | NPR | CQ | Modern Healthcare | Politico Pro
Threat Of Kaiser Permanente Strike Grows As California Union Approves Vote: The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West is the largest union in a national coalition involved in contract negotiations with Kaiser Permanente, and the first to OK a future strike that could involve up to 80,000 workers nationwide. Other unions representing workers in five other states and Washington, D.C., as well as four others in California, will vote in the coming weeks. Read more on the story here: Los Angeles Times | Santa Rosa Press Democrat
San Jose Mayor Proposes Gun Insurance: The gun violence and policy debate continues with another California lawmaker proposing changes. This time it's San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo who introduced a "first-of-its-kind" to require city firearm owners to take out insurance or pay a fee to help cover the cost of emergency services. Both the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED report more on the proposal.
Bonus Reading: While we usually reserve opinion pieces for the Friday roundup, one woman's journey through her husband's cancer diagnosis to a new profession in oncology is worth your time. Travel through Fumiko Chino's story and Nathan Gray's illustrations at the Los Angeles Times.
More News From Across The State
'Public Charge' Rule & Immigration
Los Angeles Times:
Trump Crackdown On Legal Immigrants Could Damage California Economy, Experts Say
The Trump administration’s new immigration crackdown — which could deny green cards to immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance — would have major ramifications on the California economy, experts and advocates said Monday. Laurel Lucia, director of the healthcare program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, says the policy could have a damaging effect on California and the country’s overall economy. Many in California who already have a green card or have become citizens may dis-enroll from public benefits such as Medi-Cal or CalFresh out of fear for what the policy may mean for themselves and for their family members, causing a chilling effect on the economy, she said. (Nieto Del Rio, 8/12)
LAist:
New Trump Rule Targets Poorer Immigrants Who Use Public Benefits. Here's What To Expect In California
Recent data from programs used in California suggests that there has been a chilling effect already, long before the final version appeared. For example, state data shows that tens of thousands of Southern California children who were on CalFresh in January 2018 are no longer enrolled. These children were enrolled as individuals in the program, the vast majority with parents who are ineligible due to immigration status, according to state officials. The rule becomes official this Wednesday and is expected to take effect Oct. 15. What exactly does it do, and who is affected? We have some answers. (Berestein Rojas, 8/12)
PBS NewsHour:
How U.S. Citizens’ Health Could Suffer Under Trump’s New Rule Aimed At Immigrants
Immigration advocates say this rule will stifle immigration into the country. And while the Trump administration says the rule is aimed at protecting benefits for American citizens, this rule appears to place young U.S. citizens — the children of immigrants — at risk. The PBS NewsHour asked immigration and health experts to describe what these changes will mean for immigrants and their families and their access to health care and nutrition. (Santhanam, 8/12)
The Washington Post:
A Glimpse Inside The Central Processing Center, At The Heart Of The Border Crisis
“We want to give folks a sense of what is going on down here,” said Border Patrol agent Marcelino “Alex” Medina. Inside the cavernous pair of warehouses in Southwestern McAllen, migrants are medically screened for common ailments and contagious diseases such as scabies, lice or chickenpox. Those needing medical help beyond basic services are sent to local hospitals, agents said. Workers have access to face masks and gloves when entering one of two large containment areas, although the center is not immune from contagious diseases; the processing center had an outbreak of an influenza-like illness in late May that led Border Patrol to stop admitting people until the infections died down. Once medically cleared, migrants are sent into holding pens. The center has seen tens of thousands of children and families since 2014. (Hernandez, 8/12)
The Hill:
Data Shows Drop In Coverage Among People Ineligible For ObamaCare Subsidies
Health insurance enrollment declined among people who do not qualify for financial help under ObamaCare as premiums rose to make coverage less affordable, new federal data shows. The data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Monday shows that enrollment declined by 1.2 million people, or 24 percent, between 2017 and 2018 among people with incomes too high to qualify for ObamaCare subsidies. (Sullivan, 8/12)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Left $126 Million In Mental Health Funds Unspent
Sacramento County has yet to spend $126.1 million in allocated state money meant to invest in mental health services, even as the region wrestles with a growing crisis in hospital emergency rooms, in police calls and on city streets. In light of the significant cache amassed through the state’s Mental Health Services Act, Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal last week to spend more money, more quickly. (Yoon-Hendricks, 8/12)
San Jose Mercury News:
Best States To Have A Baby: California Rates 21st, Study Says
A new study by financial advice and credit information company WalletHub ranks California in 21st place out the 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of best U.S. states to have a baby. The study includes data from organizations such as the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Crum, 8/12)
Sacramento Bee:
After 5 Strikes, Thousands Of Health, Research And Technical Workers Ratify New UC Contract
After more than two years of bargaining and five strikes, roughly 16,000 health-care, research and technical workers at the University of California voted to ratify a new labor contract with their employer, according to the union’s website. Union leaders said the contract provided raises totaling 29-30 percent over five years, and they touted protections on parking fees, health-care premiums and overtime pay. (Anderson, 8/12)
The Associated Press:
Sex Misconduct Complaints Against Calif. Doctors Up Sharply
The number of complaints against California physicians for sexual misconduct has risen 62% since fall of 2017 — a jump that coincides with the beginning of the #MeToo movement, according to a newspaper investigation published Monday. A Los Angeles Times analysis of California medical board data found complaints of sexual misconduct, though small in number, are among the fastest growing type of allegation. During the fiscal year that ended in June, the board got 11,406 complaints against physicians and surgeons, the most it has ever received. (8/12)
Ventura County Star:
Jury Awards $13.25 Million In Vista Del Mar Hospital Sexual Misconduct Trial
A jury awarded $13.25 million to three women who said a Aurora Vista del Mar Hospital employee had sexual contact with them while they were patients at the Ventura psychiatric facility. The jurors ruled in Ventura County Superior Court Monday that Vista del Mar, its parent company Signature Healthcare Services and former mental health worker Juan Valencia all bear responsibility. The women said Valencia, later fired by Vista del Mar, committed sexual acts with each of them in 2013 after they were admitted to the hospital for care related to bipolar disorder and psychosis. The jury found Signature, which owns Vista and 15 other hospitals in six states, acted with malice or oppression, meaning the company could face punitive damages in a second phase of the trial that started immediately after the verdict. (Kisken, 8/12)
The Associated Press:
Michigan State Agrees To Protect Patients In Deal With Feds
Michigan State University has agreed to better protect patients from sexual assaults, including following a chaperone requirement for sensitive medical exams, to resolve a federal civil-rights investigation into Larry Nassar’s abuse of young gymnasts and other athletes under the guise of medical treatment. The three-year agreement announced Monday is the first one struck under a section of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits discrimination in certain health care programs or activities, said Roger Severino, director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. The deal covers not only students under Title IX but also patients who are not students. (Eggert, 8/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Unlikely Survival Of USA Gymnastics
USA Gymnastics last year was given the death penalty by U.S. Olympic officials for its handling of decadeslong sexual abuse by women’s team physician Larry Nassar. Yet as it crowned Simone Biles with her sixth all-around national title here this weekend, the disgraced gymnastics federation acted like an organization confident its sentence would be commuted. (Radnofsky, 8/12)
The Hill:
Study: 4 In 10 Patients Faced Surprise Bills In 2016 After Visiting In-Network Hospitals
Four in 10 privately insured patients faced surprise medical bills after visiting emergency rooms or getting admitted to hospitals in 2016, according to a new study published Monday in the American Medical Association's internal medicine journal. The average price tag for a surprise bill related to care at an emergency department was $628 in 2016, up from $220 in 2010, according to the study. The average surprise bill for inpatient admissions increased from $804 in 2010 to $2,040 in 2016. (Hellmann, 8/12)
WBUR:
Former Collection Agency Executives Start Charity To Buy And Forgive Medical Debt
Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton, founders of RIP Medical Debt, decided to use their expertise to forgive medical debt instead of collecting it. So far, their company has abolished hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. They want to reach a billion by 2020. (Young, 8/12)
The Washington Post:
Ebola No Longer ‘Incurable,’ Scientists Say, After Discovery Of Two Highly Effective Drugs
“It’s the first example that a therapeutic intervention can have a dramatic effect on decreasing the mortality of the Ebola virus disease,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, a Congolese doctor who has spent his career researching Ebola treatments and oversaw the trial on the ground, said in a conference call Monday that he “could not have imagined” that such a day would come. (Parker, 8/12)
NPR:
To Find The Next Antibiotic, Scientists Give Old Drugs A New Purpose
With antibiotic-resistant bacteria on the rise, scientists are urgently trying to find drugs that will work against persistent infections. But coming up with new ones does not have to be the only strategy. A recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that they can repurpose bithionol — a drug formerly used to treat parasitic infections in horses — to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including MRSA, a common hospital-acquired infection. (Torres, 8/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
DNA Data Shared In Ways Patients May Find Surprising
Deals between drugmakers and hospital systems to mine the genetic profiles of hospital patients are triggering concerns over the control of valuable genetic data. Drugmakers have been spending hundreds of millions of dollars for access to patient information because of the data’s potential to help unlock disease insights and discover new drugs. They are striking deals to sequence patients’ genetic code, including with hospital systems like Geisinger in Pennsylvania, Mount Sinai Health System in New York and Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. (Evans, 8/12)
Modern Healthcare:
Trump's Drug-Pricing Czar To Leave HHS
John O'Brien, chief adviser to HHS Secretary Alex Azar on drug-pricing reform, is leaving the Trump administration as the congressional debate over legislation is poised to intensify. O'Brien stepped up to the post last December, not long after his predecessor Dan Best died last year. He had already served with Azar as an adviser and helped with the Trump administration's drug-pricing strategy. His last day is Aug. 22. (Luthi, 8/12)
The Associated Press:
Tennessee Lawmakers Mull Passing Strict Abortion Ban
Tennessee lawmakers said Monday they are considering whether to seek one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans even as such laws continue to be struck down in court. At issue is a proposal to prohibit abortion once a pregnancy is detected. While a similar bill stalled in the Republican-controlled Statehouse earlier this year, backers are renewing efforts now to collect enough support ahead of the 2020 legislative session. (Kruesi, 8/12)
The Washington Post:
Bernie Sanders Is Making Health Care His Defining Issue. Will It Work?
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is seeking to break through a congested Democratic presidential race by campaigning more aggressively on Medicare-for-all, a risky strategy his advisers hope will shift the contest in his favor amid signs he has lost ground in recent months. On the campaign trail, Sanders increasingly touts his plan for a government program to insure all Americans, reminding voters that rivals followed his lead. And aides and allies have grown more hostile toward competing ideas, while Sanders’s team has planned more frequent events and initiatives focused on health care. (Sullivan, 8/12)
The New York Times:
Democrats Want To Revive A Ban On Assault Weapons
Twenty-five years ago, Democratic support for an assault weapons ban was a major reason the party lost control of the House. Now top Democrats want to revive the fight. On both the presidential campaign trail and Capitol Hill, leading Democrats are either calling to reinstate the ban or are pressing for a new one. The 1994 ban barred Americans from buying certain military-style firearms and high-capacity magazines for a decade, until Republicans let it expire in 2004. (Stolberg, 8/12)
The New York Times:
On Gun Control, 2020 Democrats Agree: No Reason To Hold Back
Democrats running for president have engaged in bitter disputes this year over topics like health care, immigration and criminal justice. But after mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, jolted the nation earlier this month, the field of 2020 contenders seemed to move in lock step toward more aggressive gun control positions without resistance from the party’s moderate voices. (Epstein and Kaplan, 8/12)
California Healthline:
Hepatitis A Races Across The Country
Since 2016, the virus has spawned outbreaks in at least 29 states, starting with Michigan and California. It has sickened more than 23,600 people, sent the majority to the hospital and killed more than 230. All but California’s and Utah’s outbreaks are ongoing, and experts expect to eventually see the virus seep into every state. (Ungar, 8/13)
Stat:
Few Americans Took Obesity Drugs Due To Doctor Doubts And Cost
Few adult Americans used prescription diet drugs to lose weight in recent years, mostly thanks to varying insurance coverage and physician concerns about side effects, according to a new federal government report. Of an estimated 71.6 million U.S. adults who were considered obese, approximately 660,000 per year, on average, used an obesity drug between 2012 through 2016. But among those who reported trying to lose weight, only 3% reported that they took a prescription medication to lose weight between 2013 through 2016, according to estimates cited by the Government Accountability Office. (Silverman, 8/12)
WBUR:
Despite Progress On Diabetes Treatments, Study Finds American Patient Health No Better
The study in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine looked at whether diabetes patients controlled their blood sugar and blood pressure, took drugs to lower their cholesterol, and stayed away from smoking. It found that among more than 1,700 representative patients, only 23% hit all four of those goals — no better than 15 years ago. (Golldberg, 8/12)
Consumer Reports:
Going To Have Surgery? What You Can Do To Make It Go More Smoothly.
Minor procedures such as cataract removal may not require much advance preparation. But a few smart steps in the month before a major elective surgery — such as a hip replacement or an open abdominal procedure — can reduce the risk of complications and may even speed recovery. “Patients can impact their own surgical outcomes by trying to reduce the risk that they bring into the operating room,” says Michael Englesbe, a transplant surgeon at the University of Michigan. That’s the idea behind “prehabilitation”: exercise, nutrition and counseling programs that aim to make you as healthy as possible before surgery. Some early research suggests it may help cut the length of a hospital stay — in one study, by 31 percent. Whether or not your hospital offers prehab, these strategies can help prepare you physically and mentally. (8/12)
Stateline:
Where Doctors Can Recommend Marijuana To Replace Opioids
New Mexico, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania allow people with an opioid addiction to qualify for a medical marijuana card. But many physicians and medical experts strongly oppose such policies, pointing out that science hasn’t yet shown that dispensary-bought marijuana can deliver the same pain-killing punch as a prescription drug, nor that it can help people kick an opioid addiction. (Quinton, 8/13)
The New York Times:
Ads For CBD As Cure-All Are Everywhere, But Regulation Is Scant
The efforts of cannabis companies to go mainstream could be hampered by CBD advertising that depends on misleading or unproven claims, entrepreneurs and researchers said. [Forensic toxicologist Michelle R.] Peace compared the marketing efforts of some companies to snake-oil scams in the 1800s, “when guys in wagons were selling sham tinctures in glass bottles.”“People are taking these products in good faith, because they believe somebody is overseeing the quality of these products,” Ms. Peace said. “But there’s basically nobody.” (Hsu, 8/13)
The New York Times:
How To Reduce Exposure To Air Pollution
Hot summer days can bring spikes in air pollution, as traffic exhaust and other emissions bake in the sun. Scientists have linked dirty air to a long list of health problems, and the danger can seem all the more frightening because, unlike with many other risks, we have no choice about breathing. But ... there are some things individuals can do to protect themselves. Steps like changing travel and exercise routes, buying an air purifier and choosing not to light a fire at home can reduce your exposure to air pollution in any season, experts say. (Gardiner, 8/13)
The New York Times:
As Phoenix Heats Up, The Night Comes Alive
Phoenix, which had 128 days at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit last year, is one of the hottest and fastest-warming cities in the United States. Although it is on the leading edge, it is not alone: Most American cities are expected to drastically heat up in the next decades. Many may have summers with heat waves and triple-digit days — summers that resemble Phoenix today. Here in the Valley of the Sun, that means work and play shift into the cooler hours. Neighborhoods thrum with activity at dawn and dusk when residents hike, jog and paddleboard. In the hottest months, the zoo opens at 6 a.m., for the benefit of both animals and visitors. And across the city, certain construction work starts in the middle of the night — not only for the safety of workers, but also because even some building materials can be affected by intense heat. (Holloway, 8/12)