The Oaklandside: Kaiser, Nurses Union, PG&E Spent Big On Barbara Lee Inauguration
Following Mayor Barbara Lee’s election in April, an independent committee threw her an inaugural bash featuring a string quartet, spoken word, traditional lion dance, and speeches from prominent politicos. The committee sought small and large donations to support this effort. The organizers said they would eventually release a list of contributors, promising an inaugural weekend guided by “transparency, equity, and community.” A new report from the committee and additional details provided to The Oaklandside show that some of Oakland’s largest companies and dozens of individuals bankrolled the events. (Orenstein, 8/18)

Hawaii News Now: Hundreds Of Kaiser Permanente Workers Rally As Contract Agreements Near Expiration Nationwide
Contract agreements are about to expire for 62,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers around the United States, including 1,900 workers in Hawaii. Hundreds of those workers waved signs and rallied outside Kaiser Permanente’s Moanalua medical center to call for higher wages and safer staffing. (Gutierrez, 8/16)

Becker's Hospital Review: Medallion Raises $43M, Unveils Platform To Accelerate Provider Onboarding
San Francisco-based Medallion raised $43 million to accelerate its AI platform and launched CredAlliance, a national credentialing clearinghouse, according to an August 18 press release. ... The investment brings Medallion’s total funding to $130 million. Medallion’s platform supports approximately 1 million providers, or about 10% of the U.S. healthcare workforce, by automating provider operations such as credentialing, onboarding and compliance. The company said its tools eliminate hundreds of thousands of administrative hours annually. (Dyrda, 8/18)

Becker's Hospital Review: The Next 'Major Workforce Crisis' Systems Are Tackling
Health systems are taking on what one leader has called the “next major workforce crisis”: a shortage of nurse educators. In 2024, U.S. nursing schools turned away 80,162 qualified applications. ... At Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health Hospitals, nurses have access to a two-year leadership residency program that includes preceptor experiences and annual tuition reimbursement for graduate-level education. (Taylor, 8/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: The Next Chapter: Becoming A Caregiver For Your Spouse In Retirement
Walking into an art class at San Diego Oasis in Rancho Bernardo is the highlight of the day for Neena Rahman, 59. “I feel like I want to do collaging, I want to paint, I want to do the markers,” she says, laughing. It’s a moment of joy in what has become a complex daily routine for the Bangladesh native, who spends her days caring for her husband Tariq, 70, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease four years ago. (Bry, 8/17)

FiercePharma: Novo Nordisk Unveils $499 Cash-Pay Ozempic Offering
Eligible self-paying patients with Type 2 diabetes will now be able to purchase their prescribed Ozempic for $499 per month, the Danish pharma announced Monday. The lower-cost doses—coming in at half the med’s list price of about $1,000—will be available for home delivery via NovoCare and from traditional pharmacies through a collaboration with GoodRx. (Park, 8/18)

Bay Area News Group: Alameda Health System Confronts ‘Nuclear Option’ Budget After Medicaid Cuts 
When congressional Republicans finalized the details of President Donald Trump’s budget bill in July, Alameda Health System CEO James Jackson’s worst fears were realized — the bill called for a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid that would undermine the hospital’s primary revenue stream. (Hunter, 8/19)

The New York Times: The Madden Sisters Don’t Want To Be Institutionalized
One hot June night, Carrie and Kristy Madden sat in their modest home on the outskirts of Los Angeles waiting for their caregivers to arrive. Their living area hummed with fans and the patter of a Dodgers baseball game. “What time are they supposed to be here today?” Carrie, 60, asked around 7.“They didn’t say,” Kristy, 64, answered. Muscular dystrophy had afflicted the sisters since birth, weakening the muscles in their trunks, arms and legs. In middle school, each could manage an awkward walk. Now neither could stand for more than a minute. Each woman had worked a full day that Thursday, writing emails, making phone calls and chatting with colleagues. But they needed help with the essentials of domestic living: bathing, dressing, cooking and cleaning. Neither could raise her elbows more than a few inches or drive to get groceries. (Valdes, 8/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Workshop For LGBTQ+ Service Members And Veterans Aims To Provide Resources, Support Amid Trump’s Transgender Troops Ban
The workshop was organized by The Center and the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet), a state agency that helps connect veterans and their families to their earned benefits. (Fox, 8/18)

East Bay Times: Kaiser Permanente Retreat On Gender-Affirming Care Called ‘Denial Of Basic Humanity’
Waving a transgender pride flag, Diego Vasquez stood outside Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles hospital at a solidarity march for trans youth, shouting “trans lives matter.” He has received gender-affirming care treatments since age 22 and only regrets not being able to access care earlier. (Crosnoe, Ivie, and Vergara, 8/18)

Los Angeles Times: The Summer's Most Dangerous Heat So Far Is Set To Broil SoCal This Week
The season’s most dangerous heat wave is expected to bake Southern California and much of the American Southwest this week, with triple-digit highs and elevated fire conditions set to begin Wednesday and last for several days. ... People need to stay hydrated, make sure they have access to air conditioning and refrain from outside activities in the heat of the day in order to avoid heat-related illness. (Toohey, 8/18)

Los Angeles Times: 'Ketamine Queen' To Plead Guilty To Federal Charges, Selling Drug That Killed Matthew Perry
A drug dealer dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” has agreed to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including that she provided the drug that ultimately led actor Matthew Perry to suffer a fatal overdose in October 2023, federal prosecutors announced Monday. Jasveen Sangha, 42, also admitted in her plea agreement to selling four vials of ketamine to Cody McLaury in August 2019. McLaury, 33, died hours later in his Los Angeles home from a drug overdose that included ketamine. (Winton, 8/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: New Moms Are Turning To Psychedelics For Mental Health Help
Maci Philitas is deep underwater. Diving in the inky abyss, she finds a brown treasure chest. She opens it. Inside are four framed photographs. Philitas and her husband laughing, listening to her brother giving a toast at their wedding. Her parents and in-laws getting married. And a family photo: Philitas, her husband and their two young sons. She holds the photos, feeling suspended in time. She leaves them inside the chest, far beneath the water, for safekeeping. In reality, Philitas was lying on a couch with a face mask covering her eyes in a pale blue room at the NYU Langone Health Center for Psychedelic Medicine in Manhattan. (Kadvany, 8/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: A Pro-Palestinian Doctor Came To Oakland. An Outrage Machine Followed
On a Friday morning, three days before the start of her medical career, Gabrielle Wimer arose in her Oakland apartment, saw the unpacking she still needed to do and opened Signal. A friend back in New York offered condolences. Regarding what, Wimer asked. The truck, the friend wrote. What truck? Wimer wrote back. It was a van, actually. A slate-black Mercedes-Benz Sprinter-Cab Chassis van pulling an LED video screen that projected Wimer’s photo next to an incendiary — and false — statement: “A violent antisemite is starting her residency at Highland Emergency Medicine.” (Hosseini, 8/19)

KQED: US Halts Humanitarian Medical Visas Used To Bring Injured Kids From Gaza To SF
Nearly two weeks ago, three injured Palestinian children from Gaza arrived in San Francisco for medical treatment. Now, the program that brought them here is in jeopardy, after the U.S. State Department suspended visitor visas for people from Gaza. The department said Saturday on the social media platform X that it would stop all visitor visas from Gaza to conduct “a full and thorough review of the process and procedures” used to issue temporary medical-humanitarian visas. (Kennedy, 8/18)

ABC News: Leading Pediatrician Group Recommends COVID Vaccine For Infants, Toddlers In Contrast With RFK Jr.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said on Tuesday that children ages 6 months to 23 months should receive a COVID-19 vaccine, in contrast with federal health officials. The recommendations are part of the AAP's annual childhood immunization schedule, which includes guidance for COVID, flu and RSV vaccines for those aged 18 and younger. (Kekatos and Benadjaoud, 8/19)

MedPage Today: Are Vaccine Panels At CDC, FDA 'Plagued' By Conflicts? Numbers Say No
Financial conflicts of interest (COIs) among federal vaccine panel members have been at historical lows since the 2000s, contradicting HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claim that conflicts "plague" the panels, according to a new analysis. The average prevalence rate of reported COIs among members of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) dropped from 42.8% in 2000 to 5% in 2024, said Genevieve Kanter, PhD, of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues. (Rudd, 8/18)

Ars Technica: RFK Jr.’s Wi-Fi And 5G Health Conspiracies Appear To Make It Into MAHA Report Draft 
Amid the predictable MAHA topics and industry concessions, one short section stands out for its obvious link to conspiracy theories. The draft includes a brief section on electromagnetic radiation that says the health department, along with other unnamed federal agencies, will conduct studies to find "gaps in knowledge" regarding safety and efficacy. While the section is vague, it brings to mind Kennedy's long history of falsely claiming that electromagnetic radiation, in the form of Wi-Fi and 5G, causes a variety of health problems— including cancer, autism, a variety of mental and cognitive problems, post-traumatic stress, fatigue, and Type 2 diabetes. (Mole, 8/18)

The Free Press: The Weedkiller Tearing Apart Trump’s Coalition
Glyphosate has long had critics—perhaps the most prominent being none other than current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime environmental lawyer who won a landmark judgment against Monsanto in 2018 on behalf of a client who said Roundup caused his cancer. The victory opened the door to tens of thousands of similar suits, many of which are still ongoing. (Page, 8/18)

Roll Call: Trump's Health Agency Streamlining Goals Hit Roadblock 
Five months after the Trump administration rolled out its grand plans for a signature “Make America Healthy Again” agency, Congress has shied away from taking steps to bring the new agency to fruition. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his plan for the agency in March amid a wide-scale restructuring of the department intended to streamline duplicative efforts and cut costs. (Raman, 8/18)