Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Books, Binders, Bleed-Control Kits: How School Shootings Are Changing Classroom Basics
School districts around the country now require bleeding-control kits and training at their public schools in this era of mass shootings. Staffers used the kits in the recent high school shooting in Santa Clarita, Calif., even though there is no statewide mandate for them in California. (Sandy West, )
Good morning! Here are some of your top California health stories for the day.
California Pumps $40M Into Efforts To Get Doctors To Screen For Trauma From Adverse Childhood Experiences: Primary care providers can start screening people and billing Medi-Cal for the service starting Jan. 1 if they take a two-hour training course released by the state last week. They must take the course by July 1, 2020 in order to be eligible for a reimbursement of $29 per screening. California Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris said the state wants to incentivize doctors to screen patients for traumatic events. “Individuals who’ve been exposed to adversity, often times it’s not identified,” she said. “And that means that biological process, particularly that overactive stress response, may be ongoing in a way that can be harming health.” She said doctors who spot ACEs early can make recommendations for sleep, exercise, nutrition and healthy relationships, but only if they’re aware of a patient’s history. Read more from Sammy Caiola of Capital Public Radio.
Salinas Valley Grapples With Yet Another E. Coli Outbreak Linked To Salads: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the latest multistate outbreak, which sickened eight people in upper-Midwest states and 16 in Canada, involves a different E. coli strain than the one involved in a previous set of illnesses announced before Thanksgiving. The outbreaks, however, share a common geographical origin: lettuce harvested in California’s Salinas Valley, according to the CDC. Last year, a series of outbreaks linked to California romaine lettuce sickened more than 250 people. Read more from Geoffrey Mohan of 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.
More News From Across The State
San Francisco Chronicle:
Berkeley’s Cell-Phone Health Warning Survives Supreme Court Challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a telecommunications industry challenge Monday to Berkeley’s requirement that cell-phone retailers warn customers about the possible radiation dangers of holding the phones close to their bodies. The city’s ordinance took effect in 2016. It requires dealers to notify their customers that the Federal Communications Commission sets radiation standards for cell phones, and that exposure “may exceed the federal guidelines” if users carry their phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra while they’re connected to a wireless network. (Egelko, 12/9)
Sacramento Bee:
Price Hikes Surprise For CalPERS Long Term Care Insurance
As CalPERS and the few insurers who remain in the long term care insurance market adjust, people like Goldsmith are experiencing sticker shock and questioning their responsibility for the initial miscalculations. Mike Bidart, an attorney representing policyholders in the class-action lawsuit, said his office has heard from Goldsmith and others who are seeing the big increases in their benefit options. Bidart said his office is reviewing them. (Venteicher, 12/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Exhausted SF Homeless Stretch Out In Tenderloin Church, A Space For ‘Sacred Sleep’
It’s thanks to The Gubbio Project, a nonprofit with a simple mission: providing “sacred sleep.” Each weekday at 6 a.m., homeless people enter St. Boniface Church and St. John the Evangelist in the Mission where they can finally seek uninterrupted sleep. They may not have slept at all the night before due to the noise of the streets, the lack of shelter or the desire to stay awake to protect their belongings from thieves. (Knight, 12/10)
LAist:
LA Health Officials Warn Local Heroin Users About A Flesh-Eating Bacterial Infection
Seven people in San Diego County have died since October due to a flesh-eating bacterial infection associated with black tar heroin. The bacteria produces a toxin which can rapidly break down soft tissue. It's a rare condition called myonecrosis. Symptoms include severe pain and blisters. If not treated, it can lead to amputation and death. (Garrova, 12/9)
Capital Public Radio:
Hemp Ban In Sacramento Could Expand To Full Year
The city of Sacramento wants to extend its ban on hemp cultivation and manufacturing from 45 days to a full year. The hemp plant, sibling to marijuana, is legal under state law as of October 12, when Senate Bill 153 was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. But the city says it is unwilling to establish its own regulations for hemp until new rules are developed at the state and federal level. (Moffitt, 12/10)
The Hill:
Justices To Hear ObamaCare Case With Billions At Stake
The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments in the latest ObamaCare case to reach the justices, this time in a $12 billion dispute over payments insurers say they are owed by the federal government. At issue is a financial carrot that Congress dangled before insurers to encourage their participation in the early years of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) health care marketplaces. The funding program in question, known as risk corridors, sought to mitigate risk by protecting insurers against unforeseeable losses in the new markets. (Kruzel, 12/9)
Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court Leaves In Place Kentucky Abortion Restriction
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky restriction requiring doctors to show and describe ultrasound images to women seeking an abortion, turning away a challenge arguing that the measure violates the free speech rights of physicians. The justices declined without comment to hear an appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of a lower court ruling that upheld the law after a federal judge previously had struck it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of free speech. (12/9)
The Associated Press:
White House Backs Emerging Deal On Consumer Health Costs
The White House endorsed an emerging bipartisan agreement Monday on legislation aimed at curbing rising health care costs, including taking steps to limit “surprise” medical bills that can plague patients treated in emergency rooms. While the deal's fate remained uncertain, enactment could give President Donald Trump and lawmakers of both parties a chance to crow about a rare legislative achievement during a bitterly divisive period dominated by Democrats' drive toward impeaching Trump. (12/9)
Modern Healthcare:
Surprise Billing Tweaks Fail To Win Provider Support
A bipartisan group of lawmakers produced a deal on surprise billing legislation that is more provider-friendly than legislation previously passed by U.S. Senate and House committees, but hospitals still oppose the deal. Senate health committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), House Energy & Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Energy & Commerce Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) on Sunday announced a compromise on legislation to lower healthcare costs, including a ban on balance billing. (Cohrs, 12/9)
The New York Times:
Trump Stands By Embattled Medicare And Medicaid Chief
White House aides said President Trump stood by his embattled Medicare and Medicaid chief, Seema Verma, amid reports that she had requested that taxpayers reimburse her $47,000 for property stolen on a trip, including jewelry priced at more than $40,000. The reimbursement request, reported in Politico over the weekend, was the latest revelation in a string of reports that have portrayed the upper echelons of the Department of Health and Human Services as divided on policy and personality, and roiled by expenditures that have come under scrutiny. (Abelson and Goodnough, 12/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Medical Screenings Are The Latest U.S. Tactic To Discourage Asylum Seekers, Advocates Say
Migrant rights advocates say that medical screenings have become the latest tactic used by the U.S. government to discourage asylum seekers from pursuing their claims. ...Indeed, at the Matamoros camp where Quesada and her daughter have been living, migrants said it’s common for those who fail medical screenings to return home. (Hennessy-Fiske, 12/10)
Reuters:
Warren Woos Nevada Union Amid Healthcare Policy Concerns
Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren defended her Medicare for All healthcare proposal on Monday, telling members of an influential Nevada labor union that she wants all Americans to have coverage that is as good as theirs. Union members throughout the U.S. are worried about losing hard-won health coverage under plans by Massachusetts Senator Warren, and rival Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who have proposed doing away with private insurance. (Bernstein, 12/10)
Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Arizona Opioid Case Against Purdue, Sackler Family
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a novel case by Arizona seeking to recover billions of dollars that the state has said that members of the Sackler family - owners of Purdue Pharma LP - funneled out of the OxyContin maker before the company filed for bankruptcy in September. (Raymond, 12/9)
Undark:
The Physics (And Economics) Of Wheelchairs On Planes
When Shane Burcaw flies on an airplane, he brings along a customized gel cushion, a car seat, and about 10 pieces of memory foam. The whole arsenal costs around $1,000, but for Burcaw it’s a necessity. The 27-year-old author and speaker — who, alongside his fiancée, Hannah Aylward, is one half of the YouTube duo Squirmy and Grubs — has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disorder that affects motor neurons and causes muscle wasting and weakness. The disorder contorted his limbs and he has used a wheelchair for mobility since he was 2 years old. Today, he uses a motorized wheelchair custom-fitted to his diminutive, 65-lb. frame, but to board an airplane, he’s required to give it up. Instead, Aylward must carry Burcaw onto the plane, and from there, transfer him into a child’s car seat, which provides limited support and does not fit his body (thus, the foam). (Schulson, 12/3)