ABC News: Some Health Care Facilities Remain Closed Amid California Wildfires
Health care centers and medical facilities remain closed as the devastating California wildfires spread. At least 24 people are believed to be dead and more than a dozen others remain unaccounted for as of Monday morning. Additionally, 105,000 people remain under mandatory evacuation orders and another 87,000 are under evacuation warnings. Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest health care systems in California, said most of its facilities remain open and operational but seven remain closed. (Kekatos, 1/13)

Politico: Climate Damage Hits LA Firefighters’ Lungs
Firefighters are risking not just their lives but also their health to beat back the unprecedented blazes engulfing the Los Angeles region — in yet another example of the spreading havoc from climate change. Urban wildfires release a host of chemicals into the air — from copper to lead — and protective gear falls woefully short, writes Ariel Wittenberg. The situation underscores just how unprepared cities are for the changing nature of wildfires as humans continue to encroach on nature and as a warming planet dries out vegetation, turning it into dangerous kindling. (Skibell, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Proposes $2.5 Billion For Wildfire Response As L.A. Burns
Gov. Gavin Newsom asked legislative leaders Monday to approve at least $2.5 billion in response to the wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles County — a move that expands the focus of the special session in the California Capitol beyond strictly fighting President-elect Donald Trump. ... Newsom issued a proclamation that broadens the scope of the special session and calls for the Legislature to approve $1 billion for emergency response, cleanup and recovery in Los Angeles County, which the state hopes to recover through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (Luna and Castillo, 1/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Republicans Demand Strings Attached To California Wildfire Aid
House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans say they believe approval of wildfire aid to California to assist with devastating fires in Los Angeles County should be contingent on policy changes. ... Johnson said Monday that “it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duties in many respects,” specifically with “water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes and all sorts of problems.” He said there have been discussions among House GOP leaders about tying the federal debt limit increase to federal wildfire aid, “but we will see how it goes.” (Garofoli, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: Tips For Finding The Best Air Purifier To Protect From L.A. Fire Smoke
As buildings and brush continue to smolder in Los Angeles, a toxic soup of smoke, chemicals and particulate matter is being spread across the region by gusty winds, prompting a surge in interest in air purifying devices. ... But what kind of air purifier should residents get? And how can they put it to best use? Here’s what the air quality experts had to say. (Harter, 1/14)

Los Angeles Times: How To Avoid Toxic Positivity In The Time Of Tragedy 
Toxic positivity is the tendency to put a ceaselessly positive spin on everything, even when it’s not called for. For example, telling someone who has just lost their home, “At least you’re alive,” can feel dismissive and invalidate their pain. Similarly, assuring someone who has lost a home or a loved one that “everything happens for a reason” can make them feel pressured to suppress their grief rather than process it naturally, mental health experts say. (Williams, 1/10)

The New York Times: L.A. Wildfire Evacuees Scramble To Find Shelter, Exacerbating Housing Shortage
Tens of thousands of wildfire evacuees in Los Angeles are now scrambling to find — and hold onto — temporary shelter, exacerbating the housing shortage in one of America’s least affordable cities. With 92,000 people across Los Angeles still under evacuation orders on Monday, the displaced were scattered across Southern California, in shelter beds, hotel rooms, relatives’ spare rooms and friends’ couches, unsure about where to go next as extreme fire danger looms for yet another week. (Jimenez and Healy, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: After Years Of Helping The Homeless, He's One Of Them After Altadena Fire Destroys His House
His job, for more than a decade, has been to steer homeless people into housing. Last week, social worker Anthony Ruffin lost his home. On Monday morning, still reeling five days after the Eaton fire destroyed much of Altadena, Ruffin, 56, sipped coffee at a Glendale diner, wiped his eyes, and described the historic Black neighborhood where he has spent much of his life. (Lopez, 1/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Their Wealth Is In Their Homes. Their Homes Are Now Ash. 
The fires wiped out the homes of Californians in the middle class who bought into affluent neighborhoods decades ago, when the properties were still within reach for teachers, plumbers, and nurses. After years of rising home values, many of them have the bulk of their wealth tied up in homes that are now ash. “It was our retirement. It was our investment. It was our equity. It was everything,” said John Kastanas, a 63-year old who works in an administrative role at the California Institute of Technology, of his historic home that burned in Altadena. (Picciotto, Friedman and Frosch, 1/12)

La Prensa Sonoma: Sonoma County’s First Resilience Center Opens In Windsor As Multi-Emergency And Recovery Hub 
An elderly person suffers a stroke but arrives at the hospital six hours later because they are unsure how to access emergency services. That situation, along with many others, inspired Alma Bowen, a local veteran 911 dispatcher, to establish in 2018 her nonprofit organization focused on emergency survival education. (Issenberg, 1/13)

Becker's Hospital Review: Stanford Adopts AI To Inform Patients Of Test Results: 6 Notes
Palo Alto-based Stanford Health Care has adopted an artificial intelligence tool to help inform patients of test results. ... The AI interprets clinical test and lab results, explaining them in common language, a draft that is then reviewed by physicians before being sent to patients. (Bruce, 1/13)

Modern Healthcare: How Healthcare Hiring Shaped Up In 2024
Healthcare continues to add jobs but the industry's gains in 2024 did not outpace 2023's performance — except when it involved jobs within hospitals. The industry added 681,300 jobs in 2024, compared with 688,400 a year earlier. While the number of jobs in other major areas of the sector saw smaller increases year-over-year, employment gains in hospitals rose 3.8% in 2024, up slightly from 3.7% in 2023. (Broderick, 1/13)

MedPage Today: How Nurses, Doctors Rank In Gallup's Poll Of Most Trusted Professions
Nurses once again earned the top spot as the most trusted profession in America, with pharmacists and physicians ranking fourth and fifth on Gallup's annual Most Honest and Ethical Professions Poll. Of those surveyed, 76% rated nurses as having "high" or "very high" ethical standards. Grade-school teachers ranked second, with 61% of respondents saying they have high or very high ethical standards, followed by military officers (59%), pharmacists (57%), and physicians (53%). (Firth, 1/13)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Suicides Tick Up In San Diego County, But 2023 Was Still Better Than Before The Pandemic 
The number of suicides throughout San Diego County have mostly held steady during three recent years, with 2023’s total notably below what was seen before the pandemic. (Nelson, 1/13)

Argus-Courier: Healthy Petaluma Awards $500,000 In Grants To Support Youth Wellness 
The Healthy Petaluma District and Foundation has granted $500,000 towards the well-being of youth and young adults in southern Sonoma County – a response, the district says, to ongoing challenges faced by local youth in the post-COVID era. (Richardson, 1/13)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Deer Mouse Found In East County Tests Positive For Potentially Deadly Hantavirus
A deer mouse collected in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park earlier this month tested positive for hantavirus, a potentially deadly virus that can infect people, county officials said Monday. (Lunetta, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Dementia Cases In U.S. To Double By 2060, New Study Says
New cases of dementia will double by 2060, when 1 million U.S. adults are projected to develop the memory-robbing condition each year, according to a sobering new study published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine. The new analysis shows that the risk a person faces over their lifetime is higher than some previous estimates: After age 55, 4 in 10 adults are likely to develop some form of dementia. That’s in part because the new analysis is based on decades of close follow-up, including regular cognitive assessments, of a racially diverse group of people — a quarter of whom were Black and face an increased risk of dementia. (Johnson, 1/13)

Modern Healthcare: ACA Exchange Final Rule For 2026 Strengthens Broker Oversight
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is strengthening oversight of health insurance exchange brokers under a final rule issued Monday. The Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2026 makes it easier for CMS to suspend agents and brokers who market exchange plans. The agency drafted this policy after KFF Health News reported last April that some brokers were switching consumers into different plans without their permission. (Early, 1/13)

Bloomberg: Pharma’s Big Meeting In San Francisco Draws Protests Over Healthcare Costs
The pharmaceutical industry’s biggest investment conference drew protesters in San Francisco Monday with signs reading “delay, deny, depose,” words prosecutors said were written on shell casings found at the scene of a health insurance executive’s killing last month. Across the street from the entrance of the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco where the JPMorgan Healthcare conference was being held, some two dozen protesters chanted “health care is a human right” and said drugmakers share blame with insurers for high costs and lack of access to care. (Kresge, 1/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Newsom Wants To Give California Families Three-Month Diaper Supply
Families welcoming new babies could soon be coming home from the hospital with free diapers if an initiative within Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal, unveiled on Friday, passes. The diaper initiative would set aside up to $7.4 million in this year’s budget and $12.5 million the following year to provide a three-month supply of diapers to families of newborns, regardless of income. The program aims to provide an estimated 40 million diapers this year and 80 million next year. (Burke, 1/14)

Bloomberg: Lilly Asks Biden Administration To Pause Drug-Price Negotiations
Eli Lilly & Co. said it and other drugmakers will ask the Trump administration to pause drug-price negotiations, even as Biden-appointed officials prepare a new list of medicines that should be targeted. “They need to fix it” before negotiating down the price of more drugs, Lilly Chief Executive Officer Dave Ricks said on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, referring to the Inflation Reduction Act. (Muller, Koons, and Wingrove, 1/13)

Modern Healthcare: 3 Biden Healthcare Regulations Trump Will Have To Finalize
When President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House next Monday, his administration faces key decisions on healthcare policies President Joe Biden left uncompleted. Regulations governing Medicare, remote prescribing of controlled substances, and billing disputes between health insurers and providers top the list of proposed rules the Trump administration will have to retain, modify or eliminate. To be sure, the Biden administration could opt to rush out final rules in his last days, but they are more likely to fall to the new team. (Early, 1/13)

The Hill: Patient Groups Call On Trump Administration To Let Medicare Cover Obesity Drugs
A coalition of obesity-related patient advocacy groups is calling on the incoming Trump administration to finalize a proposal that would allow Medicare to cover obesity medications. Led by the Obesity Care Advocacy Network (OCAN), more than 70 organizations said in a statement that addressing, treating and managing obesity is key to making America healthier. The groups pointed to a study that found if nothing is done, 213 million Americans will be overweight or obese by 2050. (Weixel, 1/13)

Stat: Former Trump HHS Aide Likely To Lead CMS Innovation Center
Former Trump administration health policy aide Abe Sutton is incoming President Trump’s likely pick to lead the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, two sources familiar with the plans told STAT. (Zhang, 1/13) 

The Hill: Public Health Experts, Scientists Warn Senators On Confirming RFK Jr
A new coalition of more than 700 public health professionals, scientists and activists signed an open letter to oppose Senate confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, saying his “fringe” views and inexperience would put the country at serious risk from severe infectious diseases. The letter from the coalition called “Defend Public Health” said Kennedy’s “unfounded, fringe beliefs could significantly undermine public health practices across the country and around the world.” (Weixel, 1/13)

NPR: RFK Jr.'s Views On Vaccines And Abortion Rights Complicate Confirmation
As confirmation hearings begin for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet, his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is facing pushback from members of both parties. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began his foray into politics as a Democrat — launching his own bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination before leaving the party and, later, throwing his support behind Trump. (McCammon, 1/14)

The New York Times: RFK Jr.’s MAHA Movement Obscures America’s Unhealthy Past
“We will make Americans healthy again,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has declared. A political action committee that has promoted Mr. Kennedy, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for health and human services secretary, says his movement is “igniting a health revolution in America.” But the word “again” presumes a time in the country’s past when Americans were in better health. Was there ever really a time when America was healthier? (Kolata, 1/13)

Stat: Will Alcohol Join MAHA's List Of Top Health Threats?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement have no shortage of targets — products, policies, foods and drinks that they see as worsening the nation’s health. Alcohol seems to have so far avoided their outrage. (Cueto, 1/14)