Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
How Fast Can A New Internet Standard For Sharing Patient Data Catch Fire?
The web-based standard FHIR — pronounced “fire” — could hasten the day when we can view our full medical histories on a smartphone screen. Tech giants are hungry for a piece of the pie, but obstacles remain. (Janet Rae-Dupree, )
Good morning! Here are your top California health stories for the day.
As Open Enrollment Nears Deadline, Covered California Tries To Get Word Out About Reinstated State-Level Individual Mandate: Covered California has spent millions of dollars worth on advertising to hammer home the message that California’s leaders instituted an individual mandate for health insurance. “We do not want Californians to face a penalty. We want them to have quality health insurance that gives them access to some of the best doctors and facilities in the nation,” said Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee. “Unfortunately, far too many Californians are unaware of the new law or its consequences. That’s why we are working hard to get the message out while there is still time for people to enroll.” Open enrollment will end in California on Jan. 31, and after that date, consumers can buy insurance only if they lose their employer-sponsored health coverage or go through another qualifying life event that allows them to sign up. Read more from Cathie Anderson of the Sacramento Bee.
Fight Brewing In California Over Adding Cancer Warning Label To One Of Most Common Over-The-Counter Drugs: The drug is acetaminophen, known outside the U.S. as paracetamol and used to treat pain and fevers. It is the basis for more than 600 prescription and over-the-counter medications for adults and children, found in well-known brands like Tylenol, Excedrin, Sudafed, Robitussin and Theraflu. A state law known as Proposition 65 says California must warn people of any chemical known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity, and a panel of scientists appointed by the governor can add chemicals to this list. Read more from Adam Beam of The Associated Press.
San Francisco, Los Angeles Among Three Cities Screening Airport Passengers For Coronavirus At Root Of Outbreak In China: As millions of Chinese people jam onto trains and planes, headed to their hometowns and overseas for the Lunar New Year in the world’s biggest annual mass migration, fears are growing that a new respiratory coronavirus could spread. Airports in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles will begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, for infection. The outbreak, which has killed six people and sickened nearly 300 since early December, began at a seafood and live animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that sells bats, cats, marmots and other wild animals in addition to fish, according to public health officials. Read more from Cindy Chang of the Los Angeles Times and Denise Grady of The New York 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
The Mercury News:
Study Finds Single-Payer Health Care Plan Saves Money
As Democratic candidates propose a spectrum of health care options on the debate stage, the Medicare for all plan floated by progressive candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders offers a utopian vision of health care in America: universal coverage with no premiums or co-pays. But what about the costs? According to a new study, published last week by University of California scientists in the journal PLOS Medicine, these plans would actually save money on health care. (Oetting, 1/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Facebook, Twitter Hold Evidence That Could Save People From Prison. And They’re Not Giving It Up
In Ameen’s case and a growing list of other criminal cases, attorneys for Facebook, Twitter and other social networks are citing the Stored Communications Act — a three-decade-old privacy law — to withhold information that might help prove the innocence of Ameen and other defendants. Interviews with privacy experts and public defenders, as well as a review of court records and email communications, reveal the extent to which social media companies deny defense attorneys access to evidence. The Chronicle’s findings show the social networks routinely use their vast legal resources to fight defense subpoenas, and they have even defied court orders that could assist people facing wrongful convictions. (Cassidy, 1/21)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Homeless Count: Here's What You Need To Know
Thousands of volunteers will fan out with clipboards across the city to get a snapshot of the county’s sheltered and unsheltered homeless population — one of the largest in the country. The results normally get released in May or June, and are used by government officials to determine funding priorities for housing and services, and by the public to assess how much progress has been made on stemming the tide of homelessness.Here’s what you need to know. (Oreskes, 1/21)
The Oregonian:
Kaiser Permanente Will Donate $5.1 Million To Help Homeless People With Disabilities Find Stable Housing In 2020
Kaiser Permanente announced Monday that it plans to donate $5.1 million to finance an initiative to find permanent housing for 300 people who are homeless by the end of 2020. The Metro 300 project will work with people 50 years old and older who have disabilities. The money will go toward helping them find affordable housing, pay move-in and rental assistance costs and provide other supports to ensure they remain in permanent housing, said Debbie Karman, a Kaiser Permanente Northwest spokesperson. (Bailey Jr., 1/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Feds Investigate Causes Of A Norovirus Outbreak At Yosemite National Park
As of Monday, one of the West’s most majestic national parks had received reports of about 170 visitors and employees with similar symptoms and most had spent time in Yosemite Valley earlier this month. The National Park Service and other health agencies have launched an investigation into the outbreak, casting a pall over Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, when visitors were allowed free of charge into the 1,162-square-mile Sierra Nevada landmark known for its giant sequoia trees, towering granite ridges and tumbling waterfalls. (Sahagun, 1/20)
CalMatters:
New 'Food Hub' For Low-Income Residents Launched In Bay Area
A new Alameda County program focused on the connections between poverty, food and employment opened Friday morning, the latest in a countywide effort to help low-income residents by increasing access to jobs and fresh produce. The newly built, 3,300-square-foot space will provide a commercial kitchen for small, home-based food entrepreneurs, land to grow fresh produce and a place to package leftover food retrieved from some local schools to redistribute to low-income residents in affordable housing complexes. (Hellerstein, 1/17)
Los Angeles Times:
Closing Coal Power Plants Has Saved Thousands Of Lives, Study Says
The number of coal-fired power plants in operation across the country has plummeted in recent years, quickly changing the power mix — especially in states such as California. But what has that change meant in terms of health? Or even in the number of crops produced? (Nikolewski, 1/20)
Fresno Bee:
Injuries At Central California’s Amazon Warehouse Are Triple Industry Average
Amanda Caballero wishes she could go back to work at Amazon. She made $15 an hour at the Fresno fulfillment center — several dollars more than the state’s minimum wage — and received more than three months of paid maternity leave. Her generous health insurance package covered her husband and five children, and she liked her managers. But a wrist injury left the 31-year-old Fresno woman unable to work. (Tobias, 1/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Orange County Jail Scandal Investigation Ends With No Answers
When former California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris in 2015 launched a criminal investigation into corruption inside Orange County’s jails, local activists and attorneys hoped it would finally reveal the breadth of a scandal that engulfed the Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office — and may have affected countless court cases. Four years later — after an investigation into the misuse of informants inside the county’s jails came to an anticlimactic end in a Santa Ana courtroom with no explanation and no charges filed — those same advocates were left asking a much simpler question: What happened? (Queally and Mason, 1/20)
Sacramento Bee:
CA Wildfire Study Finds Prescribed, Controlled Burn Hurdles
Experts from Stanford University are calling for more prescribed burns to prevent devastating wildfires in California, pointing to new research that asks why the approach hasn’t been pursued more aggressively in the fire-plagued state. “We need a colossal expansion of fuel treatments,” said Stanford doctoral student Rebecca Miller, the lead author of the paper published Monday in “Nature Sustainability,” in a statement. (Gilmour, 1/20)
LAist:
Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Won't Have Running Water Until Thursday (At The Earliest)
All primary care appointments and surgeries at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center have been canceled "until further notice," company officials said Monday. That's because of a water main break that's left the facility without running water since Saturday night. The cause has not been released, but officials did say the water main break did follow a planned shutdown of the water line over the weekend. (Stokes, 1/20)
The Hill:
Supreme Court Denies Blue States' Effort To Expedite ObamaCare Challenge
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an effort by Democrats to expedite a challenge to a lower court's ruling striking down a key tenet of ObamaCare, narrowing the possibility that the court takes up the contentious case this year. The House of Representatives and a group of blue states had asked the court to fast-track their appeal after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate is unconstitutional. (Neidig, 1/21)
The Washington Post:
Trump Lashes Out At HHS Secretary After Briefing Shows Democrats Have Edge On Health Care
President Trump lashed out at Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar for not doing enough on health care and drug pricing during a campaign meeting this week after he was briefed on polling that showed the public trusted Democrats more than Republicans on the issue, according to four people present at or briefed about the meeting. Campaign advisers were updating Trump at the White House on Thursday on polling from battleground states, including Florida, that showed which party voters trusted more on various issues. (Dawsey and Abutaleb, 1/17)
The New York Times:
Supreme Court To Consider Limits On Contraception Coverage
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the Trump administration may allow employers to limit women’s access to free birth control under the Affordable Care Act. The case returns the court to a key battleground in the culture wars, but one in which successive administrations have switched sides. In the Obama years, the court heard two cases on whether religious groups could refuse to comply with regulations requiring contraceptive coverage. (Liptak, 1/17)
The Associated Press:
Major Doctors' Group Calls For US To Assure Coverage For All
With health care an election-year priority, a major doctors’ organization on Monday called for sweeping government action to guarantee coverage for all, reduce costs and improve the basic well-being of Americans. Declaring that the U.S. health care system "is ill and needs a bold new prescription,” the American College of Physicians endorsed either of the two general approaches being debated by Democratic presidential candidates: a government-run “single-payer” system that would cover everyone, or a new “public option” government plan that would offer comprehensive coverage to compete with private insurance. (1/20)
NPR:
School Lunch Rules Set To Change
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed new rules for school meals aimed at giving administrators more flexibility in what they serve in school cafeterias around the country each day. For instance, instead of being required to offer higher quantities of nutrient-dense red and orange vegetables such as carrots, peppers and buttternut squash, schools would have more discretion over the varieties of vegetables they offer each day. In addition, students will be allowed to purchase more entree items as a la carte selections. (Aubrey, 1/17)
The Associated Press:
Feds Allow Use Of Opioid Funds To Stem Meth, Cocaine Surge
Alarmed by a deadly new twist in the nation's drug addiction crisis, the government will allow states to use federal money earmarked for the opioid epidemic to help growing numbers of people struggling with meth and cocaine. The little-noticed change is buried in a massive spending bill passed by Congress late last year. Pressed by constituents and state officials, lawmakers of both parties and the Trump administration agreed to broaden the scope of a $1.5 billion grant program previously restricted to the opioid crisis. (1/21)
The New York Times:
W.H.O. Warns That Pipeline For New Antibiotics Is Running Dry
With the pipeline for new antibiotics slowing to a trickle and bankruptcies driving pharmaceutical companies from the field, the World Health Organization on Friday issued a fresh warning about the global threat of drug resistant infections. Some 700,000 people die each year because medicines that once cured their conditions are no long effective. Yet the vast majority of the 60 new antimicrobial products in development worldwide are variations on existing therapies, and only a handful target the most dangerous drug-resistant infections, the agency said in a report. (Jacobs, 1/17)