Fresno Bee: 3 Fresno-Area Hospitals Got ‘C’ Grades For Safety In 2025. How Did Yours Score?
Three Fresno-area hospitals got “C” grades for patient safety in a new report by a nonprofit organization that studies standards in medical care. (Galan, 6/24)

Becker's Hospital Review: 5 Key Patient Safety Priorities In 2025
Health systems are navigating a rapidly evolving healthcare environment where patient safety is shaped by both longstanding challenges and emerging risks. From the accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence to rising care complexity and capacity constraints, healthcare leaders are reexamining how safety and quality are defined, measured and sustained. (Bean, 6/23)

The Press-Enterprise: A Flying, Amphibious Paramedic Unit? San Bernardino County Firefighters Kick The Pontoons 
Mountains, vast swaths of open land and unpaved roads can delay the arrival of San Bernardino County Fire Department paramedics in the nation’s largest county by size. But on Monday, June 23, fire officials got their first in-person look at future-is-now technology that could shorten those times and save lives — if some complications can be worked out. Representatives of the aircraft company Pivotal demonstrated a Jetsons-like ultralight that runs on battery power and takes off vertically in a flash. The propeller-driven aircraft — only about 15 feet in length and width and weighing just 348 pounds — soared and twisted above a county fire camp on a cloudless morning in Devore. (Rokos, 6/23)

Fresno Bee: Cigar Lounge Tied To Fresno Hospital Kickback Scheme Also Hosted Men’s Bible Study
The swanky cigar lounge used by executives of Fresno’s largest hospital system in an alleged patient referral kickback scheme recently hosted a men’s bible study group with financial backing from one of the scheme’s ringleaders. The Fresno medical office the executives converted into a cigar lounge, referred to in a 2019 federal whistleblower lawsuit as “HQ2,” was where doctors and hospital executives were generously rewarded for participating in a kickback scheme that has rocked the region’s medical community. (Montalvo, 6/23)

Bloomberg: Weight-Loss Drugs: Novo Exits Hims Partnership
Novo Nordisk A/S scrapped a partnership with San Francisco-based Hims & Hers Health Inc. after less than two months, saying the US company is using “deceptive marketing” to sell copycat versions of its obesity blockbuster Wegovy. Hims, a telehealth platform, wasn’t stepping back enough from its practice of mass marketing off-brand imitations of the weight-loss medicine, Novo executives said. (Kresge and Muller, 6/23)

Military.Com: VA To End Medical Research On Primates As Animal Rights Group Cheers The Move
The Department of Veterans Affairs will end its spinal cord research involving monkeys this month, with the conclusion of studies on stem cell therapy to treat injuries and understand the impact of bruising on spinal cords. The completion wraps up decades of VA research using primates to study a host of medical conditions and treatments, coming at the end of a long effort by activists and lawmakers to halt studies that harm dogs, cats and primates. (Kime, 6/23)

The Press Democrat: Federal Cuts To Food Aid Could Leave Many California Families To Go Hungry, Local Officials Warn 
Another sweeping round of proposed federal cuts to food aid threatens to leave thousands of local families, including children, without the support they need to get by even as food banks struggle to support rising demand, local officials say. The version of President Donald Trump’s sweeping policy and tax cuts bill passed by the House of Representatives aims to eliminate $295 billion in spending over the next decade on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, also known in California as CalFresh. (Gutierrez, 6/23)

The Hill: Cassidy Calls For Postponing RFK Jr’s Vaccine Advisory Panel Meeting
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called for the delay of this week’s meeting of a federal vaccine advisory panel handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, citing concerns about members’ lack of experience and potential bias towards vaccines. “Wednesday’s meeting should not proceed with a relatively small panel, and no CDC Director in place to approve the panel’s recommendations,” Cassidy wrote in a post on X late Monday evening. (Weixel, 6/23)

The New York Times: Supreme Court Lets Trump Deport Migrants To Countries Other Than Their Own 
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to deport migrants to countries other than their own, pausing a federal judge’s ruling that said they must first be given a chance to show that they would face the risk of torture and potentially clearing the way for the administration to send men held at an American military base in Djibouti to South Sudan. The court’s order gave no reasons and said the judge’s ruling would remain paused while the government pursues an appeal and, after that, until the Supreme Court acts. The court’s three liberal members issued a lengthy dissent. (Liptak, 6/23)

CNBC: 'Big Beautiful' Bill Health Care Cuts May Add To Medical Debts: Report
Proposed federal spending cuts to health care in Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” may increase some families’ medical debts by as much as $22,800, according to a new report from Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. (Konish, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: GOP Senators Shrug At Hospitals' Medicaid, Uncompensated Care Woes
Hospitals have beseeched Republicans not to leave them bearing the financial burden of the more than $1 trillion in healthcare cuts they hope President Donald Trump signs into law by Independence Day. The message doesn’t seem to be breaking through, based on interviews last week with several GOP senators, some of whom seek even steeper spending reductions. (McAuliff, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: AHA Ad Campaign Targets Medicaid Cuts In One Big Beautiful Bill
The American Hospital Association launched an ad campaign Monday urging Congress to protect hospital funding as lawmakers consider more than $1 trillion in healthcare cuts. The ad shows a montage of patients receiving care and emphasizes the important role hospitals play in their communities. It ends with the statement, “Tell Congress: Protect hospital care.” The new campaign launches as the Senate mulls over potential healthcare cuts as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which legislators hope President Donald Trump will sign into law by July 4. (Hudson, 6/23)

Politico: Senate GOP Scrambles To Rewrite Trump’s Megabill
Senate Republicans are scrambling to rewrite major parts of their “big, beautiful bill” in deference to key holdouts and the chamber’s parliamentarian as the clock ticks on a self-imposed deadline. GOP leaders are aiming to start voting Thursday, but senators emerged from a closed-door briefing on the status of the megabill Monday night saying that some of their biggest sticking points — ranging from key tax decisions to a deal on Medicaid — remain unresolved. (Carney and Kashinsky, 6/23)

Bloomberg: Senate Readies Tax Bill For Vote With Holdouts Threatening Delay
President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending agenda is nearing a climactic vote in the Senate this week in the wake of air strikes on Iran, which risk embroiling the US in a prolonged Middle East conflict. Trump’s $4.2 trillion tax-cut package, partially offset by social safety-net reductions, does not yet have the support it needs to pass the Senate. Fiscal hawks seeking to lower the bill’s total price tag are at odds with Republicans worried about cuts to Medicaid health coverage for their constituents and phase-outs to green energy incentives that support jobs in their states. (Wasson, 6/23)

Politico: Trump’s Team Makes The Case For Cuts
From Capitol Hill to CDC headquarters in Atlanta, this last week of June will yield important clues about the direction of health policy under President Donald Trump — and whether a GOP Congress will go along. On Wednesday, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), who’s spoken out against global health cuts, will question Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, who’s spearheaded them. (Zeller, 6/23)

SF Gate: Trader Joe's Recalls Food Item In California Over Listeria Concerns
Beloved Monrovia-based grocery store Trader Joe’s has recalled a food item throughout Northern and Central California and northern Nevada due to potential listeria contamination, the company announced. Trader Joe’s issued a news release Friday alerting customers to a single lot code (Use BY 082925) of Face Rock Creamery’s Vampire Slayer Cheese Curds that is potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a disease-causing bacteria known to cause listeriosis. (Mauhay-Moore, 6/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Aspiring SF Firefighter Built New Sober Life Until Fatal Drug Relapse
For 15 months, Kyle Emerson dedicated every day to creating the life he wanted. The 29-year-old worked two jobs, participated in daily cold plunges and CrossFit, went to school to become an emergency medical responder and routinely attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It was a major feat for the Petaluma man, who had struggled with addiction for half his life before reaching a point in early 2024 where he considered driving out to the ocean and overdosing on fentanyl. (Angst, 6/24)

AP: Golden State Warriors Help Transform Lives Of Incarcerated Men With Coaching Program 
One day last fall, Ray Woodfork found himself being challenged to a fight by a fellow inmate half his age on the grounds of Solano State Prison. Woodfork would have been tempted not so long ago. The Golden State Warriors have helped turn him toward a different way of thinking. This time, the once-aspiring college basketball player, who was serving as referee for the prison football league that day, immediately made it clear he had no interest in an altercation. Woodfork said he chose to walk away and return to his dorm. The incident happened before Week 5 of a six-week program run by youth coaches from the Warriors Basketball Academy as part of the Twinning Project that is teaching incarcerated men at Solano coaching skills and showing them there is the chance for meaningful transformation. (McCauley, 6/23)

AP: Abortion Numbers Rose In 2024 Because Of More Telehealth Prescriptions, Report Finds 
The number of abortions in the U.S. rose again in 2024, with women continuing to find ways to get them despite bans and restrictions in many states, according to a report out Monday. The latest report from the WeCount project of the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion access, was released a day before the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended nearly 50 years of legal abortion nationally for most of pregnancy. (Mulvihill, 6/23)

The 19th: States Move To Keep Doctors’ Names Off Of Abortion Pill Prescription Labels 
Out-of-state doctors are pushing for laws that will make it harder to detect who prescribes and sends abortion medication, as anti-abortion lawmakers look for ways to stop the flow of pills to their states. (Luthra, 6/23)

The 19th: The Future Of Federal Abortion Data Collection Is Unclear
A government watchdog says it’s unclear when — or even whether — we’ll know going forward how the end of national abortion protections impact Americans’ health outcomes, livelihoods and financial futures as the federal government turns away from abortion data collection indefinitely. (Carrazana, 6/23)