The New York Times: Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Restrictions
The Supreme Court on Monday reaffirmed and strengthened constitutional protections for abortion rights, striking down parts of a restrictive Texas law that could have drastically reduced the number of abortion clinics in the state, leaving them only in the largest metropolitan areas. The 5-to-3 decision was the court’s most sweeping statement on abortion since Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, which reaffirmed the constitutional right to abortion established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade. (Liptak, 6/27)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Clinic Restrictions
The Texas provisions required doctors who perform abortions at clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and ordered clinics to meet hospital-like standards of surgical centers. (Barnes, 6/27)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Strengthens Right To Abortion, Strikes Down Texas Restrictions On Clinics
“We conclude that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes,” Breyer wrote in Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellderstedt. “Each places substantial obstacles in the path of women seeking a pre-viability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the federal Constitution.” (Savage, 6/27)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Ruling Is Likely To Change The Landscape Of 'Abortion Desert'
Texas abortion clinics at risk of being closed by a restrictive state law will remain open and some of those shuttered will probably be able to reopen in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling Monday that could block similar laws in other states across the so-called abortion desert of the South and Midwest. Opponents of abortion said they plan to defend those laws in the interest of women's health, while shifting to pursue new laws to protect fetal health. (Hennessy-Fiske, 6/27)

The New York Times: Supreme Court’s Abortion Decision Reverberates In Presidential Campaign
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down parts of a restrictive abortion law in Texas rippled through the presidential campaign after its release on Monday, with Democrats and Republicans looking to rally voters with reminders that the future of the court was at stake in November. The next president looks to have at least one and potentially several vacancies to fill in the next four years, and Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have both warned that the fate of laws on immigration, guns and abortion will probably be determined by who gets to fill those openings. (Rappeport, 6/27)

Politico: Supreme Court's Abortion Ruling Will Have Nationwide Impact
The decision’s political ramifications are significant. It will galvanize both sides of the divisive abortion debate as the presidential campaign builds toward the national party conventions, and intensify the political focus on the Supreme Court’s vacancy, which has been frozen in the Senate. The Whole Women’s Health decision is sure to be cited as the two sides in the debate remind voters that the next president will almost certainly name several justices to the bench, providing a rare opportunity to cement the court’s political stance for years to come. (Haberkorn, 6/27)

Orange County Register: Southern California Activists React To Abortion Access Ruling
Southern California abortion-rights advocates hailed Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas’ widely replicated rules, which have reduced abortion clinics in the nation’s second-most populous state to 10 from 40, as a major victory for women’s reproductive rights nationwide. The nation’s highest court, with its emphatic ruling, protected the rights of millions of women in Texas, who will now have better access to abortion clinics in that state, said Betsy Butler, executive director of the California Women’s Law Center in El Segundo. “I’m proud of our Supreme Court for doing the right thing,” she said. “This just goes to show how women still have to fight for everything we’ve been given. It’s nice to have this kind of support from the Supreme Court.” (Bharath, 6/27)

Ventura County Star: Supreme Court Abortion Ruling Unleashes Debate On Almost Everything
People on opposing sides of the abortion battle disagree on the core issue, implications in California and nearly everything else about a Supreme Court ruling on Monday...California has neither the same admitting privilege requirements nor the outpatient surgery center requirements at the crux of the Texas case. ... There is one point where the opposing sides may be in agreement. Both Mickelberry and Loughman said the ruling shows the magnitude of the selection of a justice to fill the vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia's death in February. (Kisken, 6/27)

San Jose Mercury News: Gov. Brown Signs Bill That Limits Seizure Of Assets Of Many Medi-Cal Recipients
After three years of sleepless nights for hundreds of thousands of Medi-Cal recipients, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed into law a bill that limits the state's seizure of assets from the estates of low-income residents ages 55 to 64. Beginning Jan. 1, 2017, California will join many other states in the country that only recover the costs of enrollees' long-term care and related costs after they die. (Seipel, 6/27)

The Press Democrat: Sonoma West Medical Center CEO Resigns
Sonoma West Medical Center CEO Ray Hino has resigned from the Sebastopol hospital, claiming he can no longer sustain the energy and long hours required of him for the past 20 months. In a June 26 letter to his colleagues, Hino said he’s often worked 12- to 13-hour days and 6- to 7-day weeks, including every weekend for 85 straight weeks. (Espinoza, 6/27)

In other hospital news —

The Desert Sun: Eisenhower Sued Over Alleged Sexual Assault By Nurse's Aide
A former patient is suing Eisenhower Medical Center, saying the Rancho Mirage hospital failed to act responsibly after the woman said a male nurse's aide assaulted her at the hospital. Gil Ernesto Lopez of Cathedral City was arrested and charged Jan. 7 with three felonies stemming from the alleged assault. Lopez, 48, has pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 8. (Newkirk, 6/27)

The Associated Press: Getting Overdose Antidote With Painkillers May Cut ER Visits
Overdoses don't happen just to heroin addicts — patients who legally use strong painkillers called opioids are at risk in the nation's epidemic, too. A new study says when patients were prescribed an overdose antidote along with those medications, they made fewer painkiller-related visits to the emergency room. (Neergaard, 6/27)

The Associated Press: Getting Overdose Antidote With Painkillers May Cut ER Visits
Overdoses don't happen just to heroin addicts — patients who legally use strong painkillers called opioids are at risk in the nation's epidemic, too. A new study says when patients were prescribed an overdose antidote along with those medications, they made fewer painkiller-related visits to the emergency room. (Neergaard, 6/27)

Los Angeles Times: To Do Better In School, Kids Should Exercise Their Bodies As Well As Their Brains, Experts Say
Attention parents: If you’d like to see your kids do better in school, have them close their books, set down their pencils and go outside to play. That’s the latest advice from an international group of experts who studied the value of exercise in school-age kids. “Physical activity before, during and after school promotes scholastic performance in children and youth,” according to a new consensus statement published Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. (Kaplan, 6/27)

Ventura County Star: Three Birds In Simi Valley Test Positive For West Nile Virus
Three wild birds from Simi Valley have tested positive for the West Nile virus. On Friday, the Ventura County Environmental Health Division received confirmation from the California Department of Public Health that three wild birds collected during the third week of June had tested positive. (6/27)

The Associated Press: Congressional Dysfunction Likely To Stall Zika Funding Bill
President Barack Obama's $1.9 billion emergency request to combat a potential public health crisis from the Zika virus is more than 4 months old, but congressional dysfunction appears likely to scuttle a scaled-back version of the president's request, raising the prospect that Congress may leave on a seven-week vacation next month without addressing Zika. (Taylor, 6/28)

In other national health care news —

Modern Healthcare: CMS Proposes $180 Million Pay Cut For Home Health
Home healthcare agencies may see a 1% drop in Medicare reimbursement in 2017, the final year of cuts meant to recoup previous overpayments. The proposed rates—which would mean Medicare would pay home health agencies $180 million less next year than in 2016—were published the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear a case challenging a federal labor rule that home health providers say is harming their businesses. ... The proposed payment reduction is not the only financial challenge facing home healthcare providers. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided it would not hear a case challenging a new Department of Labor rule that requires higher wages for many home healthcare workers. (Dickson and Schencker, 6/27)

Bloomberg: Pharmacy Managers Unleash Big Data
Historically, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have been known more for their relentless supply efficiency than their tech chops. But with the easiest savings already in the past, OptumRx and rivals such as CVS Health and Express Scripts have begun mining their huge troves of prescription data in search of economies. “Lowering costs now means having to make really difficult decisions about having to cover one drug vs. another,” says Walid Gellad, who heads the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing at the University of Pittsburgh. (Tracer, 6/27)

Stat: Health Experts Offer Their Support For — And Skepticism Of — The Cancer Moonshot
The National Cancer Moonshot Summit, to be held on Wednesday, is an effort by the White House to promote efforts championed by Vice President Joe Biden to find a cure for cancer. At the same time, dozens of associated regional conferences will take place around the country, bringing together scientists, patients, and health care experts. In advance of the summit, STAT reporters interviewed various individuals in the worlds of science, medicine, and health for a sampling of opinion on Biden’s initiative. They range from skepticism to support. (Skerrett, 6/28)

Stat: The Supreme Court Decision That’s Shaking Up Biotech
In biotech, your company is only as good as its intellectual property. And the Supreme Court on Monday left a whole lot of biotech entrepreneurs fearful that their inventions may not be worth all that much after all. The justices spooked the industry by declining to hear an appeal from Sequenom, a California company that markets a prenatal test based on screening fetal DNA. A lower court had ruled that Sequenom couldn’t patent the test because it was based on a natural biological process. (Garde, 6/27)