The Wall Street Journal: Zenefits Hit With $7 Million Fine By California Insurance Regulator
The settlement is the largest thus far for Zenefits, which has faced investigations from multiple states for improper sales practices by some of its staff. The San Francisco company has already settled investigations with other states, including Tennessee, Arizona and Minnesota, paying much smaller fines in the tens of thousands of dollars. (Winkler, 11/28)

Reuters: Zenefits Hit With $7 Million Fine By California Insurance Regulator
Software company Zenefits has been fined $7 million by California's insurance regulator, marking the biggest penalty yet for the startup that has faced multiple investigations for flouting insurance laws. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said in a statement posted on the state insurance department's website that Zenefits was charged with allowing unlicensed employees to sell insurance and circumventing education requirements for insurance agents. (Somerville, 11/28)

Los Angeles Times: Employee Benefits Start-Up Zenefits Is Fined $3.5 Million For Licensing Violations
"Zenefits is an example of an Internet-based start-up whose former leaders created a culture where important consumer protection laws were broken," Jones said in a statement, describing the tactics as a “bad" strategy that other start-ups should avoid (Dave, 11/28)

Bloomberg: Zenefits Fined $7 Million By California Insurance Regulator 
Zenefits has faced a spate of controversies in the last year after some employees used software to skirt training requirements and sold health insurance without the necessary licenses. The company has slashed head count and agreed to reduce its valuation to $2 billion in exchange for shareholders agreeing not to sue the company. Zenefits has raised more than $580 million from backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity Investments and TPG Capital. (Newcomer, 11/28)

San Francisco Business Times: California Penalizes Zenefits $7 Million, Most Of Any State 
“We are pleased to reach a settlement with the California Department of Insurance, which recognized our remediation efforts by suspending half the fine. We now have a clean bill of health from our lead regulator, as well as 16 other states,” a Zenefits spokesperson said. “New management has righted the ship at Zenefits.” (Siu, 11/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Big Names Take Hit On Theranos
Theranos Inc. received much of its funding from high-profile private investors who weren’t part of the ecosystem that typically backs startups and could see their stakes wiped out by the blood-testing company’s regulatory and technological troubles, people familiar with the matter said. (Weaver, Carreyrou and Siconolfi, 11/28)

San Francisco Business Times: Robertson Stephens Cofounder Robert Colman Sues Theranos Over Investment Gone Bad 
Robert Colman, a cofounder of legendary investment bank Robertson Stephens & Co., is suing troubled blood testing company Theranos Inc. and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes. In a potential class-action suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Colman and fellow Theranos investor Hilary Taubman-Dye say the Palo Alto-based company, CEO Holmes and former President Sunny Balwani made false and misleading claims about the company's technology while luring hundreds of millions of dollars into the company. The lawsuit claims that Colman was solicited in September 2013 by Donald A. Lucas of Menlo Park's Lucas Venture Group to invest in Theranos at the request of the company and Holmes. (Leuty, 11/28)

Modern Healthcare: CHI Takes $483 Million Operating Loss Into Dignity Merger Talks 
Catholic Health Initiatives is bringing an operating loss of $483 million from its fiscal 2016 to its merger talks with Dignity Health, CHI reported in its year-end earnings statement Monday. The operating loss in fiscal 2016, which ended June 30, compared with an operating surplus of $24 million in fiscal 2015. CHI, the nation's third-largest not-for-profit hospital company by revenue, attributed the losses to “lower patient volumes, higher labor costs, increased pharmacy prices and reduced reimbursement in Medicare and Medicaid.” The Englewood, Colo.-based health system also struggled to manage the red ink from its health insurance business, which CHI plans to sell. (Barkholz, 11/28)

Sacramento Bee: Pot Doctors Who Thrived Under CA Medical Marijuana Law Adapt Business Model For Recreational Era
In the weeks since Californians voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the phones have been ringing more intensely and the flow of walk-in patients has picked up at 420 Med Evaluations, a midtown Sacramento clinic specializing in medicinal pot referrals. The passage of Proposition 64 on Nov. 8 instantly allowed adults 21 and older to consume marijuana, regardless of medical need. Along with that, went the thinking, people seeking pot for pleasurable pursuit no longer had to endure the inconvenience of going to a doctor and citing a physical ailment to get a medical recommendation to legally light up a joint. (Hecht, 11/28)

The Mercury News: Elders Who Use Tech Tools Feel Less Lonely, More Physically Fit, Stanford Study Finds 
Forget bingo and shuffleboard. Use of computers and cellphones is linked to higher levels of mental and physical well-being among those over age 80, according to new Stanford research. And these elders — dubbed “the oldest old,” a generation typically ignored by the youth-obsessed tech industry — are motivated for the same reasons as digital-savvy millennials: to stay connected. (Krieger, 11/28)

In other health and technology news —

KQED: How Do You Know Which Medical Information On Wikipedia To Trust?
Reworking Wikipedia health entries is not a trivial task. A 2014 study found about 25,000 pages of English-language health-related articles. That number is now up to 32,000, Heilman says. The health pages worldwide attracted almost 4.9 billion pageviews in 2013. A 2012 survey of several hundred medical students found 94 percent use the site for health information. But despite its popularity, the reliability of Wikipedia’s medical content has often been questioned. (McClurg and Brooks, 11/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Programs At Risk Under Sanctuary City Defunding 
President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to cut all federal funding to sanctuary cities could touch just about every facet of San Francisco government — from the airport to the courts to the Public Health Department. The city receives about $1 billion annually from the federal government, according to Controller Ben Rosenfield, the city’s chief fiscal officer. Of that money, $478 million comes directly from the federal government. The balance comes from the federal government via the state of California. (Green, 11/28)

In other health care news from across the state —

East Bay Times: Pleasant Hill Joins Fire District Group To Buy Health Insurance
Pleasant Hill is among the first cities to join a group of California fire districts that pool their purchasing power to secure competitive health insurance premiums. Established in 2005, the Fire Districts Association of California Employment Benefits Authority represents 50 agencies statewide, including the American Canyon Fire Protection District and the Cloverdale Fire District. Public agencies that provide police or other emergency services may join the authority, which offers medical, dental and vision plans...Pleasant Hill provides medical benefits to all permanent full-time employees, 86 of whom get their health insurance through the city. Three-quarters of those workers are enrolled in Kaiser, and the rest are insured through Health Net. Recently, Health Net said it would cancel employees’ medical coverage in December if Pleasant Hill did not make the company its sole insurer. (White, 11/28)

Los Angeles Times: 3 Dead, 5 Hospitalized After Rash Of Illnesses Possibly Linked To Thanksgiving Dinner 
Three people have died and five were hospitalized after eating at a community Thanksgiving dinner in Northern California, officials said Monday. The eight people who fell ill attended a dinner Thursday at an American Legion Hall in Antioch, said Marilyn Underwood, director of environmental health for Contra Costa County Health Services. (Hamilton, 11/28)

Los Angeles Times: For High School Football Players, Just A Season Of Play Brings Brain Changes
Without sustaining a single concussion, a North Carolina high school football team showed worrisome brain changes after a single season of play, a new study has shown. A detailed effort to capture the on-field experiences of 24 high school football players showed that, at the end of a single season of play, teammates whose heads sustained the most frequent contact with other moving bodies had the most pronounced changes in several measures of brain health. (Healy, 11/28)

In other public health news —

KPBS: Kratom: Healing Herb Or Dangerous Drug? 
A plant called kratom has been used for centuries in Southeast Asia to treat fatigue, pain and anxiety. But it has sparked controversy in the United States. The Drug Enforcement Agency says kratom is dangerous and wants to classify it as a Schedule 1 drug, making it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess with intent to sell. (Trabulsi, 11/29)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Chooses Conservative Georgia Congressman, A Harsh Critic Of Obamacare, To Be Health Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump plans to select House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his Health and Human Services secretary, two people familiar with the decision said late Monday. In picking Price, Trump tapped an arch-conservative lawmaker and leading critic of the Affordable Care Act to lead his push to roll back President Obama’s signature health law. Price, a six-term congressman from suburban Atlanta, has never held an executive position comparable to leading the federal Department of Health and Human Services, a behemoth that includes the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid. (Levey, 11/28)

Stat: Elizabeth Warren Rips 21st Century Cures Bill, Vows To Fight It
Senator Elizabeth Warren on Monday railed against legislation that would ease standards for new drugs and medical devices, saying the bill had been “hijacked” by the pharmaceutical industry. With the legislation headed for a possible vote in the House this week, the Massachusetts senator accused Republican lawmakers of trying to extort Democrats by tying additional funds for medical research to the bill, known as the 21st Century Cures Act. “I cannot vote for this bill,’’ Warren said on the Senate floor, speaking to a largely empty chamber. “I will fight it because I know the difference between compromise and extortion.” (Kaplan, 11/28)

The New York Times: $6.3 Billion Measure Aims To Cure Ailing Health Care Policies
In one of the most sweeping and rare bipartisan acts of this Congress, lawmakers will move this week on a $6.3 billion bill to increase funding for research into cancer and other diseases, address problems in the nation’s mental health systems and enact potentially far-reaching regulatory changes for drugs and medical devices. The bill, known as the 21st Century Cures Act, is the product of years of debates over health care policy issues, including how to track the federal drug regulatory structure with the fast-paced world of biotechnology, streamline the unwieldy mental health care system, and stem the widespread and intractable problem of opioid drug abuse. (Steinhauer and Tavernise, 11/28)

In other national health care news —

McClatchy: Change That Health Care Law, Say Vast Majority Of Americans 
President-elect Donald Trump is eager to change the nation’s health care law – and most Americans are eager for some changes, a new Gallup Poll released Monday found. ... Trump had pushed repeal, though recently said he’d retain the ban on barring insurers from excluding consumers with pre-existing conditions, and permitting people under 26 to remain on their parents’ policies. Gallup found that 43 percent of people want to see the law change significantly, but not repealed. Thirty-seven percent want it repealed and replaced. (Lightman, 11/28)

Politico: GOP Eyes Best Chance In Years To Defund Planned Parenthood
Congressional Republicans are aiming to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood early next year, according to GOP sources on and off the Hill, as social conservatives press for a milestone win under Donald Trump's presidency after years of thwarted attempts to defund the health care group. (Haberkorn and Everett, 11/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Testimony Shows Anthem And Cigna At Odds Over Proposed Merger
Newly unsealed court testimony shows health insurers Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. have significant disagreements about their proposed merger, offering fresh details about a rift that is highly unusual for two companies seeking to press ahead with such a deal. A trial on the planned merger began last week after the Justice Department decided to challenge it on antitrust grounds. (Kendall and Wilde Mathews, 11/28)

Modern Healthcare: CMS' Star Ratings For Hospitals Linked To Social, Economic Factors 
The CMS' hospital quality star ratings have been strongly criticized by industry stakeholders and Congress as unfairly tarnishing the reputations of hospitals in low-income communities. A new study reinforces the concerns, concluding that a hospital's rating is heavily influenced by its location's socio-economic conditions. Hospitals with relatively low star ratings from the CMS were located in cities with high “stress” levels, according to the study, published Monday in JAMA. The stress levels of cities were determined using a 2016 analysis from WalletHub, a finance website that measured socio-economic conditions like unemployment and poverty rates in 150 cities across the country. (Castellucci, 11/28)

The New York Times: Obama’s Sacred Duty: Visiting The Wounded At Walter Reed
On Tuesday, for his 23rd and probably last time as president, Mr. Obama will helicopter to the military hospital to spend another afternoon with the wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq. ... Mr. Obama will arrive at the hospital in suburban Maryland on Marine One with a minimum of ceremony, having memorized the names of the wounded he will visit from a list he received the night before. (Harris, 11/29)