Capital Public Radio: Universal Coverage Bills Move Forward, With Questions
A bill that would expand health care coverage to undocumented adults has moved forward in the California state Assembly, part of a push by Democratic lawmakers to create universal coverage, after a single-payer bill stalled last year. Allowing undocumented adults onto Medi-Cal could get California a third of the way there. The UC Berkeley Labor Center says it would expand access to coverage to more than a million people. But the bill and the universal coverage effort generally still face a major hurdle—how to pay for them. (Bradford, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Debate Over Third-Party Payments For Dialysis Patients Revived In Washington As Calif. Eyes Limits
The fight over third-party premium assistance for dialysis patients is heating up this week in California and Washington, D.C. as employers and labor unions get involved. The broadening interest in the issue shows the mounting financial stakes for the insurance and dialysis industries. The focus has expanded from dialysis patients in the Obamacare individual market to those in the employer market. The sheer market size of dialysis giants DaVita and Fresenius means commercial insurers often pay at least double the Medicare rates. Lawmakers in the California Senate health committee will vote Wednesday on a measure that would crack down on third-party premium assistance for dialysis patients. (Luthi, 4/17)

Sacramento Bee: UC Davis Medical Students Hold Protest After Stephon Clark Shooting
Lying on the cement in front of the University of California, Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento, roughly 100 medical students participated in a "die-in" protest Tuesday, urging healthcare providers to do more to help people experiencing trauma after police incidents. Tuesday's event was hosted by the school's chapter of White Coats 4 Black Lives, a national group founded in 2015 in the aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown and the in-custody death of Eric Garner. (Chavez, 4/17)

Capital Public Radio: UC Davis Medical Students Stage Stephon Clark Protest, Call To End Racism In Health Care
Fourth-year UC Davis student Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo was one of several students to call for more bias training for physicians, a better pipeline for physicians of color and an end to racial inequities in health care“We do not practice health care in a bubble,” she said. “We practice health care in an inherently racist system.” A large body of research shows that black patients generally receive lower quality care than white patients due to provider bias. They also face environmental barriers such as difficulty getting to appointments and lack of access to healthy foods and activities. (Caiola, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: She's Spent Years Keeping Her Mom Alive. Now A State Lawmaker, She's Fighting The Opioid Crisis
A friend in high school once asked Brittany Pettersen if her mom ever grounded her. "No," she replied, "but I wish she would." Pettersen was never grounded, never badgered about grades, never hassled about anything. Her mother, Stacy, was too high on prescription opioids, drunk on vodka or strung out on heroin to care. (Kelly, 4/18)

In other public health news —

Los Angeles Times: Attention Women: Your Choice Of Blood Pressure Medicine May Affect Your Risk Of Pancreatic Cancer
In findings with potentially broad implications for the public's health, new research has found that some women who treat their high blood pressure with a class of drugs that relaxes the blood vessels were more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who use other hypertension medications. In a large and intensively-studied group of middle-aged and older women, the risk of developing pancreatic cancer was more than twice as high for those who took a short-acting calcium channel blocker for more than three years. (Healy, 4/17)

KPCC: What LA Can Learn From A Seattle Strategy To Fight Homelessness: Tiny House Villages
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has a new proposal to use more emergency temporary shelters to get homeless people off the streets. Orange County officials are thinking about this sort of "rapid-rehousing," too, and have considered managed tent encampments in some areas. The city of Seattle has some experience with this. Since 2015, that city has been experimenting with temporary shelters that officials call "sanctioned encampments." Some are made up of tents while others offer people tiny houses to live in. (Henderson, 4/17)

Fresno Bee: Valley Children's Has Plans To Build Clinics In Fresno, Visalia 
Valley Children’s Healthcare is on a land-buying spree. The Madera County-based pediatric health system has bought 4.4 acres at Herndon Avenue and First Street in Fresno for a 50,000-60,000-square-foot specialty clinic, hospital spokeswoman Zara Arboleda said Tuesday. The Fresno clinic, which could open within three years, will include laboratory and imaging services and office space. In Visalia, a 6.25-acre site at Highway 99 and Caldwell Avenue will be an outpatient specialty center to serve children in Tulare County. Valley Children’s is in escrow for the property. (Anderson, 4/17)

In other news from across the state —

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Family Files Claims Against City, County Over Death Of Son After He Was Jailed 
The family of a mentally ill man is suing the Sheriff’s Department and San Diego police, contending he died as a result of injuries he received while in the county jail. Paul Silva, 39, died on March 28 at UCSD Medical Center. He had been taken there by deputies on Feb. 22, suffering from brain damage and other injuries. His death came less than two days after he had been taken to the jail by San Diego police. Silva lingered in a coma for nearly five weeks before he was removed from life support by his family, said Eugene Iredale, one of the family’s lawyers. The family filed claims against the county and city on April 13, and plans to pursue a lawsuit in federal court. (Moran, 4/17)

Sacramento Bee: Water Along The Lower American River In Sacramento Shows High Levels Of E. Coli, According To New Weekly Testing
Water at one of Sacramento’s most popular public beaches regularly records E. coli levels far higher than what federal regulators recommend as safe for recreational use. Tiscornia Beach, at the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers near Discovery Park, recorded E. coli levels in February that were seven times the threshold set by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to new weekly testing by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. (Fletcher, 4/17)

Capital Public Radio: United Way Campaign Aims To Help Children Aging Out Of Foster Care
The United Way California Capital Region is accepting donations this week in person and online to help provide some basics for foster children who are aging out of the system and have little-to-no support. The non-profit's Women United group is putting together gift baskets this week and hopes to have luggage, towels, and toiletries for 375 kids. (Moffitt, 4/17)

The Washington Post: New CDC Chief Stepped Down From Four Groups To Comply With Ethics Rules
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield has resigned his  positions at four groups, including a gene therapy biotechnology company and a conservative AIDS organization, to comply with government ethics rules, according to his financial disclosures. Redfield, a longtime HIV/AIDS researcher who started the job March 26, succeeded Brenda Fitzgerald, the former Georgia public health commissioner, who resigned Jan. 31 after serving only half a year because she was unable to divest from her financial holdings. She had also purchased tobacco stocks as CDC director. (Sun, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: New CDC Chief Resigned From Four Entities To Comply With Ethics Rules
In a Public Financial Disclosure Report, memorandum and letter reviewed by the Journal, Dr. Redfield, a veteran HIV/AIDS researcher, said he had resigned as a professor of medicine and from other posts at the University of Maryland. His compensation from the beginning of 2017 through March 2018 was $757,100 plus a $70,000 bonus. The CDC director’s compensation is $375,000. Dr. Redfield also resigned as consultant and chair of a clinical advisory committee for American Gene Technologies International Inc., a gene therapy biotech company; as a director of Children’s AIDS Fund International, an AIDS service organization with faith-based roots; and as a medical consultant for Guidepoint Global LLC, an advisory firm. He sold his stock in American Gene Technologies International and sold stock and forfeited options in Profectus Biosciences Inc., a vaccine development company. (McKay, 4/17)

Stat: Bernie Sanders Bill Would Impose Jail Time For Execs Behind Opioid Crisis
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will introduce a bill Tuesday that would impose jail time for pharmaceutical executives whose companies engage in manipulative practices when marketing opioids. The legislation would impose a 10-year minimum prison sentence and fines equal to an executive’s compensation package if the individual’s company is found to have illegally contributed to the opioid crisis. It would also impose an additional fine on those companies of $7.8 billion — one-tenth the annual cost of the crisis, per a 2016 estimate. (Facher, 4/17)

The Associated Press: Citing Opioid Crisis, Feds Seek Rule Change For Drugmakers
Drugmakers would be required to identify a legitimate need for controlled substances to justify their production under a proposed rule change intended to rein in the diversion of drugs for illicit purposes, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced Tuesday. According to the DEA, current regulations were issued in 1971 but need to be updated to reflect the nation’s opioid abuse crisis and changes in the manufacture of controlled substances. (Raby, 4/17)

Politico: Patrick Kennedy Profits From Opioid-Addiction Firms
Patrick Kennedy, the former Democratic representative and scion of the liberal political dynasty, has emerged as the unlikely go-to player for companies seeking to benefit from the Trump administration’s multibillion-dollar response to the opioid crisis, reaping well over $1 million in salaries and equity stakes in the firms. The 50-year-old son of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who stepped down from Congress in 2011 amid his own decades-long battles with addiction and mental illness, is a high-profile mental health advocate who sat on President Donald Trump’s opioid commission. (Cancryn, 4/17)

In other national health care news —

The Hill: New Affordable Drugs Advocacy Group Pledges Six Figures In First 2018 Endorsement
A new drug-pricing advocacy group on Tuesday announced its first endorsement of the 2018 campaign, backing Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) for standing up to pharmaceutical companies. The group, Patients for Affordable Drugs NOW, which was founded this year, says it will spend six figures on the race and is seeking to help counterbalance pharmaceutical companies’ spending in November's midterm elections. (Sullivan, 4/17)

The Associated Press: Dem Senator: Trump VA Pick Vows Not To Privatize Vets Care
President Donald Trump's pick to be Veterans Affairs secretary is promising not to privatize the agency, a key Democratic senator said Tuesday, taking a stance on a politically charged issue that his predecessor says led to his firing. The confirmation hearing of Ronny Jackson, Trump's White House doctor and a Navy rear admiral chosen to speed up improvements to the VA, is scheduled for next week. On Tuesday, he met privately with Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, as a part of visits this week to assure lawmakers he could effectively lead the government's second-largest department. (4/17)

Stat: Bezos Has Invested In Direct Primary Care. Could It Be In Amazon's Future?
It’s the stuff disruptors dream of. A group of Seattle doctors and investors had a plan to revolutionize primary care by freeing themselves, and their patients, from the dictates of insurance. They would charge a monthly membership fee for delivering on-demand medical services. No insurance bureaucracy. No reimbursement delays. No incomprehensible bills. In 2010, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos became one of the project’s biggest investors, providing an infusion of capital and the instant credibility his name conveys. The company, called Qliance (pronounced Key-liance), scored early successes in Seattle but faltered amid a series of financial setbacks. It closed its doors last summer. (Ross, 4/18)

Stat: U.S. Catching Up To Europe On Biosimilars, FDA Official Insists
The Food and Drug Administration lags behind its European counterpart when it comes to approving biosimilars — but a top agency official insisted Tuesday that the agency is not as far behind as some critics suggest. Leah Christl, the associate director for therapeutic biologics at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, pushed back on an oft-cited statistic that shows the European Medicines Agency has so far approved more than 40 biosimilars, drugs that are almost identical to biologics, compared to just nine approved in the U.S. by the FDA. (Mershon, 4/17)