Bay Area News Group: Santa Clara County Officially Takes Over Operations Of Regional Medical Center
Fifteen minutes before Regional Medical Center was set to re-open its doors as a Level II trauma center once again, gold and blue heart-shaped confetti showered down on celebrants who had gathered Tuesday morning to mark Santa Clara County’s acquisition of the hospital. (Hase, 4/2)

Bay Area News Group: Biotech Companies Shed Hundreds Of Bay Area Jobs In Fresh Layoffs
Life sciences companies have decided to chop hundreds of Bay Area jobs in a fresh wave of layoffs that hint at ongoing turbulence in the region’s biotech sector, state labor agency posts show. All told, the biotech companies have revealed their intentions to slash 310 Bay Area jobs, according to official notices the companies sent to the state Employment Development Department. (Avalos, 4/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Gilead And Roche Each Lay Off More Than 100 Bay Area Workers
Gilead is laying off 149 workers in Foster City and Roche is laying off 108 workers in Santa Clara, adding to the mounting toll of biotech job cuts in the region. ... Other recent biotech layoffs include Cargo Therapeutics cutting 84 workers in San Carlos and Sutro Biopharma eliminating 65 jobs in South San Francisco and San Carlos. (Li, 4/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Investigation Finds East Bay Medical Center Underpaid Female Employees
A nonprofit medical center with 15 health clinics in Alameda County has agreed to a financial settlement with three female employees after a federal investigation found that it paid them less than a male colleague. Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center will pay the three employees $195,000 in damages following the investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency announced Tuesday. The women will split the settlement money. (Mishanec, 4/1)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Scientist Renowned For Study Of Adolescent Brains Named President Of J. Craig Venter Institute
Anders Dale, a neuroscientist widely known for his insights about the brains of children and adolescents, has been appointed president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, the elite biomedical research center in La Jolla. (Robbins, 4/2)

Becker's Hospital Review: Stanford Taps AI To Reshape Billing: What Were The Results?
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care incorporates an intentional process for evaluating, implementing and monitoring new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. To this end, a new AI tool has led to meaningful results in billing practices, Aditya Bhasin, vice president of software, technology and digital solutions at SHC, told Becker’s. SHC, which has long leveraged AI to solve clinical issues, developed the new tool to streamline billing practices while improving staff wellness and the patient experience. (Gooch, 4/1)

The New York Times: More Americans Cannot Afford Medical Care: Gallup Poll
Health care remains stubbornly unaffordable for millions of people, according to a new survey released Wednesday that underscores the struggle many people have in paying for a doctor’s visit or a prescription drug — even before any talk of cutting government coverage. In the survey, 11 percent of people said they could not afford medication and care within the past three months, the highest level in the four years the survey has been conducted. More than a third of those surveyed, representing some 91 million adults, said if they were to need medical care, they would not be able to pay for it. (Abelson, 4/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Laid-Off SF HHS Employees Say They Were 'Under Attack' By Trump
Even after weeks of bracing for the chopping block, Health and Human Services Department employees in San Francisco said that they were in shock and disbelief over layoffs that impacted more than 300 people within their towering federal complex in Mid-Market, and believe the cuts will have far-reaching implications outside the city. “We all were shellshocked,” said Pete Weldy, the regional manager for a division of the department known as the Administration for Children and Families, or ACF, who was among the 55 members of his 65-person team that woke up on Tuesday morning to termination notices. (Waxmann and Cassidy, 4/1)

The Washington Post: Widespread Layoffs, Purge Of Leadership Underway At U.S. Health Agencies 
Senior leaders across the Department of Health and Human Services were put on leave and countless other employees lost their jobs Tuesday as the Trump administration began a sweeping purge of the agencies that oversee government health programs. Top officials at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration were put on administrative leave or offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service. Other employees began receiving layoff notices or learned they had lost their jobs when their entry badges no longer worked Tuesday morning. (Johnson, Roubein, Achenbach, Sun and Weber, 4/1)

Stat: NIH Reduction In Force Includes Five Institute Directors, Lab Heads 
Directors of five National Institutes of Health institutes and at least two other members of senior leadership have been placed on administrative leave or offered new assignments since Monday, topping a list of hundreds of employees notified in the last 24 hours that they had lost their jobs as part of sweeping layoffs across federal health agencies. (Molteni, Wosen and Mast, 4/1)

Axios: NIH Director Pledges To Implement Changes "Humanely"
Newly confirmed National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya told staff that they face challenges amid large-scale cutbacks and that he will try his best to "implement new policies humanely," according to an all-staff email sent [Monday] and shared with Axios by the agency. (Goldman, 4/1)

Stat: FDA Layoffs Roil Agency On Marty Makary’s First Day As Commissioner 
Marty Makary’s first official day as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration began with employees in tears, learning from security guards that they were losing their jobs. The news release announcing the start of his tenure points readers to a press office that, after large-scale layoffs, basically no longer exists. His first email to staff summarized his resume. (Lawrence and Todd, 4/1)

MedPage Today: Musk, DOGE Created New HHS Org Chart 
Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team created the new org chart for HHS, said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during an interview on News Nation .The HHS secretary said when he arrived at the department, the org chart was "incomprehensible," and Musk "came in for the first time with a real org chart for the agency." Kennedy's statements were confirmed during a Fox News interview with Musk and the DOGE team. DOGE member Anthony Armstrong -- a former Morgan Stanley banker who is now a senior advisor to the Office of Personnel Management -- outlined the team's approach to agency reorganizations. "We literally go in -- and this is mostly at night and over weekends -- with the secretaries of those agencies, and their senior staff, and we're going line by line in the employee org charts ... from the bottom up, talking about every function," Armstrong said. (Fiore, 4/1)

The Desert Sun: California Leads Coalition Of States In HHS Lawsuit Over $11 Billion In Public Health Cuts
California and more than a dozen states are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over the termination of $11 billion in “critical” public health funding. (Barraza, 4/1)

The Intersection: More Than Half Of San Joaquin Valley Residents Could Face ‘Devastating’ Cuts To Health Coverage
More than half of the San Joaquin Valley’s population could be bracing for “devastating” cuts to their health insurance coverage as House Republicans decide how to slash some $880 billion from Medicaid. Among Californians, Valley residents have perhaps the most to lose due to the eight-county region’s high enrollment in Medi-Cal, the state’s version of the federal Medicaid program for low-income residents. About 51% of people living from San Joaquin County down to Kern County use the program to access medical care, the highest percentage for any region across the state. (Rowland, 4/2)

CIDRAP: Analysis: Tariffs On Canadian Drugs Will Strain US Supply Chain
President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on Canadian pharmaceuticals are expected to increase costs in the United States and strain drug supply chains, according to an analysis published yesterday in JAMA. [On April 2], pharmaceuticals will no longer be exempt from the Trump administration's 25% tariff on goods produced in Canada. (Soucheray, 4/1)

USA Today: Trump Tariff Rebuke: GOP Senators To Join Dems In Opposing Canada Plan
In what would be a rebuke to President Donald Trump, a Senate resolution to end the emergency declaration enabling tariffs against Canada is likely to have enough Republican votes to pass the chamber, according to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky. Paul is co-sponsoring the resolution with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, who wants to force GOP lawmakers to go on the record on the policy. Trump implemented the emergency declaration in February to put tariffs on Canada for not going far enough to stop fentanyl from crossing into the United States. (Bacon, Beggin, Chambers, Jansen and Ortiz, 4/1)

Fortune Well: Mark Cuban Warns Trump’s Tariffs Mean His Cost Plus Drugs ‘Won’t Have A Choice’ But To Raise Prices For Consumers
During an interview on the Somebody’s Gotta Win With Tara Palmeri podcast, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban warned that the drug company he cofounded, Cost Plus Drugs, would be forced to raise its prices in response to a tariff on goods imported from India. “We won’t have a choice,” Cuban said. (Freedman, 4/1)

Los Angeles Times: County Forms Homeless Agency, Taking Hundreds Of Millions From LAHSA
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to move hundreds of millions of dollars out of the region’s homeless services agency on Tuesday, despite warnings from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass about creating a “massive disruption” in the region’s fight against homelessness. On a 4-0 vote, the supervisors signed off on the strategy to form a new county homelessness department with a budget that would almost immediately exceed $1 billion. By July 2026, the supervisors will move more than $300 million from Measure A, a half-percent sales tax, out of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, and into the new county agency. (Zahniser and Ellis, 4/1)

Los Angeles Times: A Federal Judge Is Demanding A Fix For L.A.'s Broken Homelessness System. Is Receivership His Next Step?
With the top city and county elected officials sitting in his jury box, the judge lectured for more than an hour, excoriating what he called the Rocky Horror Picture Show of homeless services in Los Angeles. But when it came time to reveal the drastic remedy anticipated by a courtroom full of spectators, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter hit pause. He gave Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kathryn Barger until May to fix the broken system, vowing only then to become “your worst nightmare” should they fail. (Smith, 4/2)

Voice of OC: Westminster To Crack Down On Homeless Camps, Illegal Street Vending
Westminster officials are joining a growing list of Orange County cities laying down anti-camping laws to crack down on homeless people sleeping in city parks, streets and other city facilities. Last  month, city leaders also revisited city laws for illegal street vending – an issue that elected officials are claiming is worsening the public health of residents. (Rios and Ostroy, 4/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Lurie Ally Releases Roadmap To Address S.F.’s Homelessness Crisis
It turns out Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration got something of a head start on one of its top policy priorities: devising ways to reduce San Francisco’s entrenched homelessness crisis. Crankstart, the local foundation started by billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, on Tuesday celebrated the completion of a lengthy report that makes a series of recommendations to slash systemic barriers hindering the city’s homeless response. The report suggests the city prioritize affordable housing construction on a portion of 300 sites available for development, among other potential moves. (Morris, 4/1)

Bay Area News Group: California Democrats Kill GOP Bills To Restrict Transgender Players From School Sports Teams
The divisive national debate over transgender athletes took center stage in Sacramento on Tuesday when state Democrats killed two Republican-backed bills to restrict transgender players from girls’ and women’s school teams. (Stringer, 4/2)

Politico: Planned Parenthood Applies Its Abortion Playbook To Push For Transgender Rights In California 
California reproductive health care advocates are moving to extend their playbook for abortion protections to transgender care in the wake of federal funding cuts and moves to reverse trans rights under the Trump administration. In a state legislative package first shared with POLITICO, Planned Parenthood is backing six bills that touch on access to medication abortion, STI testing, Medi-Cal funding and privacy protections for patients and providers who work in gender-affirming care. (Bluth, 4/1)

Los Angeles Times: California Woman Sues Catholic Hospital Chain Over Abortion Denial
A Eureka woman who nearly bled to death while miscarrying twins last year is suing the Catholic hospital chain that she claims refused her life-saving abortion care. Anna Nusslock, a chiropractor who sued Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka and its parent companies in Humbolt Superior Court on Tuesday, said she hopes the action will force the company’s California hospitals to follow state law. (Sharp, 4/1)

Roll Call: Supreme Court To Weigh Medicaid Cutoff For Planned Parenthood 
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Wednesday over South Carolina’s effort to keep Planned Parenthood facilities from receiving Medicaid funding if they perform abortions, part of a dispute that could impact Congress’ ability to mandate coverage in the program. (Macagnone, 4/1)

Times of San Diego: Rep. Jacobs, Sen. Duckworth Join To Introduce IVF For Military Families Act
As reproductive and fertility issues take center stage in the Trump administration, Rep. Sara Jacobs joined Sen. Tammy Duckworth to introduce the IVF for Military Families Act, which would require TRICARE to cover infertility diagnosis and treatment. Rep. Rick Larsen and Sen. Patty Murray also introduced the bill, which would include coverage for active duty service members and their dependents, as well as members of Congress and their staff. (Binkowski, 4/1)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Napa Program Helping Residents With Mental Health Challenges To Close After 30 Years
A longtime Napa program that has helped residents with behavioral health challenges live independently is shutting down after three decades. (Booth, 4/1)