Los Angeles Times: Gov. Jerry Brown To Again Weigh Access To Experimental Drugs For The Terminally Ill
For the second consecutive year, Gov. Jerry Brown will have to decide on a measure that would allow gravely ill patient access to experimental drugs. The Assembly on Tuesday gave final legislative approval to Assemblyman Ian Charles Calderon's so-called "right-to-try" legislation, which authorizes drug and medical device manufacturers to make their products available to terminally ill patients, even if the products have not yet been cleared by the federal Food and Drug Administration. (Mason, 8/23)

Bloomberg: Insurance Startup Oscar Quits Two Markets, Rethinks Obamacare Plans
Health insurance startup Oscar Insurance Corp. will reevaluate its approach to Obamacare after suffering significant losses under the U.S. program and will pull out of two markets next year. Oscar, which pitches itself as a tech-savvy alternative to traditional health insurers, plans to end sales of Affordable Care Act plans in Dallas, a market it entered this year, and New Jersey. It’s part of a more conservative approach by the New York-based company as it plans to introduce insurance products for businesses next year. (Tracer, 8/23)

The Fiscal Times: Obamacare Startup Latest To Pull Out Of Health Care Markets
Big insurers like Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare aren’t the only ones why say they’re struggling to make a profit on the public exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act. Oscar Insurance Corp., a startup created specifically to cater to customers on the Obamacare exchanges, has also seen significant losses, prompting the young company to pull out of two markets next year, Bloomberg reports. (Braverman, 8/23)

In other health law news —

Morning Consult: Analysis: GOP Obamacare Replacement Plan Would Decrease Coverage, Lower Premiums
The House GOP’s Obamacare replacement plan would decrease coverage over the next 10 years, but lower individual insurance premiums and decrease the federal deficit by $481 billion, according to an analysis publishing today by the Center for Health and Economy and provided in advance to Morning Consult. The Center for Health and Economy is a nonpartisan research organization that provides analysis on health care in the U.S. While the analysis makes several assumptions because of the lack of detail in the Republican plan, it is among the first to evaluate the impact of the proposal. The analysis compares the GOP plan to projections under current law. (Owens, 8/24)

LA Times: Cancer Surpasses Heart Disease To Become The Leading Cause Of Death In California And 21 Other States
Cancer has surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 21 other states, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That total is in stark contrast to the situation at the start of this century, when only two states — Alaska and Minnesota — lost more people to cancer than heart disease. And it’s a huge departure from the situation in the 1950s, when the number of heart disease deaths was 2½ times bigger than the number of cancer fatalities. (Kaplan, 8/24)

STAT: Cancer Therapy Holds Great Promise — But At Great Cost
[Karen] Koehler was undergoing a promising — and terrifying — experimental therapy that her oncologists hoped could rid her body of cancer entirely. It’s called CAR-T therapy, and it works by engineering the patient’s own immune cells to attack cancer. ... The treatment induces such sudden and severe side effects that it can take a small army of top specialists to keep patients alive while their newly engineered immune systems attack their cancer cells. The result: CAR-T remains so risky, so complex, and so difficult to manage that experts warn it’ll be years before it’s available to most patients who would stand to benefit — even though two drug makers, startup Kite Pharma and pharmaceutical giant Novartis, are racing to get their versions of the therapy approved by the the Food and Drug Administration as early as next year. (Keshavan, 8/23)

LA Times: Berkeley Sees A Big Drop In Soda Consumption After Penny-Per-Ounce ‘Soda Tax’ 
Can Americans tax themselves out of their obesity crisis? A new analysis of Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation “soda tax” offers encouraging results about its power to change people’s dietary habits. Five months after the city implemented its penny-per-ounce tax on all manner of sugar-sweetened beverages, lower-income residents had reduced their consumption by 21%, compared to the pre-tax days. Meanwhile, their counterparts in neighboring Oakland and San Francisco increased the amount of sugary drinks consumed by 4% during the same period, according to a study published Tuesday in the American Journal of Public Health. (Kaplan, 8/23)

NPR: Berkeley's Soda Tax Appears To Cut Consumption Of Sugary Drinks
The nation's first "soda tax" on sugar-sweetened beverages, which went into effect in Berkeley, Calif., last year, appears to be working. According to a new study, consumption of sugary drinks — at least in some neighborhoods — is down by a whopping 20 percent. (Charles, 8/24)

CNN: Sugar Recommendation: No More Than 6 Teaspoons Per Day For Kids
Children, ages 2 to 18, should consume no more than about six teaspoons of added sugars in their daily diets, according to new recommendations from the American Heart Association. Researchers called limiting a child's added sugar consumption to six teaspoons -- equivalent to about 100 calories or 25 grams -- "an important public health target" in a paper published in the journal Circulation on Monday. The paper outlines the new recommendations. (8/23)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Free Alzheimer's Screenings For San Diegans
Recent studies have found that early intervention is important for people experiencing memory loss, and a new partnership between the nonprofit group Alzheimer’s San Diego and the Sharp HealthCare network aims to provide an easy place to start the process of screening, eventual diagnosis and resulting treatment and overall support. The duo will offer free memory screenings to 50 San Diego County residents during a four-hour session Thursday. These work-ups are designed to be a first step rather than a full answer, said Mary Ball, president of Alzheimer’s San Diego. (Sisson, 8/23)

Kaiser Health News: As The For-Profit World Moves Into An Elder Care Program, Some Worry
But this is no linoleum-floored community center reeking of bleach. Instead, it’s one of eight vanguard centers owned by InnovAge, a company based in Denver with ambitious plans. With the support of private equity money, InnovAge aims to aggressively expand a little-known Medicare program that will pay to keep older and disabled Americans out of nursing homes. Until recently, only nonprofits were allowed to run programs like these. But a year ago, the government flipped the switch, opening the program to for-profit companies as well, ending one of the last remaining holdouts to commercialism in health care. The hope is that the profit motive will expand the services faster. (Varney, 8/24)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Tri-City, UC San Diego Health Finalize A Collaboration That Will Expand Offerings In North San Diego County 
Tri-City Medical Center and UC San Diego Health on Tuesday finalized a partnership that’s already increasing the breadth of specialty surgeries available in coastal North County. But experts said it remains to be seen whether this collaboration will help the community hospital in Oceanside improve its scores for quality, which usually are not in the top tier and recently took a hit with a low rating from Medicare. (Sisson, 8/23)

And the CDC urges hospital personnel to treat cases of sepsis as a medical emergency —

The Washington Post: Sepsis Is A Medical Emergency, CDC Says. It Can Be Stopped If Caught In Time.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared sepsis a medical emergency, reporting Tuesday that about 72 percent of patients with this fast-moving and deadly illness have recently been seen by doctors and nurses, representing missed opportunities to catch it early or prevent it. (Karidis, 8/23)

KPCC: There's Not Enough Oversight Of Psychotropic Prescriptions For Foster Kids
Some children in foster care in Southern California are receiving high doses of psychotropic medications without follow-up care, and without required parental or court approval, a report by the California State Auditor revealed Tuesday. The agency pulled 80 case files from child welfare departments in four counties, including Los Angeles and Riverside, and found ongoing problems with how the drugs are handled. In some cases, children received medications, but no known counseling. In others, dosages were higher than recommended. Looking at overall state data, auditors found 65 percent of children were prescribed at least one medication without legally required court approval. (Palta, 8/23)

Capital Public Radio: California Foster Children Overprescribed Psychotropic Drugs 
The report says 12 percent of California's foster children received 96,000 Medi-Cal-paid prescriptions for psychotropic drugs between 2014 and 2015, which would amount to 10 prescriptions per child per year. The audit also found the California Department of Social Services and the Department of Health Care Services were unable to completely identify which foster children were prescribed the medications. (Johnson, 8/24)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County Foster Children Given Too Many Psychotropic Drugs, Report Finds
Sonoma County does not adequately monitor the use of psychotropic drugs among local foster youth, raising the possibility the county may be inappropriately medicating children or over-prescribing the mind-altering medications, according to a report released Tuesday by the California Auditor’s Office. County officials, however, strongly questioned some of the findings and insisted state auditors reviewed only limited documentation of the care foster youth received. The state did not review such documents as patient medical records and foster placement records, officials said. (Espinoza, 8/23)

KQED: Sorry, The Therapist Can't See You — Not Now, Not Anytime Soon
More than 43 million Americans have depression, anxiety, or another mental health condition. But more than half never get help. Recent laws were supposed to make it easier for Californians to access treatment, but many still face roadblocks, even with insurance. In this special series by KQED's The California Report and State of Health we travel across the state to find out why it’s so difficult to get mental health care. (Dembosky, 8/23)

Los Angeles Daily News: Spice Alert Issued In LA County After Skid Row ‘Outbreak’
A day after more than a dozen people smoked synthetic marijuana known as Spice and fell ill in downtown L.A.’s Skid Row area, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health issued an alert Tuesday to caution medical professionals about what could be an ongoing outbreak. ...  County health officials are asking physicians to talk to patients at-risk for substance abuse about the dangers of Spice and to report any cases. Meanwhile on Skid Row, police were out on foot patrol, warning the homeless about Spice, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Mike Lopez. (Abram, 8/23)

Los Angeles Times: Illegal Drugs Flow Into California's Death Row Despite High Security — And Some Condemned Prisoners Die 
The condemned inmates on California's death row are among the most closely monitored in the state. Death row’s 747 inmates spend most of their time locked down, isolated from the rest of the prison system under heavy guard with regular strip searches and checks every half-hour for signs of life. Still, six death row inmates died between 2010 and 2015 with detectable levels of methamphetamines, heroin metabolites or other drugs in their system, according to Marin County coroner records. (St. John, 8/24)

The Associated Press: San Diego Man Who Lost Ability To Speak And Walk Seeks To Have Voting Rights Restored
A former producer at NPR who lost his ability to walk and speak asked a judge Tuesday to restore his right to vote under a new California law that makes it easier for people with disabilities to keep that right and regain it if lost. (8/23)

KPCC: LA County Treating Few People For Hepatitis C
Although Adolfo eventually kicked his habit, he's left with the consequences of his IV drug use. He learned about 10 years ago that he has hepatitis C. Today, Adolfo is one of the few patients that the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services has approved to receive powerful new drugs that effectively cure the virus. Health Services, which provides health care for about half a million low-income people, started dispensing these drugs a little over a year ago. (Plevin, 8/24)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Unified Finds Money To Expand Health Benefits Despite Budget Worries
The Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday voted to extend health benefits to two groups of part-time employees despite ongoing concerns about the school system’s long-term financial health. The employees winning health benefits include teacher assistants and playground aides, who are members of Local 99 of Service Employees International. The union’s win comes as the season nears for school board elections and candidate endorsements. The union is expected to be a significant player in the March 2017 elections. (Blume, 8/24)

Oakland Tribune: Judge Dismisses Bay Area Cities' Suit Against Monsanto For Polluting Bay With PCBs
A judge has tossed a lawsuit filed against Monsanto Co. by the cities of San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley claiming that the St. Louis-based business is just as responsible as them for cleaning up harmful polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in San Francisco Bay. U.S. District Court Judge Edward J. Davila, however, left the door open in his ruling Monday for the cities to amend and re-file the complaint. ... PCBs are known to cause a number of health issues, including cancer, in humans, and destroy populations of fish, birds and other animal life. Finally banned by Congress in 1979, the chemical was used in a variety applications, such as paint, sealants and lubricants. (Green, 8/24)

USA Today: EpiPen's Steady Price Increases Masked Until Deductibles Rose
The prices insurers and employers negotiate with Mylan are up about 150% since 2009, according to Rx Savings Solutions, which represents businesses and insurance companies. The average wholesale price has increased nearly 500% in that time, says Michael Rea, a pharmacist and CEO of Rx Savings Solutions. As outrageous as the EpiPen increases seem, Rea says they aren't that unusual and are getting attention now because parents are stocking up before back to school and are increasingly facing higher out-of-pocket costs due to higher deductibles and cost sharing. (O'Donnell, Singer and Rudavsky, 8/23)

The Associated Press: How EpiPen's Maker Raised Prices, And Hackles, So Much
Sky-high price hikes for EpiPen, the injected emergency medicine for severe allergic reactions to foods and bug bites, have made its maker the latest target for patients and politicians infuriated by soaring drug prices. The company, Mylan, has a virtual monopoly on epinephrine injectors, potentially life-saving devices used to stop a runaway allergic reaction. Mylan N.V., which has headquarters in Hertfordshire, England, and Pittsburgh, has hiked prices as frequently as three times a year over the past nine years, pushing its list price for a package of two syringes to more than $600. (Johnson, 8/23)

NBC News: As EpiPen's Price Soared 400 Percent, Executive Pay Soared 600 Percent
EpiPens are used in emergencies to treat people — often children — who experience potentially deadly allergic reactions. The manufacturer is now facing increasing criticism for the staggering rise in the EpiPen's price. (Holt, 8/23)

Vox: EpiPen’s 400 Percent Price Hike Tells Us A Lot About What’s Wrong With American Health Care
The story of Mylan’s giant EpiPen price increase is, more fundamentally, a story about America's unique drug pricing policies. We are the only developed nation that lets drugmakers set their own prices, maximizing profits the same way sellers of chairs, mugs, shoes, or any other manufactured goods would. In Europe, Canada, and Australia, governments view the market for cures as essentially uncompetitive and set the price as part of a bureaucratic process, similar to how electricity or water are priced in regulated US utility markets. (Kliff, 8/23)

Kaiser Health News: Government-Protected ‘Monopolies’ Drive Drug Prices Higher, Study Says
The “most important factor” that drives prescription drug prices higher in the United States than anywhere else in the world is the existence of government-protected “monopoly” rights for drug manufacturers, researchers at Harvard Medical School report today. The researchers reviewed thousands of studies published from January 2005 through July 2016 in an attempt to simplify and explain what has caused America’s drug price crisis and how to solve it. They found that the problem has deep and complicated roots and published their findings in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association. (Lupkin, 8/23)

Bloomberg: The Real Reason Drugs Cost Too Much 
The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Patent Office together give new drugs monopoly rights that last anywhere from eight and a half to 15-plus years. This helps explain why brand-name drugs account for 72 percent of drug spending in the U.S. even though they represent only 10 percent of prescriptions. Since 2008, prices for the most commonly used branded drugs have risen 164 percent -- far faster than other medical costs. The U.S. spends more than twice what other industrialized countries spend on drugs. (8/23)

ProPublica: Drug And Device Makers Pay Thousands Of Docs With Disciplinary Records 
Pharmaceutical and medical device companies are continuing to pay doctors as promotional speakers and expert advisers even after they’ve been disciplined for serious misconduct, according to an analysis by ProPublica. One such company is medical device maker Stryker Corp. In June 2015, New York’s Board for Professional Medical Conduct accused orthopedic surgeon Alexios Apazidis of improperly prescribing pain medications to 28 of his patients. The board fined him $50,000 and placed him on three years’ probation, requiring that a monitor keep an eye on his practice. Despite this, Stryker paid Apazidis more than $14,000 in consulting fees, plus travel expenses, in the last half of 2015. (Huseman, 8/23)

The Associated Press: States File Another Lawsuit Over Obama Transgender Rules
The lawsuit is the second in recent months in which conservative states have sued over federal efforts to defend transgender rights. Social conservatives claimed victory Sunday when a federal judge in Texas halted an Obama administration directive requiring public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Now they're asking that same court to block new regulations intended to ban discrimination by doctors, hospitals and insurers against transgender persons. (Weber, 8/23)

Politico: States Sue To Block Obamacare's Transgender Protections
The lawsuit challenges a section of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in health care programs. In May, HHS issued final regulations, which prevent insurers from having blanket bans on coverage of gender reassignment services and forbids providers from refusing care to transgender patients, among other protections. (Pradhan, 8/23)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Sued Over New Transgender Health-Care Regulation
The lawsuit marks religious conservatives’ growing engagement in the fight over transgender rights, which has rapidly emerged as one of the most explosive social debates of the Obama administration. The suit comes just one day after a Texas judge temporarily suspended new federal guidelines intended to expand bathroom access for transgender students at public schools. (Lovett and Radnofsky, 8/23)