Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
From Clinic To Courtroom, Fighting For Immigrant Health Care
Jane Garcia is CEO of La Clínica de La Raza, which operates more than 30 clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area serving a high percentage of immigrant patients. She has challenged state and federal immigration policies in court, including the Trump administration’s recent attempt to expand the “public charge” rule. (Ana B. Ibarra, )
Good morning! Here are some of your top California health stories for the day.
Congress’ Sweeping Spending Bill Includes Help For Battling California’s Wildfires: The House took the first step Tuesday in approving a deal between congressional leaders and the White House on a $1.4-trillion spending package. Among the many provisions included is one that California and other Western states still recovering from destructive wildfires have sought for years. It ends a long-standing practice known as “fire-borrowing,” which required the U.S. Forest Service to raid its other funds whenever it ran out of money to pay for fighting wildfires. With no choice but to continue paying firefighters, the agency used money that was supposed to pay for research, maintenance of national forests and preventive measures such as prescribed burns. Read more about what’s in the legislation from Anna M. Phillips of the Los Angeles Times.
Starting In 2020, Medi-Cal To Add Cut Benefits Back To List, Expand Maternal Health Coverage: When California had to shrink the Medi-Cal budget back in 2009 certain benefits that were considered optional at the federal level were cut. But now California’s bringing them back. The latest state budget allocates $17.4 million to cover eyeglasses, podiatry, audiology and other benefits starting Jan. 1. This is the next step in an ongoing process of restoring previously cut Medi-Cal benefits. The state has restored dental coverage in recent years, and acupuncture has also returned as a covered service. Also starting in January, mothers on Medi-Cal will be covered for maternal mental health treatment for a full year instead of the current 60 days. More than $8 million is allocated in the state budget for this expansion. And another law taking effect in January requires commercial and Medi-Cal plans to cover continuous mental health treatment for new moms who want to keep seeing the same provider, even if that provider leaves the insurance plan’s network. Read more about restored benefits and maternal health from Sammy Caiola of the Capital Public Radio.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
The Wall Street Journal:
PG&E Wins Court Approval Of $13.5 Billion Deal With Wildfire Victims
PG&E Corp. won court approval for a $13.5 billion settlement with victims of fires linked to its equipment but the utility said it expects talks to continue with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last week said its bankruptcy-exit plan falls short of needed reforms. The pact with fire victims is the third and largest in a series of settlements aimed at putting a lid on damage claims from a series of blazes in recent years that left people dead, destroyed homes and businesses and plunged PG&E into bankruptcy in January. (12/17)
Sacramento Bee:
CA Regulators Propose $1.6 Billion Penalty Against PG&E
In addition, PG&E shareholders agreed to spend another $50 million on “system enhancements” to improve wildfire safety. The company is already spending hundreds of milllions of dollars this year on fire safety. “This settlement agreement underscores our commitment to learning from the past and doing what’s right for safety in the future,” Chief Executive Bill Johnson said in a prepared statement. The deal was announced as lawyers for PG&E struggled in Bankruptcy Court to secure approval for a separate, $13.5 billion payment plan to compensate victims of the 2017 fires in Napa and Sonoma and the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed most of Paradise. The fires killed more than 120 people. (Kasler, 12/17)
The San Francisco Chronicle:
Judge OKs $13.5 Billion PG&E Settlement With Fire Victims’ Lawyers
The verbal ruling is a big victory for PG&E, which has been trying to maintain control over its bankruptcy while competing with a restive group of bondholders who have advanced their own plan. The judge’s decision on the victims’ deal was also the one that their attorneys had urged him to make, warning that the case’s progress would be imperiled otherwise — as would the ability of their clients to be paid in a timely manner. (Morris, 12/17)
Ventura County Star:
Mental Health Worker Strike Affects Kaiser Sites In Ventura County
Mental health workers at Kaiser Permanente sites in Ventura, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks say they are striking to improve patient access to care in a labor action set to end Friday. The three Ventura County behavioral health offices are part of a statewide action that involves 4,000 psychologists, social workers, nurses and other mental health clinicians and healthcare workers. The five-day strike started Monday with National Union of Healthcare Workers members pointing at what they call understaffing by Kaiser resulting in patients who have to wait weeks or months for appointments. “It’s access, access, access. That’s the issue. It’s really painful,” said Lisa Klein, a psychologist who works as a marriage and family therapist at a Ventura behavioral health site on Hill Road. “My next available appointment is February.” (Kisken, 12/17)
Fresno Bee:
Why Is The Air Bad In The Valley? Here’s What The Experts Say
A sudden and dangerous spike in Fresno’s air quality last week has regional officials re-examining everything from burn-day approvals to public notification systems, authorities said. But officials with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District said the unexpected spike of hazardous particulate matter was the result of a perfect storm of circumstances in the Valley. (Rodriguez-Delgado, 12/17)
KPBS:
Marijuana Tourists Mean More Visits To California ERs
San Diego has long been a favorite spot for tourists who come for its surfing, beaches and parks. But for the past couple years, tourists have also been coming for something else. Legal marijuana. And that has contributed to a bump in emergency room visits, said Dr. Richard Clark, an emergency physician and director of medical toxicology at UC San Diego. (Trageser, 12/18)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Learning To Walk, Live And Hope Again: Bay Area Man Endures 19 Surgeries, Homelessness
When first learning to walk again, 41-year-old Tracy Walker realized he needed to shift the weight in his hips and land each step on his heel. It’s the gait of a man who over the past eight years had 19 surgeries on his legs, which included the amputation of his toes on both feet due to complications with Type 2 diabetes. But finding ways to be mobile was only one of Walker’s recent obstacles in life. The surgeries kept him from working for extended periods of time, and without a steady income, Walker, along with his mother, Suzette Solis, and his great aunt, Carol Moreno-Solis, became homeless. (Phillips, 12/18)
The Associated Press:
Nearly 20 Years In Prison For California Surgeon And His ‘Butchery’
A federal appeals court affirmed a nearly 20-year prison sentence for a doctor who performed unnecessary spinal surgeries in California and Michigan, procedures that were described by prosecutors as “plain butchery.” Aria Sabit acknowledged the awful care nearly three years ago in federal court in Detroit, but he appealed the 235-month sentence as excessive. The appeals court, however, let it stand Monday in a 3-0 opinion. (White, 12/17)
Los Angeles Times:
California Leads The Country In Meth And Fentanyl Border Seizures By CBP
More than 60% of methamphetamine seized by Customs and Border Protection across the country came through California ports, according to data from the federal agency. During fiscal 2019, which ended Sept. 30, CBP agents in California seized more than 80,000 pounds of methamphetamine at the border. That figure accounted for 63% of all methamphetamine seized by CBP agents nationwide this year and represented a 66% increase from the amount seized in California in the last fiscal year. (Solis, 12/17)
The New York Times:
Doctors Win Again, In Cautionary Tale For Democrats
Democratic voters eager to see “Medicare for all” or some other major health overhaul pass the next time they control the White House may want to take a close look at what happened this week in Congress. Leaders from both parties had unveiled legislation to stop surprise medical bills, the often exorbitant bills faced by patients when they go to a hospital that takes their insurance but are treated by a doctor who does not. The White House and major consumer groups had also endorsed the plan, which was to be included in the year-end spending bill. But to the negotiators’ consternation, the spending package that emerged on Monday — and was passed on Tuesday by the House — had nothing about surprise bills. (Sanger-Katz, 12/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Affordable Care Act’s Legacy, Nearly 10 Years Later
Nearly a decade after its passage along party lines under President Obama, the Affordable Care Act is deeply ingrained in the U.S. health-care system, influencing everything from seniors’ drug costs to calorie disclosures on restaurant menus. It added about 20 million people to the ranks of the insured. But it also remains a political flashpoint. After a decade of funding fights and a series of court challenges, the ACA faces a fresh legal case, brought by a group of Republican-led states and backed by the Trump administration, that aims to strike it down. (Wilde Mathews, 12/17)
The New York Times:
Navajo Nation To Create Its Own Managed Healthcare Entity
The Navajo Nation is seeking become one of the first Native American tribes to create it's own managed healthcare entity, the tribe recently announced. The tribe said it plans to contract with Molina Healthcare to work toward a managed healthcare offering under New Mexico’s Centennial Care Medicaid program. (12/18)
The Associated Press:
US Proposes New Rules To Increase Organ Transplants
The U.S. government is overhauling parts of the nation's transplant system to make sure organs from the dead no longer go to waste — and to make it easier for the living to donate. The rules proposed Tuesday aim to ease an organ shortage so severe that more than 113,000 Americans linger on the transplant waiting list — and about 20 die each day. (12/17)
The Associated Press:
DOJ Sues CVS Over 'Stale' Omnicare Prescription Refills
The Department of Justice said in federal court papers filed Tuesday that Omnicare’s pharmacies sent drugs to people living in residential facilities based on “stale, invalid prescriptions.” It accused the company of fraudulently billing government-funded programs like Medicaid and Medicare for drugs dispensed without a valid prescription from 2010 to 2018. The DOJ said the practice put the safety of thousands of patients at risk because people kept taking the same drugs for months — or in some cases, years — without talking to a doctor. (12/17)
The New York Times:
Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits
Teenagers are drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarettes and trying fewer hard drugs, new federal survey data shows. But these public health gains have been offset by a sharp increase in vaping of marijuana and nicotine. These diverging trend lines, published Wednesday, are among the findings in the Monitoring the Future survey — a closely watched annual study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, of eighth, 10th and 12th graders. The survey shows that youth drug use and experimentation continue to undergo significant evolution. (Richtel, 12/18)