Bloomberg: 23andMe Says Website ‘Delays’ Resolved After Users Rushed To Delete Data
23andMe Inc. said Tuesday that it experienced website delays, after a wave of customers sought to delete their genetic data before it can be sold through a planned bankruptcy auction. A company spokesperson said the site “experienced some issues and delays due to increased traffic” on Monday, in response to Bloomberg News questions about whether users were facing issues trying to close their accounts. Those problems have since been resolved, the spokesperson said, advising users to contact customer support if they continue to encounter trouble deleting their data. (Randles, 3/25)

Fierce Healthcare: 23andMe Bankruptcy Sparks Genetic Data Privacy Concerns
23andMe’s weekend bankruptcy filing has ignited concerns among consumers who provided the company with their genetic information, and reignited discussions on data privacy among policymakers and security experts. Among the genetic testing company’s assets are the genetic information of more than 15 million customers who had used its direct-to-consumer DNA tests, about 80% of whom also opted into their use for research purposes. (Muoio, 3/25)

Becker's Hospital Review: Medicaid Cuts Could Cost 477,000 Healthcare Jobs: 5 Notes 
Proposed cuts in federal Medicaid funding would lead to the loss of 477,000 healthcare jobs in 2026, according to a new report. In February, the House of Representatives passed a budget resolution that calls for an $880 billion reduction in spending over 10 years for programs under the jurisdiction of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Medicaid is expected to be the majority of these cuts. The report, published March 25, was written by researchers from the Commonwealth Fund and the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. (Wilson, 3/25)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Strike By Kaiser Mental Health Workers Nears The Six-Month Mark
Frustrated Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers, approaching six months on strike, staged what they called a “die in” on the front steps of the company’s San Diego administration building in Grantville on Tuesday. (Sisson, 3/25)

MedPage Today: Hospital Slammed For Not Telling Families About Patients' Deaths
Mercy San Juan Medical Center has for years transported numerous deceased patients to an off-site morgue without notifying next-of-kin, leaving anguished families searching for loved ones who seemed to just disappear. That's according to accusations in three California statements of deficiencies filed in the last 3 years. Investigators found the hospital failed to meet requirements for completing patients' death certificates within 15 hours, making sufficient attempts to notify family, and writing discharge summaries within 14 days. (Clark, 3/25)

Becker's Hospital Review: California Hospital Fails To Meet 'Insolvency' Definition, Appellate Court Rules 
An appellate court has upheld a bankruptcy court’s decision dismissing Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, affirming that the San Benito Health Care District, which oversees the hospital, no longer meets the definition of insolvency. “While we respectfully disagree with the ruling, we remain steadfastly focused on our plans to secure the hospital’s future,” Hazel Hawkins said in a March 25 statement. (Condon, 3/25)

Becker's Hospital Review: 20 Medical Schools That Received The Most NIH Funding In 2024
The University of California San Francisco was the top awarded medical school by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal 2024, receiving $726 million in research funding. Thirteen of the top 20 medical school recipients are located in the Northeast and California. The data comes from the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, which analyzes NIH’s publicly reported grant awards annually. In total, NIH distributed more than $37.2 billion in extramural funding through over 65,000 awards or contracts in 2024. (Carbajal, 3/25)

LAist: LA County Approves $908 Million In Spending To Curb Homelessness
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $908 million funding package for homeless services, including the first allocations under the new Measure A sales tax. The board also approved a new formula for determining how some Measure A dollars will be distributed among the county’s 88 cities. (Schrank, 3/26)

Voice Of San Diego: San Diego Is On The Hook For Monthly $77,000 Payments Of Shuttered Senior Shelter
More than two years ago, Mayor Todd Gloria and other local leaders stood outside a downtown motel and cheered the opening of the city’s first-ever dedicated shelter for homeless seniors. Two years later, that shelter is closed. The city and provider Serving Seniors quietly ramped down the shelter recently after the city decided needed building repairs made the program too costly to sustain. Now the 34-room motel is vacant, and the city will spend about $77,000 a month on rent until its lease ends on June 30. (Halverstadt, 3/25)

Bay Area News Group: Oakland To Close Two Homeless Shelters, Raising Fears Residents Could Be Forced To Streets
Oakland officials say they plan to close two homeless shelters at the end of June. But the sites’ nonprofit operator claims it may need to shutter them as soon as next week, raising fears that dozens of unhoused people could soon be forced back onto the streets. (Varian, 3/26)

Stat: Dr. Oz Clears Senate Panel Vote, On Path To Run Medicare, Medicaid 
Mehmet Oz has been a heart surgeon, a TV show host, an author, and a Senate candidate. On Tuesday, he inched closer to adding CMS administrator to the list. The Senate Finance Committee voted along party lines to send Oz’s nomination to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the full Senate for a vote, where he’ll likely be confirmed. (Bannow, 3/25)

The New York Times: Senate Confirms Bhattacharya And Makary To H.H.S. Posts
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Dr. Martin A. Makary as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health, installing two critics of the medical establishment to influential posts amid a Trump administration campaign to cut spending at health agencies. (Mueller, 3/25)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Taps Controversial GOP Aide For Chief HHS Watchdog
President Donald Trump's pick to be the top official investigating waste, fraud and abuse at the Health and Human Services Department has firsthand experience with improper payments at government agencies. Attorney March Bell, whom Trump nominated to be HHS inspector general on Monday, lost his job as deputy director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in 1997 after an audit accused him of authorizing an improper payment to a former employee. Bell was senior adviser and chief of staff at the HHS Office for Civil Rights during Trump's first term. (Early, 3/25)

The Washington Post: Vaccine Skeptic Hired To Head Federal Study Of Immunizations And Autism
A vaccine skeptic who has long promoted false claims about the connection between immunizations and autism has been tapped by the federal government to conduct a critical study of possible links between the two, according to current and former federal health officials. The Department of Health and Human Services has hired David Geier to conduct the analysis, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. (Sun and Nirappil, 3/25)

AP: 5 High-Level CDC Officials Are Leaving In The Latest Turmoil For The Public Health Agency
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was rocked by five high-level departures on Tuesday in the latest turmoil for the nation’s top public health agency. The departures were announced at a meeting of agency senior leaders. The Atlanta-based CDC has two dozen centers and offices. The heads of five of them are stepping down, and that follows three other departures in recent weeks. This means close to a third of the agency’s top management is leaving or left recently. (Stobbe, 3/25)

NBC News: CDC Is Pulling Back $11B In Covid Funding Sent To Health Departments Across The U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pulling back $11.4 billion in funds allocated in response to the pandemic to state and community health departments, nongovernment organizations and international recipients, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday. "The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in a statement. (Zadrozny, 3/25)

KQED: San Mateo County Measles Case Highlights Risk For Unvaccinated, Expert Says
The California Department of Public Health confirmed that there have been eight cases of measles in the state since February, with at least one of those infections in San Mateo County. San Mateo County Health officials told KQED that the patient is a county resident whose infection earlier this year was related to travel. They confirmed that their investigation and contract tracing found that no other infections had occurred as a result but declined to share the exact date of when the infection occurred or what the patient’s status is. (Lim, 3/25)

NPR: With Measles On The Rise, What We Can Learn From Past Epidemics
Reports of measles cases in 18 states so far are alerting people to a potential new, but also old, threat of contagion. As the U.S. health system grapples with new outbreaks and the risk of old diseases making a comeback, we're looking to the past to inform how people in marginalized communities can prepare themselves for how the current administration might handle an epidemic. On this episode, a conversation with historian and author Edna Bonhomme, about her latest book A History of the World in Six Plagues. (Parker, Lopez, Trelles, Mortada, Stein, Cala, Kung, Demby and Williams, 3/26)

The New York Times: For Some Measles Patients, Vitamin A Remedy Supported By RFK Jr. Leaves Them More Ill
Doctors in West Texas are seeing measles patients whose illnesses have been complicated by an alternative therapy endorsed by vaccine skeptics including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary. ... One of those supplements is cod liver oil containing vitamin A, which Mr. Kennedy has promoted as a near miraculous cure for measles. Physicians at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, say they’ve now treated a handful of unvaccinated children who were given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage. (Rosenbluth, 3/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: Women Are At Much Higher Risk Of Long COVID Than Men. Why?
Five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, long COVID — one of the most mysterious and debilitating consequences of the virus — remains with us, and is disproportionately affecting women. An estimated 15 million to 20 million Americans have had long COVID, which is defined as having symptoms that last more than three months, often including fatigue, brain fog and shortness of breath. (Ho, 3/25)

Modesto Bee: Stanislaus Residents, At Risk, Advised To Get Tested For TB
World Tuberculosis Day, which was held Monday, is one of the more serious dates on the calendar. Stanislaus County public health officials suggested that people more at risk of tuberculosis get tested, because early diagnosis is important. Tuberculosis kills an estimated 1.25 million people worldwide every year, said a county Health Services Agency news release Monday. (Carlson, 3/25)

CalMatters: Rural Counties Are About To Lose Century-Old Funding Source
For more than a century, Congress has given extra money to counties with large tracts of federal land to help pay for schools, roads and other critical services. Now that financial lifeline appears to be dead after Congress didn’t include it in the budget passed this month — a victim of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures. ... California counties from Imperial to Del Norte use Secure Rural Schools funds for schools and roads, but some money also goes toward emergency services, wildfire safety and other needs. Last year the nationwide total was $253 million, barely a blip in the overall federal budget, but a crucial funding source for rural communities that have limited options for raising revenue. (Jones, 3/25)

The Bay Area Reporter: LGBTQ Agenda: Advocates Warn Preemption Doctrine Stifling Progress Toward Equality
LGBTQ advocates are sounding the alarm about how the legal doctrine of preemption is being used to prevent local progress for equality in red states. Some red states are working to undermine local laws by adopting state legislation that limits what more liberal cities in those jurisdictions can allow. (Ferrannini, 3/25)

CNN: Millions Of Women Get Painful UTIs That Keep Coming Back. A New Kind Of Antibiotic May Help Break The Cycle
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new type of antibiotic to treat urinary tract infections. The pill, gepotidacin, will be sold under the brand name Blujepa and is expected to be available in the second half of 2025. (Goodman, 3/25)

Los Angeles Times: Going Through Menopause? How To Speak Up At Work And The Doctor
Tamsen Fadal had been a news anchor at WPIX for over a decade when one night in 2019, she was unable to pronounce basic words on the teleprompter. During a commercial break, heart racing and brain foggy, Fadal went to lie down on the women’s bathroom floor and didn’t return to the anchor desk. ... Fadal consulted doctor after doctor to explain her symptoms of brain fog, nausea and a racing heart. It wasn’t until one of them left a note in her patient portal that she received a clear diagnosis: “In menopause. Any questions?” (Fink, 3/25)

Bloomberg: McCormick Removing Food Dyes With RFK Jr. Targeting Additives
McCormick & Co. is working with more food and restaurant companies to reformulate products as customers move away from ingredients like dyes targeted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “We are seeing a tick-up in reformulation activity,” said Chief Executive Officer Brendan Foley on an earnings call with analysts, adding that such activity was occurring “across our customer base, but also a lot of new product activity, too.” (Court, 3/25)