San Francisco Chronicle: California Has Already Distributed Its Entire Abortion Pill Stockpile
California has distributed all of the abortion pills it stockpiled last year after a Texas judge’s ruling threatened availability nationwide of one of the two pills used in most abortions. (Bollag, 3/25)

AP: Supreme Court Could Leave Current Abortion Medication Rules In Place
The high court’s return to the abortion thicket is taking place in a political and regulatory landscape that was reshaped by its abortion decision in 2022 that led many Republican-led states to ban or severely restrict abortion. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, said the court should dismiss the case and make clear that anti-abortion doctors and organizations don’t “come within 100 miles” of having standing. (Sherman, 3/26)

Stat: Supreme Court Mifepristone Arguments Center On Docs' Right To Sue
Supreme Court justices on Tuesday seemed to question physicians’ right to sue the Food and Drug Administration to reinstate restrictions around a commonly used abortion pill — a line of questioning that suggests they are unlikely to restrict access to the pill. (Owermohle, 3/26)

The Washington Post: Alito And Thomas Kept Bringing Up Comstock. That Scared Abortion Rights Supporters
Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas repeatedly invoked the Comstock Act during Tuesday’s oral arguments regarding the abortion drug mifepristone, pressing lawyers about whether the 1873 federal law should apply to abortion drugs sent through the mail today. Alito rejected the Biden administration’s argument that the law is obsolete — it has not been applied in nearly a century — with the conservative justice insisting that Food and Drug Administration officials should have accounted for the law when expanding access to mifepristone by mail in 2021. (Diamond, 3/26)

Roll Call: Experts Say Medicaid Rebate Change Is Behind Inhaler Price Cuts  
A recent tweak to a Medicaid formula could be behind the shake-up to inhaler products, a series of changes that have both benefited and harmed patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. (Clason, 3/26)

Axios: Surprise Medical Bill Law Has Been Good For Providers
The federal process for resolving billing disputes for out-of-network care has to date yielded payouts well above what Medicare and most in-network private insurers would pay providers, according to a new Brookings Institution analysis provided first to Axios. (Owens, 3/27)

Reuters: Exclusive: US Lawmaker Seeks Answers On FDA Inspection Of Musk's Neuralink
A U.S. lawmaker involved in health policy has asked the Food and Drug Administration why it did not inspect Elon Musk's Neuralink before allowing the brain implant company to test its device in humans. Reuters reported last month that FDA inspectors found problems with record keeping and quality controls for animal experiments at Neuralink last June, less than a month after the startup said it was cleared to test its brain implants in humans. (Taylor, 3/26)

Stat: FDA Is Still Struggling To Inspect Clinical Research Sites, Watchdog Finds
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of clinical research in hospitals and clinics has fallen considerably in recent years, due to disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic and challenges finding and keeping investigators, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. (Silverman, 3/26)

Modern Healthcare: How Healthcare AI Is Regulated By The FDA, HHS, State Laws 
Widespread oversight of artificial intelligence in healthcare is still a work in progress but that doesn’t mean the technology is completely unregulated. AI regulation is in its early days and some observers say the plethora of solutions and overall excitement has led to a “wild west” environment within the industry. Congress doesn't appear close to moving significant legislation, which largely leaves the health tech industry to govern itself.  (Perna, 3/26)

Los Angeles Times: Drug-Testing Kits To Be Offered To Patrons In California Bars 
California bars and nightclubs will be required starting July 1 to offer or sell drug-testing kits to patrons who suspect someone has tampered with their drink. (Garcia, 3/26)

California Healthline: The Burden Of Getting Medical Care Can Exhaust Older Patients
It’s estimated that an older patient can spend three weeks of the year getting care — and that doesn’t count the time it takes to arrange appointments or deal with insurance companies. (Graham, 3/27)

USA Today: U.S. Life Expectancy Increased Slightly In 2022
Life expectancy rose to 77.5 years on average in 2022, a slight increase of 1.1 years from 2021, according to new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Life expectancy at birth increased 1.1 years...largely because of decreases in mortality due to COVID-19, heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, and homicide," the report stated. (Chernikoff, 3/26)

The Wall Street Journal: How Often Do You Really Need To Check Your Blood Sugar Levels?
How closely should you be tracking your blood-sugar levels? People with diabetes have long used devices to monitor their glucose fluctuations. In the past few years, a broader group of people have become interested in doing so to try to optimize their health, obtaining prescriptions for wearable monitors to see how their bodies react to different foods and activities. (Janin, 3/26)

CIDRAP: Study: Kids With COVID But No Symptoms Play Key Role In Household Spread 
A study today in Clinical Infectious Diseases conducted across 12 tertiary care pediatric hospitals in Canada and the United States shows that asymptomatic children with COVID-19, especially preschoolers, contribute significantly to household transmission. The researchers discovered that 10.6% of exposed household contacts developed symptomatic illness within 14 days of exposure to asymptomatic test-positive children, a rate higher than expected. (Soucheray, 3/26)

NPR: Bats Are Key To Stopping The Next Pandemic, Says New Study
Almost every pandemic we've seen over the last century has come from a virus that's spilled over into humans from an animal. "Generally, pandemics are seen as a biomedical problem," says Raina Plowright, an infectious disease ecologist at Cornell University. "Certainly, once the pandemic is underway, it is a biomedical problem ..." she says. "But the genesis of the pandemic is actually an ecological problem," says Plowright. That is, it's due to the complex interactions between wildlife, habitat, climate and people. (Danielm 3/26)

AP: Controversial Military Reproductive Health Care Travel Policy Was Used Just 12 Times In 7 Months
A controversial military policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel if they or a family member have to go out of state for reproductive health care — including abortions — was used just 12 times from June to December last year, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin instituted the policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 to ensure that troops who were assigned to states where abortions or other types of health care such as IVF treatment were no longer provided could still access those services. (Copp, 3/26)

The Bakersfield Californian: City Of Bakersfield Weighs Second Expansion Of Homeless Shelter 
City officials reviewed the benefits and drawbacks of expanding the Brundage Lane Navigation Center during Bakersfield's Homelessness and Housing Committee meeting Tuesday. (Donegan, 3/26)

Los Angeles Times: State Officials Want To Stop AIDS Charity From Buying Skid Row Housing
The world’s largest AIDS charity has emerged as the leading bidder to take over a portfolio of homeless housing developments in Skid Row, a move that’s drawn the opposition of state housing officials who’ve called attention to the charity’s troubled tenure as a landlord. The Hollywood-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation is looking to acquire properties, mostly old single-room occupancy hotels, owned by the Skid Row Housing Trust. The trust collapsed financially a year ago and is in receivership. (Dillon, 3/27)

CalMatters: CA Farmers Could Save A Lot Of Water — But Profits Would Drop 
California farmers could save massive amounts of water if they planted less thirsty — but also less lucrative — crops instead of almonds, alfalfa and other water-guzzling crops, according to new research by scientists who used remote sensing and artificial intelligence. (Becker, 3/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Proposes Strongest-In-The-Nation Ban On ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Firefighter Clothing
Firefighters are more likely to develop cancer and die from it than the general population, and it’s not just smoke from burning buildings that’s suspected of making them sick. (Johnson, 3/26)

The 19th: Tighter Regulations Are Reducing The Risk Of Lead Exposure In Public Housing
A new study suggests that lead inspection and removal regulations for public housing have been effective over time, reducing the risk of lead exposure for residents. After decades of high lead levels in its housing stock, it’s a sliver of hope for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that remediation and safety efforts are working. (Kutz, 3/26)