- Courts 1
- Judge Overturns Calif. Aid-In-Dying Law, Saying Legislature Illegally Passed Bill In Special Health Care Session
- Women's Health 2
- State AGs Challenge Administration's Proposed Funding Changes To Family Planning Services
- Proposed Bill Would Require Speedier Processing Of Rape Kits
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
California’s Deadly STD Epidemic Sets Record
Rates of gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia in California have shot up 45 percent over five years, resulting in 30 syphilis-related stillbirths in 2017 alone, new state data show. (Harriet Blair Rowan and Alex Leeds Matthews, )
More News From Across The State
Plaintiffs argued that Gov. Jerry Brown called the special session to deal with a funding shortage for public health programs and the assisted death law did not meet that criteria. Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia is giving the state attorney general five days to appeal.
The Associated Press:
Judge Tosses California Law Allowing Life-Ending Drugs
Betsy Davis threw herself a party before becoming one of the first people to use a California law allowing her to take her own life in 2016. Her sister and other advocates fear others won't have the same choice after a Riverside County judge threw out the law Tuesday because he said it was unconstitutionally approved by the Legislature. Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia ruled lawmakers illegally passed the law during a special session devoted to other topics, but he gave the state attorney general five days to appeal. (5/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Riverside Judge Overturns California's Doctor-Assisted Suicide Law
In a statement emailed to The Times, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said: "We strongly disagree with this ruling and the state is seeking expedited review in the Court of Appeal." California's law allows patients with less than six months to live to request end-of-life drugs from their doctors, a practice that has been allowed in Oregon for more than 20 years. Now, nearly 1 in 5 Americans live in a state where physician-assisted suicide is legal, according to advocacy group Compassion and Choices. (Karlamangla, 5/15)
San Jose Mercury News:
California's Right To Die Law Overturned By Judge
If the state is unsuccessful in defending the law, Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, vowed to re-introduce the measure before the full legislature. “I’m disappointed and distressed. They were grasping for a reason,” said Monning. “There will always be a future option to reintroduce the same legislation – nothing prohibits us from doing that. But that’s not the option we hope for.” (Krieger, 5/15)
Sacramento Bee:
California Assisted Death Law Court Ruling Q&A
Nearly two years after it took effect, California's controversial assisted death law is back in limbo. A judge in Riverside County on Tuesday overturned the law because of concerns about how it was passed by the Legislature. (Koseff, 5/16)
State AGs Challenge Administration's Proposed Funding Changes To Family Planning Services
HHS in February made favorable mention of "natural family planning" that includes the rhythm method and other strategies to avoid pregnancy without using birth control. It also said it would favor abstinence messages for adolescents.
The Associated Press:
20 AGs Back Lawsuits By Family Planning Groups Against Trump
Twenty attorneys general voiced their support Tuesday for lawsuits challenging Trump administration rule changes they said will reduce access to family planning services. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the president is playing politics with patients by changing rules that would shift federal family planning funds toward organizations that stress abstinence. (5/15)
Los Angeles Times:
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra Clashes With Challengers Over All His Lawsuits Against The Trump Administration
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra is probably best known to California voters as the man who has sued the Trump administration more than 30 times, a feat he boasted about at a debate Tuesday ahead of next month's primary election for the attorney general race. Becerra's rivals worked to turn the focus on the federal government against him."Quite frankly, I think Mr. Becerra is obsessed with Donald Trump. It's not the role of state attorney general to be suing our federal government every five minutes," said Republican Eric Early, a Los Angeles attorney. "It's outrageous. There are all kinds of problems in this great state that are being ignored." (McGreevy, 5/15)
Proposed Bill Would Require Speedier Processing Of Rape Kits
Funding has been a major hurdle for similar proposals in the past, but Gov. Jerry Brown has earmarked a one-time $6 million to help counties process forensic evidence in his newly revised budget.
Los Angeles Times:
Following Golden State Killer Suspect's Arrest, California Lawmakers Want Rape Kits Tested More Quickly
Less than a month after police arrested a man suspected of being the Golden State Killer — one of California’s most prolific serial rapists — state lawmakers in Sacramento on Tuesday said they want to ensure all sexual assault kits are counted and swiftly tested. Under a bill by Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino), law enforcement agencies would have to submit rape kits to crime labs within 20 days of their collection, and labs would have no more than 120 days to test them. Another bill by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) would require a statewide audit of all untested exams. (Ulloa, 5/15)
Capital Public Radio:
Time's Up? States Call To Review Statutes Of Limitations For Rape Cases
Statute of limitations for rape in California will likely prevent prosecutors from adding additional charges against the suspect in California’s “Golden State Killer” case. He’s been charged with 12 murders, but prosecutors have not charged him with the nearly 50 rapes they say he also committed. (Moffitt, 5/15)
System-Wide Failure Strikes Sutter Health, Disrupting Some Operations
The system failure starting Monday night caused problems with accessing patients' electronic health records, emails and phone usage, Sutter officials said.
Sacramento Bee:
System-Wide Failure Hits Sacramento Area Sutter Health Clinics Tuesday Morning
A system-wide failure is causing problems at Sutter Health locations, a spokesman for Sutter Health Valley Area said. Throughout the morning, employees have been unable to access patients’ electronic health records, emails and use the phones, Gary Zavoral confirmed. Some patients are being contacted to reschedule appointments. (Chavez, 5/15)
Modesto Bee:
Memorial, Sutter Gould Clinics Struck By System Failure. Some Patient Services Affected
In Stanislaus County, thousands of patients are unable to schedule appointments with their doctors at Sutter Gould Medical Foundation clinics due to the problem affecting numerous Sutter locations in Northern California. The system failure starting Monday night caused problems with accessing patients' electronic health records, emails and phone usage, Sutter spokespeople said. Patients calling Sutter Gould's appointment line Tuesday were told they could not schedule routine appointments. The outage also affected online appointment applications and some of the normal patient services at the 423-bed Memorial Medical Center in Modesto and the Sutter Gould urgent care clinic on Coffee Road. (Carlson, 5/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Sutter Health Cancels Surgeries At Alta Bates Amid Wider Outage
The problems began Monday night and continued Tuesday. Sutter’s website also briefly went down Tuesday. The outage is affecting all sites at Sutter, a major health system in the region, though different locations may be affected differently, according to the company. At Alta Bates Sutter Medical Center in Oakland, clinicians have been unable to log into the electronic health records system to access patient data, according to several employees. (Ho, 5/15)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Sutter Health Experiencing Systemwide Communications Failure
Patient information at some facilities was being recorded using paper records, to be entered into the health care giant’s computer systems once the problems are resolved, said Fryer. “Everything that would be put into a computer is being put on paper and will be entered into computers later,” Fryer said. “We have procedures in place. … It’s all about patient safety.” (Espinoza, 5/15)
East Bay Times:
Sutter Health: Computer Outage Delays Care To Some Patients
Although the outage hit scheduling and internal communications systems, Fryer said staff were using regularly drilled “downtime procedures” to log care on paper for re-entry when the system fully returns. Fryer said sites such as the system’s Santa Rosa center saw relatively little disruption, but San Francisco’s California Medical Pacific Center was forced to delay some surgeries and Berkeley’s Alta Bates had to cancel some surgeries. (Kelly, 5/15)
Although California has avoided the worst of the opioid epidemic, the drug market in the state is dominated by stimulants — the very drugs that have just started to be mixed with fentanyl.
Los Angeles Times:
A Dangerous Opioid Is Killing People In California. It's Starting To Show Up In Cocaine And Meth
Fentanyl, a potent opioid already responsible for thousands of deaths nationwide, is increasingly showing up in drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine in California, officials say. The white powder, a lethal substance 50 times stronger than heroin, is sometimes mixed into other opioids to produce a stronger high. Now its presence in non-opioids has public health experts worried that California may be staring down a new dimension of the deadly epidemic. (Karlamangla, 5/15)
In other news on the crisis —
KPCC:
How Your Culture Impacts The User Of Painkillers
Some research says one reason is the cultural resistance among many Latinos and other minorities to take pills for pain. KPCC health care reporter Michelle Faust meets a woman who turned away from opioids to use such methods as a sobadora, a practitioner who uses body manipulation and herbs to heal her patients. (Faust, 5/15)
KPCC:
In An OC Retirement Village Where The Rate Of Opioid Overdoses Is High, Seniors Turn To Pot To Treat Pain
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says one out of every three Medicare Part D beneficiaries got an opioid prescription in 2016. ...Researchers have also found that in states where medical marijuana is legal, there are fewer opioid-related overdoses and fewer prescriptions for pain pills written for Medicare enrollees. (Replogle, 5/16)
Leadership Shake-Up At Palomar Health Spreads To Board Of Directors
Joy Gorzeman, a respected nurse and health care educator, resigned effective May 2. The news came as Palomar navigates a rough patch, reorganizing staff to handle budget difficulties while simultaneously responding to a series of government safety inspections.
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Palomar Board Chair Resigns; Interim CEO May Get Permanent Status
Adding to recent widespread leadership changes, Palomar Health is suddenly looking to replace one of seven elected directors. It also is considering giving permanent status to its interim chief executive officer. Joy Gorzeman, chair of the Palomar Health Board of Directors, resigned effective May 2 for unspecified “personal reasons,” according to a letter she sent to colleagues and board secretary Ray McCune on April 26.Gorzeman, a respected nurse and health care educator with more than 40 years of experience working in a wide range of medical roles, declined by email Tuesday afternoon to elaborate on the reasons for her departure. Elected in 2016 to her first four-year term on the governing board of the Palomar Health district, she would have been up for re-election in 2020. (Sisson, 5/16)
In other news —
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Palm Drive Health Care District Seeks To Sell Sonoma West Medical Center
The Palm Drive Health Care District is seeking bids for the purchase of its Sebastopol hospital, a move brought on by ongoing financial struggles and debt, district officials said Tuesday afternoon. A request for proposals, which was released Tuesday, seeks a buyer who will operate Sonoma West Medical Center as an acute care hospital or “other health care” facility, said Alanna Brogan, executive director of the district. Officials said district and hospital staff have taken a number of steps to improve operations and revenue collections at the hospital, but old debt continues to cripple the hospital. (Espinoza, 5/15)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Illumina Buys Start-Up Edico Genome For $100M To Help Speed Up Genetic Analysis
San Diego’s Illumina has acquired data processing technology start-up Edico Genome for $100 million to accelerate efforts to make genetic testing more widely accessible in everyday health care. The deal brings together two companies that already have substantial links – a vast majority of Edico’s customers use Illumina’s gene sequencing machines. Buying Edico paves the way for Illumina to further meld Edico’s bioinformaton processing technology into the gene sequencing process so genomics becomes less expensive and delivers results faster. (Freeman, 5/15)
The Estimated Cost For Extending Skinny, Short-Term Coverage Plans: Up To $168 Million A Year
Because healthier people are more likely to buy the skinny plans, the overall marketplace -- which the government helps subsidize -- would become less stable
The New York Times:
Trump’s Plan For Cheaper Health Insurance Could Have Hidden Costs
President Trump’s plan to expand access to skimpy short-term health insurance policies, as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act, would affect more people and cost the government more money than the administration estimated, an independent federal study says. The study, by Medicare’s chief actuary, suggests that the new policies would appeal mainly to healthy people, including many who have had comprehensive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The administration estimated in February that a few hundred thousand people might sign up for the “short-term, limited-duration policies,” which would not have to provide the standard health benefits like preventive services, maternity care or prescription drug coverage. (Pear, 5/15)
In other national health care news —
Reuters:
Healthcare, Freelanced-Where Will Gig Economy Workers Get Coverage?
There are plenty of problems lurking on America's career ladder, but here is a big one: our healthcare systems are designed for the workforce of 1950. If you have a lifetime corporate 9-to-5 gig, then you probably have group health insurance. But what if that is not the kind of job you have? Well, good luck with that. (Taylor, 5/15)
Stat:
Taking Aim At 340B Drug Program, Lawmakers Target Both Hospitals And Pharma
They don’t agree on the details, but both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are ready to ramp up oversight of a federal drug discount program that hospitals generally support — and drug makers tend to want to rein in. On its face, the increasing congressional scrutiny seems like a win for the pharmaceutical industry, which has bucked against the status quo. But lawmakers at a Tuesday hearing on the program, known as 340B, signaled an interest in taking aim at both industries. (Mershon, 5/15)
Bloomberg:
$100,000 Drugs Get Targeted For Discounts Under Trump's Plan
The key proposal in President Donald Trump’s plan to lower the price of some of the most expensive drugs would open up those treatments to price negotiation, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said. Trump had once pledged, to the chagrin of many Republicans, that the federal government would be doing the negotiating, using its enormous buying power to drive down prices. But the plan his administration announced last week made no mention of that strategy. Instead, the new goal is to shift the coverage of some drugs so that insurers and pharmacy-benefit managers can negotiate better deals. (Edney and Langreth, 5/15)
The Hill:
GOP Chairman Plans Hearings On Trump Drug Pricing Proposals
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Tuesday that he plans to conduct hearings on some of President Trump’s new proposals to bring down drug prices. Brady said it is too early to tell if the committee will move legislation on the issue, but said he wanted to consider the ideas. ...Brady said he particularly liked items in the proposal to bring drugs to market faster to increase competition, as well as ideas to make sure that savings from insurer negotiations with drug companies make their way to consumers. (Sullivan, 5/15)
The Hill:
Trump Administration Won't Approve Lifetime Limits On Medicaid
The Trump administration will not approve state requests to impose lifetime limits on Medicaid coverage, breaking with conservatives who have pushed for the strict limitation. “We’ve indicated we would not approve lifetime limits, and we’ve made that pretty clear to states,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said Tuesday. (Weixel, 5/15)
The Associated Press:
Cherokee Nation Lauded For Hepatitis C Elimination Effort
Recovering addict Judith Anderson figures if she hadn't entered a program that caught and treated the hepatitis C she contracted after years of intravenous drug use, she wouldn't be alive to convince others to get checked out. The 74-year-old resident of Sallisaw, Oklahoma — about 160 miles (257 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City near the Arkansas border — said the potentially fatal liver disease sapped her of energy and "any desire to go anywhere or do anything." (5/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Youth Suicidal Behavior Is On The Rise, Especially Among Girls
A new study finding a rise in suicidal thoughts and attempts among young people adds to the research pointing to a decline in mental health among U.S. children and adolescents. The study showed the proportion of young people treated at 31 U.S. children’s hospitals for suicidal thoughts or attempts more than doubled between 2008 and 2015, from 0.66% of all visits to 1.82% of all visits. Rates were higher during the school year than in the summer, and nearly two-thirds of the visits involved girls, according to results published in the medical journal Pediatrics. (Whalen, 5/15)