- California Healthline Original Stories 1
- In Health Care Arena, The Prize For Calif. Insurance Commissioner Is A Bullhorn
- Health Care Personnel 1
- LAPD Asks For Patients To Come Forward As It Launches Sweeping Investigation Of USC Gynecologist
- Sacramento Watch 1
- Paint Companies Bring Out Big Guns To Avoid Potentially Hundreds Of Millions In Fines Over Lead In Products
- Courts 1
- Parents Turn To Courts To Force California Into Improving Access To At-Home Care For Medi-Cal Kids
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
In Health Care Arena, The Prize For Calif. Insurance Commissioner Is A Bullhorn
The California Department of Insurance, headed by the commissioner, regulates only a small fraction of the market. But the job comes with a bully pulpit that amplifies its impact. Three of the four candidates would use it to push for a statewide single-payer system. (Pauline Bartolone, )
More News From Across The State
Differences Over Homeless Crisis Emerge In San Francisco's Mayoral Race
The front-runners share many of the same progressive ideas, but two of the candidates are speaking about using a harder edge when it comes to restoring order to the streets.
The New York Times:
San Francisco’s Homeless Crisis Tests Mayoral Candidates’ Liberal Ideals
In the bluest of blue cities, it can be hard to tell political candidates apart. The four front-runners in the June 5 San Francisco mayoral election, all Democrats, talk about the importance of protecting immigrants and the pernicious effects of income inequality. It goes without saying that they support gay rights, legalized marijuana and more funding for public transportation. Ron Turner, a book publisher and longtime San Francisco resident, compares the election to “trying to pick a leader at a family picnic.” (Fuller, 5/30)
In other elections news —
KPCC:
Why Tiny Brains Are Getting Massive Attention In The California Governor's Race
One million neural connections are made every single second of life until the age of 3, according to current research, and the preschool years have a long-term influence on outcomes in health and education. ...But during the recession, state funding for programs like infant toddler care and preschool was severely cut — and those funds have not been restored under Gov. Jerry Brown. (Neely, 5/30)
California Healthline:
In Health Care Arena, The Prize For Calif. Insurance Commissioner Is A Bullhorn
The person who wins the four-way race to become California’s next insurance commissioner will inherit a job with broad authority over policies that cover homes, businesses, cars and even airplanes. But medical insurance? Not so much. The commissioner’s direct control over health insurers is limited, because the California Department of Insurance — headed by the commissioner — regulates only a small slice of the market.Still, the job carries the power of the bully pulpit, amplifying the commissioner’s voice on matters of regional, statewide and national importance. (Bartolone, 5/30)
LAPD Asks For Patients To Come Forward As It Launches Sweeping Investigation Of USC Gynecologist
The Los Angeles police are already working with more than 50 women so far, but whether Dr. George Tyndall faces sexual abuse charges depends on if complaints about creepy comments, improper photos in the exam room and uncomfortable probing went beyond dubious doctoring and into the criminal realm. Tyndall, as a gynecologist, could argue his treatments were within the scope of his medical expertise.
Los Angeles Times:
LAPD Begins Sweeping Criminal Probe Of Former USC Gynecologist While Urging Patients To Come Forward
The Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday it is investigating 52 complaints of misconduct filed by former patients of USC's longtime campus gynecologist as detectives launch a sweeping criminal probe into the scandal that has rocked the university. LAPD detectives also made an appeal for other patients who feel mistreated to come forward, noting that thousands of students were examined by Dr. George Tyndall during his nearly 30-year career at USC. More than 410 people have contacted a university hotline about the physician since The Times revealed the allegations this month. (Hamilton, Winton and Elmahrek, 5/29)
The Associated Press:
LA Police: More Than 50 Claims Of Sex Abuse By USC Doctor
Los Angeles police are investigating allegations by more than 50 women about possible sexual abuse by a University of Southern California gynecologist dating back decades, authorities said Tuesday. Police said allegations against Dr. George Tyndall date from 1990 to 2016 during a period in which they estimate he could have treated over 10,000 women. They encouraged any other potential victims to come forward. (5/29)
The Associated Press:
Legal Hurdles Loom For Prosecutors In USC Gynecologist Case
The University of Southern California has received hundreds of complaints about a former school gynecologist suspected of conducting inappropriate exams for decades, prompting the resignation of the school president and a police investigation. More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed and police are talking to more than 50 women who complained, so far. Whether Dr. George Tyndall faces charges, though, depends on if complaints about creepy comments, improper photos in the exam room and uncomfortable probing went beyond dubious doctoring and into the criminal realm. (5/30)
The companies, which might be on the hook up for the cost of cleaning up the lead paint, are dumping their resources into a fight to get taxpayers to pick up the bill instead.
Los Angeles Times:
Major Paint Companies Lobby California Lawmakers To Overturn A Court Ruling Forcing Them To Clean Up Lead In Homes
With a key deadline a month away, two national paint companies are turning up the pressure on California lawmakers to absolve them of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in legal penalties from lead paint hazards. The companies, Sherwin-Williams and ConAgra, have hired five lobbying firms, sponsored a website, purchased advertisements and spent at least $2.8 million on a political campaign. (Dillon, 5/29)
Elsewhere in Sacramento —
Orange County Register:
Activists Spar Over Bill That Would Outlaw Sale Of Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapies
Supporters and opponents of Assembly Bill 2943, which makes the sale of so-called sexual orientation conversion therapies a violation of the state’s consumer protection laws, held dueling rallies in the city Tuesday morning, each side telling its members’ stories and highlighting its beliefs and ideologies. The bill, which passed the State Assembly last month and is headed to the State Senate, will include “sexual orientation change efforts” in the state’s definition of deceptive business practices. (Bharath, 5/29)
Parents Turn To Courts To Force California Into Improving Access To At-Home Care For Medi-Cal Kids
“They’re asking the court to tell the state to do a better job of arranging for nursing care, by actively helping them recruit and keep nurses,” said Will Leiner, an attorney with Disability Rights California. “And the state also needs to do a better job to identify and monitor children who are not getting the services that they need.”
Capital Public Radio:
Not Enough Nurses? Parents Sue California Over Sick Kids’ Lack Of Access To At-Home Care.
The family is approved for at-home nursing through Medi-Cal, but Adriana Byrne said that whenever she calls the state-recommended home care agencies, they say no one is available in her area, Cameron Park. ...It’s a struggle that hundreds of parents are dealing with across the state, according to Will Leiner, an attorney with Disability Rights California. The nonprofit, along with the National Health Law Program and the Western Center for Law and Poverty, will represent families in a federal class-action lawsuit against the Department of Health Care Services, which oversees Medi-Cal. (Caiola, 5/29)
Community Workers Strive To Keep Former Inmates Out Of Prison By Focusing On Their Health Needs
"We’ve always known incarceration is bad for health,” said Leah G. Pope, director of the substance use and mental health program at the Vera Institute of Justice, a research and advocacy group. “But in an age of increasing attention to justice reform and health care reform, the two are increasingly connected.”
The New York Times:
They’re Out Of Prison. Can They Stay Out Of The Hospital?
The night Ronald Sanders turned his life around, he had been smoking crack for two days in a tiny, airless room. His infant son, Isaiah, was breathing in the fumes. “His chest was beating really hard,” Mr. Sanders recalled. “So I pray: ‘If my son makes it through the night, that’s it.’” Mr. Sanders quit using drugs and stopped cycling in and out of prison more than two decades ago. He is now a community health worker who helps people getting out of prison deal with a host of medical, psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. (Brown, 5/29)
Even As LA Pours Money Into Homeless Crisis, City Gets Tied Up In Red Tape
An initiative to open public bathrooms on skid row was cheered as a step forward, but only three months later they're already gone again. "If we can't get something as simple as mobile restrooms up and running, that doesn't give me a lot of faith the city can produce the leadership needed to produce housing units," said Pete White of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a skid row anti-poverty group.
Los Angeles Times:
It Took More Than A Decade To Open Public Bathrooms On Skid Row. After Three Months, They're Already Gone
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's unveiling of the first new public bathrooms on skid row in more than a decade was seen as a possible turning point for the homeless enclave, which remains mired in misery even as downtown development closes in around it. But after more than three months of operation, the trailers with toilets and showers shut down in late March for a planned expansion and now are gone. Across town, bathroom access for Venice's homeless people is hung up over approvals from other agencies. (Holland, 5/29)
In other news from across the state —
Ventura County Star:
Grand Jury Calls For Independent Monitoring Of VCMC Drug Program
The Ventura County Grand Jury has called for independent oversight to make sure Ventura County Medical Center complies with federal rules for a discounted drug program. The Ventura-based hospital and other health care facilities serving needy patients buy the drugs at significant discounts. Medicare and private insurers reimburse the institutions at higher rates, allowing the providers to keep the difference and pay for expanded patient services, officials said.But recent federal audits showed VCMC and other providers had violated rules for the 340B program, resulting in repayments to the drug companies. (Wilson, 5/29)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Illegal Pot Grows Spread Deadly Pesticides, Other Hazards, Despite Change In Law
The legalization of cannabis in California has done almost nothing to halt illegal marijuana growing by Mexican drug cartels, which are laying bare large swaths of national forest in California, poisoning wildlife, and siphoning precious water out of creeks and rivers, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said Tuesday. The situation is so dire that federal, state and local law enforcement officials are using $2.5 million from the Trump administration this year to crack down on illegal growers, who Scott said have been brazenly setting booby traps, confronting hikers and attacking federal drug-sniffing dogs with knives. (Fimrite, 5/29)
Supreme Court Refuses Case On Arkansas Law Restricting Medication Abortions
The legislation requires providers of medication abortions to have contracts with doctors who have admitting privileges at a hospital in the state. The case will continue being litigated in the lower courts, but Arkansas is the only state to essentially ban medication abortions.
The New York Times:
Supreme Court Allows Arkansas Abortion Restrictions To Stand
The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to hear a challenge to an Arkansas law that could force two of the state’s three abortion clinics to close.As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons for turning away the appeal. The case will continue to be litigated in the lower courts. The law concerns medication abortions, which use pills to induce abortions in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The law, enacted in 2015, requires providers of the procedure to have contracts with doctors who have admitting privileges at a hospital in the state. Abortion clinics in Arkansas said they were unable to find any doctors willing to sign such contracts. (Liptak, 5/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Supreme Court Allows Arkansas Restrictions On Abortion Drugs
The court’s announcement, in a one-line order, was a blow to abortion-rights advocates who said a 2015 Arkansas law effectively prohibited medication abortions, in which a woman can terminate an early-stage pregnancy by taking pills instead of undergoing a surgical procedure. The state law says a doctor who prescribes abortion-inducing drugs must contract with a physician who has admitting and surgical privileges at a hospital designated to handle any emergencies. Arkansas in court papers argued that the requirement promoted good medical practices and follow-up treatment. (Kendall, 5/29)
The Associated Press:
Justices Allow Arkansas To Enforce Abortion Restrictions
The justices didn't comment in rejecting an appeal from the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Arkansas that asked the court to review an appeals court ruling and reinstate a lower court order that had blocked the law from taking effect. The law says doctors who provide abortion pills must hold a contract with another physician who has admitting privileges at a hospital and who would agree to handle complications — and Planned Parenthood says it has been unable to find any able to do so. The law is similar to a provision in Texas law that the Supreme Court struck down in 2016. (5/29)
The Hill:
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Arkansas Abortion Law
“Protecting the health and well-being of women and the unborn will always be a priority,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R) said Tuesday after the Supreme Court decision. “We are a pro-life state and always will be as long as I am Attorney General.” Planned Parenthood had argued the law was strikingly similar to a measure in Texas that the Supreme Court struck down in 2016. That law required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles, a requirement the court said constituted an undue burden on abortion access. (Wheeler, 5/29)
In other news from the Supreme Court —
Modern Healthcare:
Supreme Court Ruling Could Ease Wage Lawsuits Against Healthcare Employers
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing employers to require workers to sign individual arbitration agreements could sharply reduce class-action lawsuits against healthcare companies claiming violations of federal and state rules on wages, hours, and sexual and racial discrimination. In a 5-4 decision last week on three consolidated cases, the high court held that companies can include clauses in employment contracts that require employees to resolve disputes through individual arbitration, barring them from banding together to seek relief for common issues. The decision could affect about 25 million employees. (Meyer and Arndt, 5/29)