- California Healthline Original Stories 3
- Taking A Page From Pharma’s Playbook To Fight The Opioid Crisis
- For Active Seniors, Cohousing Offers A Cozier Alternative To Downsizing
- Medicaid Chief Says Feds Are Willing To Approve Work Requirements
- Public Health and Education 2
- Non-Addictive, Over-The-Counter Painkillers Alleviate Acute Pain As Well As Opioids
- LA Creates Position To Coordinate County's Response To Domestic Violence Needs
- Coverage And Access 1
- As Part Of Efforts To Bolster S.F.-Area Network, Sutter Health HMO Expanding Into Santa Cruz
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Taking A Page From Pharma’s Playbook To Fight The Opioid Crisis
Doctors and pharmacists in Northern California are emulating drug company sales reps with a fresh purpose in mind: They visit medical offices in the hardest-hit counties to change their peers' prescribing habits and curtail the use of painkillers. (Pauline Bartolone, )
For Active Seniors, Cohousing Offers A Cozier Alternative To Downsizing
Far from a commune or coop, these planned villages are no less about cooperation and community. (Sharon Jayson, )
Medicaid Chief Says Feds Are Willing To Approve Work Requirements
Seema Verma, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services tells state officials that she envisions changes that could include work requirements for Medicaid enrollees. (Phil Galewitz, )
More News From Across The State
Non-Addictive, Over-The-Counter Painkillers Alleviate Acute Pain As Well As Opioids
A new study finds that for patients who went to the emergency room for things such as a sports injury or a fall can be served just as well with over-the-counter pain relievers. Experts have pointed to prescription practices in those scenarios as part of the cause of the opioid crisis.
Los Angeles Times:
Over-The-Counter Painkillers Treated Painful Injuries Just As Well As Opioids In New Study
In an opioid epidemic that currently claims an average of 91 lives per day, there have been many paths to addiction. For some, it started with a fall or a sports injury, a trip to a nearby emergency room and a prescription for a narcotic pain reliever that seemed to work well in the ER. New research underscores how tragically risky — and unnecessary — such prescribing choices have been. (Healy, 11/7)
And in other news on the epidemic —
Orange County Register:
Faith Strong’s Long Fight To Help Addicts
Emergency room visits in the county resulting from opioid use increased 141 percent in the decade since 2005, according to a report released this summer by the Orange County Health Care Agency. ...Affluence, which can equal greater access to prescription drugs and a culture of “It can’t happen to me” have created a silent killer. (Neal, 11/7)
Los Angeles Times:
Public's Help Is Needed To Solve Sober-Living Home Issues, Officials Say At Costa Mesa Meeting
As a community meeting to discuss sober-living homes drew to a close in Costa Mesa on Monday, two messages from elected officials became clear. One: There is no easy way to solve all the issues surrounding such facilities, and many obstacles can stymie even incremental progress. (Money, 11/7)
LA Creates Position To Coordinate County's Response To Domestic Violence Needs
"There is no part of our county service that is not touched in some way by domestic violence," Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said. "I remember reports from animal welfare of women dropping off animals saying, 'my husband won't let me have this pet anymore,' and noticing some bruises on the woman."
KPCC:
LA County Turns Attention To Domestic Violence
A motion passed unanimously Tuesday by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors creates a set of positions at the Department of Public Health devoted to coordinating the county's response to the needs of domestic violence victims and domestic violence prevention. It also moves the county's domestic violence council to the public health department. (Palta, 11/7)
In other news from across the state —
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Can Shut Down Restaurants. So Why Not Polluters, Supervisors Ask
Los Angeles County health officials can shut down restaurants when they rack up health code violations, but they can't stop polluters when toxic emissions threaten residents. County supervisors want to change that. They approved a motion Tuesday seeking more enforcement teeth for the Department of Public Health, including the power to order the closure of facilities emitting harmful chemicals into the air. (Barboza, 11/7)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Approves $44 Million For Homeless Mental Health And Drug Abuse Services
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved $44 million over the next three years for a homeless prevention program spearheaded by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. The county will now partner with the city of Sacramento by first providing better coordinated care in emergency rooms – often the main point of contact for many living on the streets, especially those with mental and physical ailments. (Lillis and Flethcer, 11/7)
As Part Of Efforts To Bolster S.F.-Area Network, Sutter Health HMO Expanding Into Santa Cruz
Sutter launched the HMO in 2014, and this is its third geographic expansion.
Sacramento Bee:
Sutter Health HMO Expanding Its Care Options In Bay Area
Sutter Health announced Tuesday that it is expanding its Sacramento-based HMO, Sutter Health Plus, into a 15th Northern California county, Santa Cruz, starting Jan. 1 as it bolsters its network in the San Francisco Bay Area. ...In Santa Cruz County, the Sutter Health Plus Network will include medical staff at Palo Alto Medical Foundation and its care centers, Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center and Watsonville Community Hospital. (Anderson, 11/7)
Acknowledging Bakersfield Doesn't Need Two Burn Centers, Adventist Closes Its Facility
Adventist Health Bakersfield had maintained that it wanted to remain open despite having broken ties with the Grossman Burn Center.
The Bakersfield Californian:
Adventist Health Bakersfield Shutters Burn Center Citing Competition
Two years after breaking ties with Grossman Burn Center, which established a facility at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital last year, Adventist Health Bakersfield shut the doors of its burn center this month, hospital officials announced. At the time Adventist Health Bakersfield broke ties with the Los Angeles-based burn center, officials said they would maintain their burn center, despite having a new competitor in town. On Monday, Adventist Health officials conceded that Bakersfield is too small a town for two comprehensive burn centers. Most comparably sized counties don’t even have one. (Pierce, 11/7)
In other news —
East Bay Times:
Supervisors Take First Step To Dissolve East County’s Los Medanos Healthcare District
Claiming the county can administer the Pittsburg Health Clinic more cheaply and efficiently, Contra Costa County supervisors have started the process to dissolve the Los Medanos Community Healthcare District.
Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to apply to the Contra Costa Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to begin the dissolution process, and to then transfer all of the Los Medanos district’s assets (and debts) to the county. This could be the death blow for a health care district that has long outlived the Los Medanos Community Hospital it once operated, and has survived at least two other dissolution efforts since the Pittsburg hospital closed in 1994. (Richards, 11/7)
East Bay Times:
Baby Strollers Lead Push To Save Berkeley’s Alta Bates Hospital
About 150 people, many pushing strollers, rallied Sunday to protest the closing — or otherwise put, the repurposing — of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. “Save the Birthplace of the East Bay,” they chanted, invoking the hospital’s historic role as an area maternity center. Proponents of maintaining Alta Bates’ current level of service, which also includes an emergency room, have warned that something less, coupled with the 2015 closing of Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo, would reduce a swath of the East Bay from Crockett to Berkeley to a “health care desert.” (Lochner, 11/7)
Individual-Mandate Repeal Gains Traction As GOP Scrambles To Close $74B Revenue Hole
But while the move would give House tax writers an estimated $416 billion in sorely needed offsets for the deep rate cuts they want, it risks alienating GOP senators.
Bloomberg:
Revenue Hole May Bring GOP Back To Repeal Of Obamacare Mandate
The impact of House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady’s amendment to revise one of the GOP tax bill’s offshore provisions emerged late Tuesday -- an estimated $74 billion revenue hole, which is sending tax writers scrambling to find additional revenue. They may pursue a risky strategy to make up the shortfall: repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. House Republicans are edging closer to accepting President Donald Trump’s suggestion to combine their tax legislation with a repeal of the mandate that all individuals purchase health insurance, according to a person who’s helping to draft the tax bill. (11/8)
Roll Call:
Brady Says Individual Mandate Repeal Isn’t Off The Table
Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady on Tuesday left open the possibility that repeal of the 2010 health care law’s individual mandate could eventually make it into the GOP’s tax overhaul. The Texas Republican released a substitute amendment Monday that the Ways and Means Committee adopted on a party-line vote that did not include the mandate repeal or any health care changes. But Brady told talk radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that he’s asked for an updated cost estimate on repealing the individual mandate, indicating he won’t make a final decision until he sees that. (McPherson, 11/7)
Meanwhile —
The Wall Street Journal:
GOP Senators Aim to Retain Medical-Expenses Deduction
Senate Republicans aim to preserve a popular tax deduction for household medical expenses when they release their version of a tax plan later this week, parting ways with House lawmakers on a proposal that costs about $182 billion over a decade, according to people familiar with the matter. They are also considering delaying the start of a cut in the top corporate tax rate to 20% from 35% but hadn’t decided on the matter as of Tuesday evening. (Hughes, 11/7)
CMS Chief Signals Willingness To Approve Work Requirements For States' Medicaid Programs
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma criticized the previous administration's stance on requirements as "the soft bigotry of low expectations" and said "those days are over."
The New York Times:
Trump Administration Will Support Work Requirements For Medicaid
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday what it called “a new day for Medicaid,” telling state health officials that the federal government would be more receptive to work requirements and other conservative policy ideas to reshape the main government health program for low-income people. Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration would approve proposals from states to require work or community engagement for people who want to receive Medicaid. (Pear, 11/7)
USA Today:
State Medicaid Programs Can Require Work, Will Get Rated On How Well They Improve Health
More states can require Medicaid recipients to work — or at least "volunteer" — in one of the new ways the Trump administration plans to "help them break the chains of poverty," the nation's chief Medicaid official said Tuesday. The Obama administration, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said, had the "soft bigotry of low expectations" by refusing to allow states to tie Medicaid benefits to employment. (O'Donnell, 11/7)
The Washington Post:
States Will Be Allowed To Impose Medicaid Work Requirements, Top Federal Official Says
Seema Verma, who heads the Health and Human Services Department’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, did not spare criticisms of the Obama administration and called its opposition to work requirements “soft bigotry.” “Believing that community engagement requirements do not support the objectives of Medicaid is a tragic example of the soft bigotry of low expectations consistently espoused by the prior administration,” Verma said in a sweeping address to the National Association of Medicaid Directors. “Those days are over.” (Cunningham, 11/7)
In other news —
The New York Times:
Maine Voters Approve Medicaid Expansion, A Rebuke Of Gov. LePage
Voters in Maine approved a ballot measure on Tuesday to allow many more low-income residents to qualify for Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, The Associated Press said. The vote was a rebuke of Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican who has repeatedly vetoed legislation to expand Medicaid. At least 80,000 additional Maine residents will become eligible for Medicaid as a result of the referendum. (Goodnough, 11/7)