- Covered California & The Health Law 1
- California's Uninsured Rate Well Below National Average, And Experts Wonder If It Can Even Drop Any More
- Elections 1
- Insurance Commissioner Candidate Discusses How Position's Health Care Responsibilities Should Be Expanded
- Hospital Roundup 1
- Vatican Greenlights Merger Between Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health
- The Opioid Crisis 1
- New Law Will Require Addiction Treatment Providers To Register With The Orange County Health Care Agency
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Family Doctors ‘Not Doing Enough’ To Curb STDs
As rates of sexually transmitted diseases surge, public health officials want primary care doctors to step up screening and treatment of patients. (Anna Gorman, )
More News From Across The State
Covered California & The Health Law
California's population of immigrants who do not qualify for plans under the health law could make it difficult to get the uninsured number any lower
Fresno Bee:
California: How Low Can The Uninsured Health Rate Go?
After a streak of steady declines, California’s uninsured rate bottomed out last year with some 2.7 million people still without health coverage. The latest estimates from the U.S. Census offer a fragmented portrait of the remaining people who are uninsured while posing an even bigger question for the state: How much lower can the uninsured rate go? (Finch, 10/17)
California Claims Judge Who Rules On Coffee Cancer Warning Is Biased
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment on Monday filed a request to disqualify Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle.
Bloomberg:
California Calls Out Judge Who Said Coffee Needs Cancer Warning
California said a state judge who earlier this year ruled that coffee requires a cancer warning is too biased to oversee a new lawsuit that challenges the state’s proposal to exempt the beverage from the requirement. ... Separately, a California Court of Appeals last week stayed the third phase of a trial before Berle, scheduled to start Oct. 15, on what coffee retailers and brewers would have to pay for failing to warn consumers that coffee contains a chemical known to cause cancer. (Pettersson, 10/16)
State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Huntington Park, Long Beach, is running against Steve Poizner, a former Republican turned independent. While the office holds broad authority over policies regulating homes, businesses and cars, it does not wield much authority over health insurance.
Orange County Register:
Health Care Among Issues Aired At Wilmington Forum For State Insurance Commissioner
State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Huntington Park, Long Beach, discussed his ideas for expanding the role of the state Insurance Commissioner, a position he’s seeking on the November ballot, at a town hall Tuesday, Oct. 16, in Wilmington. Specifically, Lara talked about how technology will require the office to do more in the future. He also said he’d like to see the post have a bigger say in health insurance coverage. ... The California Insurance Commissioner has been an elected executive office position in California since 1991. Before that, it was an appointment made by the governor. (Littlejohn, 10/16)
In more election news —
The Desert Sun:
California's Prop. 8 Battle Pits Unions Against Dialysis Providers
The ballot initiative campaign with the highest price-tag in California's 2018 midterm elections isn’t about rent control or the gas tax, it’s about kidney dialysis, and specifically, how much profit providers can make from the procedure. Supporters and opponents of Proposition 8, the “Fair Pricing for Dialysis Act,” have contributed almost $120 million during the 2018 campaign season. The state’s largest kidney dialysis providers — including industry giants Davita Dialysis, Fresenius Medical Care and U.S. Renal Care — have contributed $99 million collectively to fight the proposition, while supporters, led by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), have contributed more $18 million in support of the measure collectively. (Metz, 10/17)
Vatican Greenlights Merger Between Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health
The archbishops of Denver and San Francisco, where CHI and Dignity, respectively, are headquartered, previously had signed off. But their OK was dependent on Vatican approval, which was uncertain.
Modern Healthcare:
CHI-Dignity Merger Cleared By Vatican
The Vatican has given the ecclesiastical green light to the proposed merger between Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health, a deal that would create the nation's largest not-for-profit hospital company by revenue. In a Sept. 4, 2018 letter, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith said it had reviewed the agreement between the two not-for-profit hospital systems and would allow the bishops in the local dioceses where the newly formed entities will exist to decide the matter. (Meyer and Bannow, 10/16)
The new registry will include the centers' addresses, details of services provided and accepted methods of payment for each location; the identity of each owner, director, partner and officer; and the identity of each affiliated entity and affiliated facility.
Orange County Register:
County Passes Registry For Some Drug Rehab Centers To Crack Down On Abuses
In what could be a first in California, licensed addiction treatment providers will be required to register annually with the Orange County Health Care Agency – and disclose webs of related businesses, such as urine- and blood-testing labs, pharmacies, real-estate-holding companies that manage sober living homes and the like. For now, the new law — approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors after an animated debate — will apply only to unincorporated areas of the county, where just some of the county’s 472 state-licensed addiction treatment programs are located. But the District Attorney’s office, which proposed the new law, wants to take it county-wide. (Sforza and Saavedra, 10/16)
In other news on the crisis —
Stateline:
How Fentanyl Changes The Opioid Equation
More than a decade into the opioid epidemic, illicit fentanyl and related synthetic drugs are now driving the nation’s spiraling overdose death toll. Involved in nearly half of the roughly 200 U.S. drug overdose deaths every day, fentanyl appears to be here to stay. ...As governors in the hardest-hit New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states call for intensified law enforcement efforts and stiffer penalties for fentanyl dealers, public health officials are saying this latest drug scourge underscores the urgent need to get more people into treatment, particularly those who use heroin. (Vestal, 10/17)
Officials learned Hornblower Yachts and its affiliate Alcatraz Cruises inappropriately denied benefits for seasonal employees who worked 20 hours or more a week and failed to offer employees working 20 hours or more a week a health plan at no premium charge.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Hornblower, Alcatraz Ferries Pay $2.75 Million Settlement For San Francisco Health Care Violations
A San Francisco-based ferry company and its affiliate paid the city $2.7 million to settle violations of health care laws for illegally denying health insurance and benefits to hundreds of employees over four years, officials said Tuesday. The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement found that Hornblower Yachts and Alcatraz Cruises created “complex policies” as a way of denying health benefits to 421 employees who qualified for them under the Health Care Accountability Ordinance and the Health Care Security Ordinance, according to the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. (Hernandez, 10/16)
In other news from across the state —
The Bakersfield Californian:
Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley Secures License For Public Occupancy, Sets Date For Guided Tours Of New Hospital
With its license for public occupancy from the state newly in hand, Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley is moving closer to opening its new hospital — so much so that it's ready to allow the community in for much-anticipated guided tours. The community event will take place from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28. ... More than 10 months have been devoted to correcting issues with doors and windows, performing electrical work, enlarging emergency room space, repairing flooring and more to bring the building up to code and pass inspections. (Jackson, 10/16)
Ventura County Star:
Ventura Psychiatric Hospital Damaged In Thomas Fire Reopens
The palm trees surrounding it still bear the black-as-charcoal scars of the Thomas Fire that raged here and left in its path a crisis-level shortage of in-patient psychiatric beds. But nearly 11 months after the over 280,000-acre fire destroyed two of its buildings and triggered an evacuation of 67 patients, Vista del Mar Hospital reopened a 27-bed in-patient care unit Tuesday morning. A second 28-bed unit at the Ventura hillside campus is expected to be fully open in about two months. (Kisken, 10/16)
Capital Public Radio:
Sacramento County Declares Emergency Homeless Shelter Crisis
The Sacramento County supervisors voted on Tuesday to declare a homeless shelter crisis. The declaration will make it eligible for some of the $20 million in state funding for homeless housing programs, if the state approves a request from the county and the city of Sacramento. Both city and county say that is all but a done deal. (Moffitt, 10/16)
Stat takes a look at what those five drugmakers are spending on ads right now and how they might be impacted by the Trump administration's proposal to require prices to be included. Meanwhile, some families who have struggled with high drug costs are frustrated that the plan might not actually lower prices.
Stat:
Five Drug Makers Will Be Hit Hardest By Trump’s New Proposal On Drug Ads
President Trump wants to force drug companies to disclose their prices in TV ads — and that’s going to hit five companies much harder than any others: Pfizer, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Amgen, and Allergan. Just a few dozen drug companies run any TV ads at all, and those five companies alone were responsible for more than half of the drug ads customers saw on TV in the last 12 months, according to a STAT analysis of data provided by analytics company iSpot.tv. Pfizer, for example, ran 37 unique ads in the last 12 months — racking up an advertising bill of over $600 million, according to iSpot’s estimate. (Florko, 10/17)
Bloomberg:
J&J Says Putting Drug Prices In Ads May Scare Away Patients
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s most valuable health-care company, says U.S. patients may avoid buying their medications if they see the prices in television ads. A proposal from the Trump administration forcing drugmakers to disclose the list price of any medication that costs more than $35 could discourage some from seeking treatment, executives from Johnson & Johnson said on an earnings conference call Tuesday.(Hopkins, 10/16)
The Hill:
Trump Officials Ratchet Up Drug Pricing Fight
The Trump administration is ratcheting up its fight with the drug industry, with a new proposal that would force drugmakers to disclose their prices in television advertising. For months, officials have beat the drum over high drug prices but offered only minor tweaks to address the issue. With the latest proposal, which the industry is vowing to defeat, both sides are heading for a fierce clash. (Weixel, 10/17)
CBS News:
Families Say Disclosing Drug Prices In TV Ads Not Enough
Five-year-old Elijah needs a drug with a big price tag: nearly $300,000 per year. Living with a life-threatening condition, Elijah was just three when he landed in the hospital after his family couldn't – and their insurance company wouldn't – cover the cost of a key drug, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid. "He was screaming 'Mommy why am I here?' Mommy, please take me home," his mother, Juliana Keeping, recalled. "People are cutting their pills in half, they are going without food, they are being hospitalized, and they are even dying because they can't afford prescription drugs. That happened to us and it's happening all over the country." (10/16)
CDC Stumped By Polio-Like Paralyzing Illness In Children As Cases Surge In 22 States
The condition striking kids in a growing number of states is called acute flaccid myelitis and it can cause paralysis, but health officials are unable to find a cause for the increased number of cases. The wave of illnesses seems to come in alternating years, and this one is similar to surges seen in 2014 and 2016.
The Associated Press:
Mysterious Paralyzing Illness Found Among Kids In 22 States
U.S. health officials on Tuesday reported a jump in cases of a rare paralyzing illness in children, and said it seems to be following an every-other-year pattern. At least 62 cases have been confirmed in 22 states this year, and at least 65 additional illnesses in those states are being investigated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Similar waves of the same illness occurred in 2014 and 2016. (Stobbe, 10/16)
In other national health care news —
The New York Times:
Why White Supremacists Are Chugging Milk (And Why Geneticists Are Alarmed)
Nowhere on the agenda of the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, being held in San Diego this week, is a topic plaguing many of its members: the recurring appropriation of the field’s research in the name of white supremacy. “Sticking your neck out on political issues is difficult,” said Jennifer Wagner, a bioethicist and president of the group’s social issues committee, who had sought to convene a panel on the racist misuse of genetics and found little traction. But the specter of the field’s ignominious past, which includes support for the American eugenics movement, looms large for many geneticists in light of today’s white identity politics. (Harmon, 10/17)
The New York Times:
Domestic Violence Awareness Hasn’t Caught Up With #MeToo. Here’s Why.
When Kaylee Kapatos posted on Facebook this month that she was a survivor of domestic violence, using the hashtag #WhyIStayed, the response among her friends was muted. Only the week before, she had posted about sexual assault with the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport and got what she called “overwhelmingly positive feedback.” “It’s totally different,” said Ms. Kapatos, 25, who works as a residence life coordinator at Michigan Technological University. “People just don’t want to talk about it.” (Mervosh, 10/16)
The New York Times:
Is It Possible To Be An Anti-Abortion Democrat? One Woman Tried To Find Out
Joan Barry has been a member of the Missouri Democratic Party for 53 years. As a state legislator, she voted regularly for workers’ rights, health care and programs for the poor. So when the party began writing a new platform after its crushing losses in 2016, Ms. Barry, a member of its state committee, did not think it was too much to ask for a plank that welcomed people like her — Democrats who oppose abortion. (Tavernise, 10/16)
Modern Healthcare:
Anthem's $16M Breach Settlement Reminds Others To Assess Their Cyber Risks
Anthem's record-breaking data breach settlement on Monday has put providers and insurers on notice that ignoring cybersecurity risks could come with a hefty pricetag. The nation's second-largest insurer will pay HHS' Office for Civil Rights $16 million over a 2015 data breach that affected almost 79 million people, the largest data breach ever reported to the agency. Other healthcare organizations face similar threats, especially if they have large sets of data that can entice hackers, according to cybersecurity experts. (Arndt and Livinsgton, 10/16)