Los Angeles Times: Abortion Quickly Emerges As A Flashpoint Between Harris And Trump
Abortion quickly emerged as a flashpoint in the first presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Republican falsely arguing that Democrats support killing babies after birth and the Democrat saying Trump can’t be trusted because of his dizzying statements on the matter. “It’s an execution,” Trump said, claiming that Harris, running mate Tim Walz and their party supports allowing babies to be killed in the final months of pregnancy and after they are born. He appeared to confuse the governor of Virginia and the former governor of West Virginia as he attempted to make his point but later corrected himself. Harris, looking skeptically at Trump, responded, “Well, as I said, you’re going to hear a bunch of lies.” (Mehta, 9/10)

Los Angeles Blade: Harris Puts Trump On His Heels In High-Stakes Debate
In the presidential debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris put Donald Trump on the defensive over issues from foreign policy and the ongoing criminal prosecutions against him to his record and moral character. The 90-minute exchange featured no discussion of LGBTQ issues, apart from a baseless accusation by Trump that his opponent “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.” (Kane, 9/10)

ABC News: Trump Does Not Commit To Vetoing National Abortion Ban In Debate With Harris 
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump presented different visions for the future of abortion rights during their presidential debate Tuesday. A back-and-forth between the candidates ended with Harris saying the government shouldn't be deciding what women do with their bodies, but that is what Trump wants -- a claim he denied. Harris promised to sign a bill that reinstates protections for abortion rights that existed under Roe v. Wade if it reaches her desk as president while Trump would not commit to vetoing a national abortion ban if it comes to his desk. (El-Bawab, 9/10)

Stat: Presidential Debate: Trump Still Has No ACA Replacement Plan 
Eight years after he was elected president on a promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, former President Donald Trump still hasn’t decided how he wants to do it. In a presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, Trump said he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act, but offered no details. (Zhang, 9/11)

Politico: Harris, Trump Try To Relitigate The Pandemic 
The Covid-19 pandemic resurfaced in the debate just as many voters are trying to move on from the issue. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris tried to relitigate the Covid-19 pandemic, with Harris going after Trump, who defended his record. Harris accused Trump of leaving the Biden administration "the worst public health epidemic in a century.” Trump claimed the U.S. made ventilators for "the entire world." (Leonard, 9/10)

The Washington Post: What Kamala Harris Learned From Embracing, Abandoning Medicare-For-All 
Standing on a Miami debate stage five years ago and seeking the presidency, Kamala Harris raised her hand and joined a pledge to abolish private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan. Harris, then a Democratic senator from California, later said she misunderstood the moderator’s question, clarifying that she would abolish her own private health insurance — not every American’s. The moment was one of Harris’s stumbles in 2019 as she struggled to navigate Democrats’ fight over Medicare-for-all, the transformative proposal to provide government health coverage to all Americans, and explain her own evolving position. (Diamond, 9/10)

VC Star: Health Care Rally Focuses On Caregiver Wages, ICU Closure At Santa Paula Hospital
Health care workers and their supporters protested at a rally in front of the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura before a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. (Kisken, 9/11)

Fresno Bee: Valley Children’s Wants To Settle 2022 Wage Theft Case 
Valley Children’s Hospital wants to settle a class action lawsuit over unpaid wages that nurses launched in 2022 with a gross amount of $400,000, Madera County court records show. But the attorney representing a nurse who sued the hospital for wage theft more recently says the proposed settlement would fall short of what Valley Children’s employees are truly owed for various alleged labor code violations. (Galicia, 9/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: California Hospital Hires New Chief Medical Officer
James Keany, MD, has been named chief medical officer of Long Beach, Calif.-based St. Mary Medical Center. In his new role, Dr. Keany will oversee clinical operations, contribute to strategic planning and provide leadership and support to the medical staff, according to a Sept. 10 news release shared with Becker's. The hospital is part of San Francisco-based Dignity Health. (Murphy, 9/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: Kaiser, CommonSpirit Ink Colorado Expanded Partnership
Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente and Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health have expanded collaboration through a long-term agreement in Colorado. Under the agreement, Kaiser employees and physicians will be integrated into four CommonSpirit hospitals to provide Kaiser members inpatient and emergency services,  according to a Sept. 10 news release. (Ashley, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: AMA Releases New CPT Codes For 2025
The American Medical Association released its updated list of Current Procedural Terminology codes for 2025, adding 270 new universal codes used for billing healthcare services and reimbursing providers. The organization announced 420 updates to its list Tuesday, with several revisions and additions for genetic testing, digital health services like remote patient monitoring and care involving artificial intelligence. (DeSilva, 9/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: AI Linked To Surge In Medicare Advantage, Commercial Claims Denials: AHA
Administrative costs now account for more than 40% of hospitals' total expenses for delivering patient care, with a significant portion driven by the rising number of care denials stemming from the growing use of artificial intelligence tools by insurers. Between 2022 and 2023, claims denials surged by an average of 20.2% for commercial plans and 55.7% for Medicare Advantage plans, according to a Sept. 10 brief from the American Hospital Association shared with Becker's. (Emerson, 9/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: Health Systems Advocate For Telehealth Prescribing Flexibilities
Healthcare organizations, along with companies like Amazon, have written letters to Congress and the White House, urging them to ensure continued access to remote prescribing of controlled substances. The letters, dated Sept. 10 and signed by more than 330 stakeholder organizations, were co-led by the American Telemedicine Association and ATA Action. In these letters, the organizations are asking Congress and the White House to safeguard pandemic-era flexibilities that allow for remote prescribing of controlled substances. (Diaz, 9/10)

Reuters: UnitedHealth To Remove AbbVie's Humira From Some US Drug Reimbursement Lists Next Year
UnitedHealth Group said on Tuesday it will remove AbbVie’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira from some of its lists of preferred drugs for reimbursement as of Jan. 1, 2025, and recommend less expensive biosimilar versions of the medicine instead. UnitedHealth said Amgen's (Amjevita will be among the biosimilars covered on its lists for commercial health plans, which are managed by its pharmacy benefits unit, Optum Rx. (Wingrove, 9/10)

Reuters: Novo's Older Obesity Drug Is Safe And Effective For Children, Study Finds 
Novo Nordisk's older weight-loss drug Saxenda helped children between the ages of 6 and under 12 reduce their body mass index by 7.4% in a 56-week trial, according to results presented at a medical meeting on Wednesday. The Novo-sponsored study was the first to examine the safety and efficacy of once daily injections of Saxenda, known chemically as liraglutide, in young children. (Fick, 9/10)

Stat: Novo Nordisk Weight Loss Pill May Be More Effective Than Wegovy
Novo Nordisk on Tuesday reported that its new obesity pill that targets the amylin hormone led to substantial weight loss in an early study, boosting the company’s pipeline of next-generation candidates that may be more effective than Wegovy. (Chen, 9/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: California’s Summer COVID Surge Is Waning Just As New Vaccines Arrive
California’s annual summer COVID surge is finally subsiding, with hospitalizations and the concentration of the coronavirus in wastewater decreasing since a peak in August, according to state and federal figures. Every year since COVID began in 2020, infections have surged each winter and risen each summer, unlike more familiar seasonal respiratory viruses such as influenza and RSV, which typically reach high levels in the winter but remain low the rest of the year. (Ho, 9/10)

AP: Jon Stewart Presses For A Breakthrough To Get The First 9/11 Troops Full Care 
The first U.S. troops to deploy after the Sept. 11 attacks are suffering from radiation exposure that the government has yet to officially recognize 23 years later. They are a final group of 9/11 service members that comedian Jon Stewart, a champion for first responders, can’t leave behind. Special operations forces were sent to a former Soviet base in Uzbekistan in early October 2001, where they launched the first missions against the Taliban in Afghanistan ... Troops found clumps of yellow powder scattered near bunkers where Soviet troops had stored missiles. Testing showed it was radioactive uranium, according to a declassified November 2001 Defense Department assessment. In the years since, thousands of K2 veterans have reported cancers, kidney problems and other medical conditions, some of which are known to be connected to radiation exposure. But exposure from K2 is not covered under a major veterans aid bill known as the PACT Act that President Joe Biden signed in 2022. (Copp, 9/10)

PIX11: 9/11 Health Care Fund Once Again Running Out Of Money 
Survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are once again pressuring lawmakers to fully fund their health care. Congress intended to resolve the recurring issue back 2019, but the number of people registered with the 9/11 health care fund has ballooned, as has the cost of new state-of-the-art cancer drugs, and inflation is not helping things. A stopgap funding measure was passed last year. (Rosoff, 9/9)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Citing Safety Concerns, State Suspends Veterans Village San Diego’s Rehab Program 
The California Department of Health Care Services, which licenses the residential program, issued the notice and temporary suspension that went into effect Monday, leaving San Diego County officials who had placed clients in the program scrambling to find places for them to go. (Warth, 9/10)

Los Angeles Times: Santa Monica Could Ban Sleeping Bags, Bedrolls In Public Areas
The Santa Monica City Council is set to consider amendments to its anti-camping ordinance Tuesday night that would remove a section that allows homeless people to use pillows and blankets while sleeping on public property. The existing ordinance prohibits tents and makeshift shelters in public areas but allows homeless people to sleep using blankets and pillows under certain circumstances. (Vives, 9/10)

CalMatters: LA Homeless Authority Sued Over Secret Shelter Records 
A string of sexual assaults in Los Angeles shelters. A brutal murder in a motel transformed into emergency pandemic housing. Rats, roaches and garbage piling up in supposed safe havens. What else is happening inside homeless shelters in California’s biggest city? CalMatters filed a lawsuit last week to find out, after the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority repeatedly denied our attempts to inspect shelter incident reports under California’s Public Records Act. The law allows the public broad access to governmental records.  (Hepler, 9/9)

USA Today: CDC: Suicides Tied To Lack Of Health Insurance, Income, Internet
People with health insurance, higher income and internet access may be less likely to die by suicide, a new study found. Counties with lower levels of health insurance coverage, broadband internet access and household income had higher suicide rates, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Tuesday. (Cuevas, 9/10)

Reuters: US Incomes Rose Last Year But Poverty Rates Changed Little, Census Data Shows 
U.S. inflation-adjusted household income increased but poverty rates showed only modest changes last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Tuesday, offering a mixed snapshot of how American households fared as the economy returned to pre-coronavirus pandemic growth levels, job growth boomed and inflation eased. Real median household income rose to $80,610 in 2023, up 4.0% from 2022, back to the peak reached in 2019, while earnings for workers as a whole were higher than before the pandemic, a boost to households after multiple years in which workers' wages were outpaced by high inflation. (9/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Social Security COLA Expected To Be 2.6% Next Year
Social Security recipients are on track for a smaller cost-of-living adjustment next year. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, that retirees receive each year is tied to the average inflation data for July, August and September, so the actual increase won’t be clear until October. There was a 2.9% increase in July, and economists expect the August figure to have risen at an annual rate of 2.6%. The Labor Department reports inflation Wednesday morning.  (Tergesen, 9/11)

The New York Times: Doctors Give Black Women Unneeded C-Sections To Fill Operating Rooms, Study Suggests 
Obstetricians are more likely to give Black women unnecessary cesarean sections, putting those women at higher risk for serious complications like ruptured surgical wounds. That’s the conclusion of a new report of nearly one million births in 68 hospitals in New Jersey, one of the largest studies to tackle the subject. The additional operations on Black patients were more likely to happen when hospitals had no scheduled C-sections, meaning their operating rooms were sitting empty. (Kliff, 9/10)

The Hill: Girls May Be Starting Puberty Earlier Due To Chemical Exposure: Study
Girls exposed to certain chemicals that are common ingredients in household products may be starting puberty comparatively early, a new study has found. Substances of particular concern include musk ambrette — a fragrance used in some detergents, perfumes and personal care products — and a group of medications called cholinergic agonists, according to the study, published on Tuesday in Endocrinology. (Udasin, 9/10)

CNN: First On CNN: US Faces Maternity Care Crisis, With 1 In 3 Counties Lacking Obstetric Doctors To Provide Care, Report Warns
The United States is facing an ongoing maternity health crisis in which 1 in every 3 counties does not have a single obstetric clinician, affecting women’s access to care, according to a new report. The report, released Tuesday by the infant and maternal health nonprofit March of Dimes, says that in many parts of the country, obstetrician/gynecologists and family physicians who deliver babies are leaving the workforce, which worsens access to care. (Howard, 9/10)

NBC News: Are The Toxic Metals In Tampons Harmful? FDA Launches Research To Learn Risk
“Although toxic metals are ubiquitous and we are exposed to low levels at any given time, our study clearly shows that metals are also present in menstrual products, and that women might be at higher risk for exposure using these products,” study co-author Kathrin Schilling, an assistant professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, wrote in a news release. Researchers from UC Berkeley School of Public Health were also involved. (Edwards, 9/10)

USA Today: 'Just Lose Weight': Women With PCOS Are Going Untreated Due To 'Weight-Centric Health Care'
As a teenager, Pamela Everland suffered from irregular and excessively heavy periods that lasted for six to eight weeks. At 19-years-old, a gynecologist finally placed her on birth control to regulate her periods, but new symptoms arrived; Everland experienced rapid weight gain throughout her 20s despite committing to various diets, including Weight Watchers and the low-carb Atkins diet, and suffered from acne well into her 30s. But at every doctor’s visit, she was just told to lose weight. (Goldberg, 9/10)

CalMatters: ‘I Won’t Let Them Drink The Water’: The California Towns Where Clean Drinking Water Is Out Of Reach 
In a major milestone, state regulators announced in July that nearly a million more Californians now have safe drinking water than five years ago. (Becker, 9/10)

LAist: How Schools Keep Kids Cool As Hot Weather Broils Southern California, And Why They Have Class At All
Temperatures across Southern California once again stretched past 100 degrees on Monday, and remained warm Tuesday, with excessive heat warnings still in effect. Many school districts announced limited schedules for students to begin the week, as the sun baked buildings not designed for extreme heat. The Los Angeles Unified School District cut the day short at 12 schools, primarily in the San Fernando Valley. Torrance Unified sent its students home early. “Many of our classrooms do not have air conditioning units,” a TUSD spokesperson said, “This decision prioritizes the health and safety of our students, staff, and community.” (Brenneman and Dale, 9/10)