CALIFORNIA WATCH JULY 5, 2016

San Francisco Chronicle: $2 Billion to go to Housing Mentally Ill Homeless People Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Friday allowing the state to use $2 billion in bond money to house and treat mentally ill Californians who are homeless. The bipartisan bill, called “No Place Like Home,” will send counties bond money from future Proposition 63 mental-health revenues to create affordable-housing programs for mentally ill homeless people. Prop. 63, which is also known as the Mental Health Services Act, passed in 2004 and has raised more than $13 billion through a 1 percent income tax on residents who earn more than $1 million a year. (Gutierrez, 7/1)

California Healthline: Hospital Workers Union Pulls California Ballot Measure on Hospital Exec Pay A powerful hospital workers union has been forced to withdraw a proposed measure that would have capped the pay of California hospital executives, even though it had gathered more than enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. (Ibarra, 7/1)

KPCC: Parents, Advocacy Groups Sue to Overturn California’s New Vaccination Law As California’s new law requiring almost all children entering day care, kindergarten or 7th grade to be vaccinated against various diseases took effect Friday, opponents filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the law overturned. The suit, filed by six parents and four advocacy groups in U.S. District Court in San Diego, argues that the law violates the California Constitution’s guarantee of a public education for all children. It also claims the law violates the rights to, among other things, equal protection and due process guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. (Glickman, 7/1)

CAMPAIGN 2016

The Washington Post: Democrats Release Draft of Platform, with Shifts to Left on Death Penalty, , Taxes The Democratic National Committee released the latest draft of its 2016 platform late Friday afternoon, a week after Sen. (Vt.) promised to fight "on the floor of the convention" if more progressive planks did not make it in. ... [On health care] there's more for Sanders here, in one half-sentence: "Americans should be able to access public coverage through Medicare or a public option." Sanders campaigned on a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health-care system, and this nods at that, without promising it in four years. ... For the first time, the 2016 Democratic platform says that the party will attempt to repeal the (which bars the use of federal funds for most kinds of abortion) and the Helms Amendment (which prevents foreign aid from being spent on abortion). (Weigel, 7/1)

HEALTH LAW ISSUES AND IMPLEMENTATION

Kaiser Health News: Young Adults Can Face Challenges to Health Enrollment The Obama administration is making a push to get young adults covered on the health insurance marketplaces, both for their own good and that of the marketplaces, which need healthy people to balance sicker ones in the risk pool. While experts applaud the beefed up outreach planned for the coming months, they point to several factors that may throw a wrench into enrollment plans for young people. (Andrews, 7/5)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

The New York Times: Sex May Spread Zika Virus More Often than Researchers Suspected An outbreak of the Zika virus in the continental United States could begin any day now. But while there is plenty of discussion about mosquito bites, some researchers are beginning to worry more about the other known transmission route: sex. Intimate contact may account for more Zika infections than previously suspected, these experts say. The evidence is still emerging, and recent findings are hotly disputed. All experts agree that mosquitoes are the epidemic’s main driver. (McNeil, 7/2)

The Washington Post: Uterine Cancer Risk Higher for Women with ‘Breast Cancer Gene’ Mutation Women with a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, which is already linked to breast and ovarian cancers, also face a higher risk of a deadly type of uterine cancer, according to a new study. Lead author Noah Kauff, director of Clinical Cancer Genetics at the Duke Cancer Institute, said the study was the first "conclusive link" between the gene defect and an increased likelihood of serous endometrial carcinoma, a type of cancer that affects the lining of the uterus and has a mortality rate of 50 percent. Many women with BRCA mutations have their breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce their risk of developing cancer. (McGinley, 7/1)

PHARMACEUTICALS

Kaiser Health News: Medicaid, Private Insurers Begin to Lift Curbs on Pricey Hepatitis C Drugs After legal battles and lobbying efforts, tens of thousands of people with hepatitis C are gaining earlier access to expensive drugs that can cure this condition. States that limited access to the medications out of concern over sky-high prices have begun to lift those restrictions — many, under the threat of legal action. And commercial insurers such as Anthem Inc. and United HealthCare are doing the same. (Graham, 7/5)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

The Washington Post: HHS Wins One Obamacare Case and Loses Another Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released two opinions in Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) cases. In one case, the federal government prevailed. In the other, it did not. Both opinions were unanimous and (in my opinion) likely correct. The two cases are also further confirmation that Obamacare litigation is far from over. To the contrary, for reasons I explained here, the PPACA created a perfect storm for ongoing litigation. (Jonathan H. Adler, 7/1)

DHNR is a daily compilation of news stories from GCHP's Communications Department.

Certain news organizations are protected via a paywall requiring the purchase of a subscription to view their content.

CALIFORNIA WATCH JULY 6, 2016

California Healthline: Providence St. Joseph Health System Merger Creates $100 Million Mental Health Initiative The plan is to create an Institute for Mental Health and Wellness, which will earmark a one-time initial amount of $30 million for California alone. The money is to be used for mental health and addiction counseling and research and treatment for child mental health as well as depression, psychotic disorders and other conditions, according to the California Attorney General’s office. The other states that will participate in the mental health initiative -- Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington -- will receive the remaining $70 million. (Ibarra, 7/6)

ADMINISTRATION NEWS

Sacramento Bee: More Opioid Abusers Now Can Get Medication Help More Americans will now have access to a drug that could help treat their opioid addiction, Sylvia Burwell, U.S. secretary of health and human services, announced Tuesday, even as she pushed for Congress to approve $1.1 billion targeted at the opioid epidemic. The drug, called buprenorphine, is one of three medications that the FDA has approved for treating addictions to the powerful painkillers. Health care providers who prescribe the drug now must cap the number of patients treated at 100. The new rule, effective Aug. 5, raises that patient cap to 275. (Mueller, 7/5)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

Kaiser Health News: Unintended Consequence: Blood Banks Could Feel the Squeeze from Zika Advisories Enhancing mosquito control. Encouraging safe sex. Advising people to minimize travel to infected areas. As public health officials hustle to implement strategies like these to undermine the threat of the Zika virus, one such tactic could exacerbate a different health concern: maintaining the nation’s supply of donated blood. The FDA is encouraging blood banks to turn away potential donors who might be at risk. Specifically, people who have traveled to a country where the disease is being spread, or had sex with someone else who did, should not donate for four weeks. (Luthra, 7/6)

The Hill: NIH to Study Zika in Olympic Athletes U.S. researchers are launching a study of hundreds of American Olympic athletes and staffers this summer to learn more about the effects of the Zika virus, which has plagued South America. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Tuesday it is funding a study to determine what puts people at risk for infection and how long individuals can carry the virus. (Ferris, 7/5)

PHARMACEUTICALS

The Washington Post: Pfizer Agrees to Truth in Opioid Marketing Pfizer, the world’s second- largest drug company, has agreed to a written code of conduct for the marketing of opioids that some officials hope will set a standard for manufacturers of narcotics and help curb the use of the addictive painkillers. Though Pfizer does not sell many opioids compared with other industry leaders, its action sets it apart from companies that have been accused of fueling an epidemic of opioid misuse through aggressive marketing of their products. (Bernstein, 7/5)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

STAT: To Manage Chronic Pain, Use the Whole Toolkit, Not Just Opioids For people in pain, opioids are just one leg of a chair. The other three legs — which are often missing from the debate on opioid addiction — can support equal weight if the right medical expertise and infrastructure are in place. The American Society of Anesthesiologists calls this approach multimodal analgesia. It’s the foundation for my work at Stanford Medical Center and the affiliated VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and for other pain management specialists around the country. It is also part of legislation to be reviewed tomorrow by the House and Senate Opioid Conference Committee. (Michael Leong, 7/5)

DHNR is a daily compilation of news stories from GCHP's Communications Department.

Certain news organizations are protected via a paywall requiring the purchase of a subscription to view their content.

CALIFORNIA WATCH JULY 7, 2016

KPCC: California Makes Vaccines Mandatory for Schoolchildren — Which Side are You on? As California’s new law requiring almost all children entering day care, kindergarten or 7th grade to be vaccinated against various diseases took effect Friday, opponents filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the law overturned. The suit, filed by six parents and four advocacy groups in U.S. District Court in San Diego, argues that the law violates the California Constitution’s guarantee of a public education for all children. (Glickman, 7/6)

CAPITOL HILL WATCH

Reuters: U.S. Republicans Reject Democratic Funding Proposals for Opioids Republican lawmakers in U.S. Congress on Wednesday rejected two Democratic amendments to provide nearly $1 billion in funding for bipartisan legislation intended to combat America's opioid epidemic, aides said. The rejection, which came during a meeting of U.S. House of Representatives and Senate negotiators on the measure, could undermine Democratic support for final legislation that could come up for a vote in the House of Representatives as early as Friday. (Morgan, 7/6)

The Hill: House Passes Mental Health Bill The measure from Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), which passed 422-2, had been stalled and mired in controversy for years, but lawmakers in recent months dropped or scaled back many of the most contentious, sweeping measures. That process has led to a bill that is much more modest than the original plan but that advocates are still praising as a good first step. Democrats stressed that more funding is still needed. (Sullivan, 7/6)

The Hill: Chances of Zika Funding Plummet Ahead of Recess The prospect of Congress approving any new Zika virus funding before a seven-week recess is bleak, with both parties ready to blame the other for the stalemate. Public health experts have warned that the mosquitoes that carry the virus, which is known to cause birth defects, will increase in the hot summer months, worsening the virus' spread. (Sullivan, 7/6)

HEALTH LAW ISSUES AND IMPLEMENTATION

The New York Times: House G.O.P. Returns Focus to Obamacare’s Spending Authority The Obama administration knowingly spent billions in health care dollars without proper congressional authority and went to “great lengths” to impede congressional scrutiny of the money, Republicans on two major House committees said in a report. An extensive investigation concluded that the administration plowed ahead with funding for a consumer cost-reduction program that was central to the new health insurance law even though Congress did not provide money for it. (Huse, 7/7)

Bloomberg: Obamacare’s Tobacco Surcharges Slowed Universal Health Care in Study The Affordable Care Act was meant to have a particular impact on smokers when it was enacted: It would shift the burden of high health-care costs from smoking ailments to the smokers themselves—17 percent of American adults in 2014. At the same time, the ACA would keep making progress toward the goal of universal health care, even for smokers. It fell short on both goals in its first year, a study released Wednesday by the Yale School of Public Health found. (Ramkumar, 7/6)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

The Washington Post: Leading Researchers Recommend Major Change in Prostate Cancer Treatment Leading American and British cancer researchers are urging that all men with advanced prostate cancer strongly consider being tested for inherited gene mutations -- both to help steer their treatment and to alert family members who themselves might be at increased risk for a range of cancers. This new recommendation, which represents a major change in approach, was prompted by a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers found that almost 12 percent of men with advanced cancer had defects in genes that are designed to fix damage to DNA, compared to 4.6 percent of patients with disease that hadn't spread. (McGinley, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News: Consumers’ Sunscreen Picks Don’t Always Track with Doctors’ Advice, Study Says When it comes to consumers choosing sunscreen, they are often drawn to a product’s scent, texture and, of course, performance, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology. It also found that, in many instances, these sunblocks don’t measure up to the standards recommended by the American Academy of Dermatology. The AAD recommends sun protection products contain broad spectrum coverage, an SPF of 30 or higher, and water or sweat resistance. But four out of every 10 products fell short of the recommendations." (Heredia Rodriguez, 7/6)

Los Angeles Times: Researchers Develop Genetic Test that Can Predict Your Risk of Alzheimer's Disease New research into the genetic underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease offers fresh evidence that the devastating brain disorder may gain a foothold years before dementia sets in, and takes a key step toward earlier detection of the disease. In a study that scoured the genes of healthy young people for the presence of variants linked to Alzheimer’s disease, researchers have found that those who carried many of the telltale gene variations had a smaller hippocampus -- a brain structure that is crucial to memory- formation – than did their peers with few of the genetic variations. (Healy, 7/6)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

Sacramento Bee: Public Officials Can’t Pick When to do their Duty Whether or not one supports President Obama, it is worth noting that a central premise of his public service is making real the nation’s guarantee of equal opportunity for all in a nation scarred by long- standing divisions and distrust of government. Public service in any form is an awesome responsibility. Filling open seats on the nation’s highest court, fixing our federal immigration laws, ensuring women’s access to reproductive health care, performing all functions of government on equal terms for LGBT people – these are ground rules for responsible public service. (Luis López, 7/6)

DHNR is a daily compilation of news stories from GCHP's Communications Department.

Certain news organizations are protected via a paywall requiring the purchase of a subscription to view their content.

CALIFORNIA WATCH JULY 8, 2016

California Healthline: Inaccurate Provider Lists a Major Barrier to Care, Study Finds Provider directories for some health plans sold through Covered California and in the private market are so inaccurate that they create an “awful” situation for consumers trying to find doctors, according to the lead author of a new study published in the journal Health Affairs. In the study, “secret shoppers” posing as patients were able to schedule an appointment with a primary care physician less than 30 percent of the time. (Bazar, 7/8)

Voice of OC: New Board Will Oversee County’s CalOptima Health System A new Board of Directors will meet next month to oversee CalOptima, Orange County’s comprehensive health system for low-income residents, after being selected by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. CalOptima contracts with the State of California to administer the $3.3 billion health plan for nearly 800,000 people in Orange County, or nearly one in four of Orange County’s 3.1 million residents. The selection of the new board followed an extensive public process, with 54 applications submitted—the highest number received in CalOptima’s 20-year history. (7/7)

CAPITOL HILL WATCH

Reuters: U.S. Democrats Pressure Republicans for Bipartisan Zika Funding The White House and congressional Democrats pressured Republicans on Thursday for bipartisan Zika- funding legislation, saying the public health battle against the mosquito-borne virus is being undercut by efforts to ram through a bill with less funding. But there was no sign that Republicans would abandon their $1.1 billion measure, raising the chance that Congress will leave the growing health crisis unattended until September. (Morgan, 7/7)

The Washington Post: Justice Department to Make $40 Million Available for Victims of Deadly Meningitis Outbreak The Justice Department plans to make as much as $40 million available for victims of a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that federal investigators traced to a batch of contaminated steroid injections after a dispute over whether those affected by the outbreak qualified for such financial assistance was finally resolved, officials said. While some of the details still need to be worked out, the Office for Victims of Crime has decided to make the money available from its Crime Victims Fund, which is financed by fines and penalties paid by those convicted of crimes, the officials said. (Zapotosky, 7/7)

HEALTH LAW ISSUES AND IMPLEMENTATION

The Associated Press: Study: Trump Health Care Plan Would Make 18M Uninsured Donald Trump's health care plan would make 18 million people uninsured, but also lower premiums significantly for policies purchased directly by consumers, according to an independent study released Thursday. The new policies would be stingier than what's sold now. Trump's plan would have little effect on people covered by employers and those on Medicare. But millions of low-income adults covered by the Medicaid expansion under President 's health care law would lose newly gained benefits. Separately, taxpayers might save money because the government no longer would have to subsidize insurance for millions of citizens. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/7)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

California Healthline: ‘Don’t Cut Me!’: Discouraged by Experts, Episiotomies Still Common in Some Hospitals Episiotomy, a once-common childbirth procedure that involves cutting tissue between the vagina and anus to enlarge the vaginal opening, has been officially discouraged in most cases for a decade. Yet it is still being performed at much higher than recommended rates in certain hospitals and by certain doctors. In 2006, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a recommendation against routine use of episiotomy, finding that it benefited neither mothers nor babies. In 2008, the National Quality Forum also endorsed limiting the routine use of episiotomies. (Wiener, 7/8)

NBC News: HPV-Related Cancers an 'Epidemic' in Men, Report Finds The number of cancers related to HPV has dramatically increased, a new government report finds. But too few people are receiving the best protection against the preventable and potentially deadly diseases of the cervix, head and neck: a vaccine given to pre-teens which could protect them later in life. The number of human papilloma virus (HPV)-associated cancers in the United States has increased by 17 percent, to nearly 39,000 cases a year, according a report released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While men cannot get HPV-linked cervical cancers, they are particularly vulnerable to HPV-related cancers of the mouth, tongue and throat, called oropharyngeal cancers. According to the new CDC report, the rates of mouth and throat cancers are more than four times higher among males than females. (Gussone, 7/7)

The New York Times: Why Do More Black Women Die of Breast Cancer? A Study Aims to Find Out Black women are at a greater risk of dying of breast cancer and of suffering from aggressive subtypes of the disease. Recent advances in survival rates among women of other races haven’t applied to them, and scientists aim to better understand why through a large study. A $12 million grant will finance a study of more than 20,000 black women with breast cancer, comparing them with thousands of black women who do not have the disease and white women who do. (Victor, 7/7)

Stat: Scientists Discover New Threat to Antibiotic of Last Resort European scientists have discovered another gene that makes bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort, one that could spread more easily among other kinds of bacteria. The gene, called mcr-2, was found in E. coli bacteria from pigs in Belgium, the scientists reported Thursday in the journal Eurosurveillance. It is similar to the gene mcr-1, which was first identified in China last fall and has now been seen in 30 countries across five continents, including the United States. (Joseph, 7/7)

MARKETPLACE

Reuters: Justice Dept. has Concerns over Aetna-Humana Deal: Source The U.S. Department of Justice has significant concerns about Aetna Inc's proposed acquisition of health insurer Humana Inc, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday, sending shares of Humana down as much as 11 percent. Aetna's purchase of Humana would combine two of the largest providers of Medicare Advantage plans for elderly people, and investors have long been concerned the deal might pose a competition issue for antitrust regulators. (7/7)

HEALTH IT

The San Francisco Business Times: Why this Wearable Device is Tracking Breast Cancer Patients San Francisco-based Fitbit Inc. is partnering with Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on a study to determine whether exercise helps decrease the recurrence of breast cancer. It's the largest research project that Fitbit, a maker of fitness trackers, has collaborated on to date, and comes at the heels of Fitbit's recent office expansion in Boston, where it currently employs more than 110. (Castellanos, 7/7)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

Fortune: Americans are Skipping Obamacare so they Can Smoke Obamacare enrollment has a smoking problem. A new study from the Yale School of Public Health finds that an anti-smoking provision in the health law is discouraging people from signing up for insurance while simultaneously failing to get them to kick the habit. (Sy Mukherjee, 7/7)

Ventura County Star: Doctors Need to Support Bill on Drug Database The numbers are staggering and getting worse. More than 165,000 Americans died from prescription opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2014, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state Department of Public Health says 1,895 Californians died of opioid overdoses in 2013. An additional 11,683 — an average of 32 a day — were treated in California emergency rooms for nonfatal overdoses and other opioid-related conditions. (7/6)

Oakland Tribune: What Happens When Your Medi-Cal Luck Runs Out I am a 17-year-old undocumented young adult and I believe that access to affordable health care services should not depend on luck. I am lucky because as of recently, undocumented people under the age of 19 are now eligible for full scope Medi-Cal. This means that, for the first time in our lives, my brother and I have access to health care -- something most people probably take for granted. (David Xia-Zhu, 7/6)

DHNR is a daily compilation of news stories from GCHP's Communications Department.

Certain news organizations are protected via a paywall requiring the purchase of a subscription to view their content.