Thursday, June 8, 2023

California Healthline Original Stories

Personal Medical Debt in Los Angeles County Tops $2.6 Billion, Report Finds

Medical debt is a leading public health problem, researchers say. Despite the county's ongoing expansion of health coverage, the prevalence of medical debt remained unchanged from 2017 to 2021. (Molly Castle Work, 6/8 )

Californians Endured Unhealthier Air Quality Last Summer: For Bay Area residents, this may feel like deja vu: Skies were similarly tinged due to wildfires in the summer of 2020 as what areas of the East Coast are now experiencing. But by comparison, the air quality then was even worse — and more prolonged — than what New Yorkers have experienced so far. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Which California Prisons Fared Worst At Handling Covid? More than three years after the pandemic started sweeping through the prison system, a report from UCLA offers a new measure of just how bad it was — and which prisons handled it the worst. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.

Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline's coverage. For today's national health news, read KFF Health News’ Morning Briefing.

Wildfires and Heat

Los Angeles Times: Wildfire Smoke Has Given New York The World's Worst Air Quality. Californians Have Some Tips Download smartphone apps to monitor the air quality index. Buy some air purifiers. Put on that KN95 mask. Just because you can't see the threat doesn't mean it's not there. West Coasters who have long lived with the danger of wildfires offered some words of wisdom to their East Coast counterparts Wednesday, as residents along the Eastern seaboard faced another dizzying day of hazy skies amid smoke and air pollution from wildfires burning in Canada. (Petri, 6/7)

The Atlantic: Masking For Smoke Isn't Like Masking For COVID Late last night, New Yorkers were served a public-health recommendation with a huge helping of déjà vu: "If you are an older adult or have heart or breathing problems and need to be outside," city officials said in a statement, "wear a high-quality mask (e.g. N95 or KN95)." It was, in one sense, very familiar advice—and also very much not. This time, the threat isn't viral, or infectious at all. (Wu, 6/7)

The New York Times: How To Keep Indoor Air Clean If You Don't Have An Air Purifier An air purifier, like one that uses a HEPA filter, is the best way to improve the quality of your indoor air — but if you are staying inside to avoid wildfire smoke and don't have access to an air filter, there are a few other things you can do to keep the air in your home as clean as possible. The next best tool after an air purifier is an air-conditioner, said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician at Johns Hopkins Medicine. (Blum, 6/7)

Axios: Summers Are Heating Up Fastest In These Cities Summers have gotten hotter in many cities across the U.S. over the past five decades, per a new analysis by climate research group Climate Central. Between 1970 and 2022, summer temperatures rose by 2.4°F on average across nearly 230 locations — 95% of the locations the group analyzed. (Fitzpatrick and Lysik, 6/8)

Housing Crisis

Times Of San Diego: Mayor Gloria Urges Council To Pass Ordinance Limiting Homeless Camps Mayor Todd Gloria called Wednesday for the City Council to pass an ordinance restricting homeless encampments throughout San Diego if sufficient shelter beds are available. Gloria has pushed hard for the ordinance — written by City Councilman Stephen Whitburn — in recent weeks, urging citizens to sign a petition and speaking on the issue at news conferences. (Jennewein, 6/7)

Los Angeles Times: Renters Dominate California — But They Are Struggling To Survive Evelyn Arceo holds down a full-time job as a baker at Universal Studios Hollywood, earning $19 an hour. But even when she gets a few hours of overtime at the theme park, the single mother of four can barely afford the rent of her one-bedroom apartment in Panorama City. On her salary, buying a home is out of the question. (Castleman, 6/7)

Mental Health

Military Times: Mental Health Resources Available For Women Veterans About 10 years ago, Veterans Administration hospitals started to see a rise in women scheduling mental health appointments – a trend that seemed to catch healthcare workers off guard."At that time, the VA really didn't have a huge infrastructure related to women's health," said Jena Hedrick-Walker, the director of strategic development for Loyal Source, a veteran-friendly healthcare company. "Women would go to the VA and get asked, ‘Where is your spouse?’ and they’d say, ‘This is my appointment. I’m a veteran.’" (Lubach, 6/7)

KQED: Magic Mushrooms May Treat Depression. But Hurdles To Psilocybin Access Abound Diamond was tripping on an August morning in Baltimore. The mom and entrepreneur sat cozily under a weighted blanket at Sheppard Pratt Hospital. Little mushroom people jumped across imaginary flower petals behind her eye mask. A therapist monitored Diamond from close by, ready to serve her food and measure her depression symptoms. (Yanny, 6/7)

Heart Health

San Diego Union-Tribune: UCSD Researchers Created A Pocket-Size Blood Pressure Monitor That Attaches To A Smartphone Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a new kind of blood pressure monitor that's small enough to fit in your pocket and attaches to a smartphone. (Rocha, 6/7)

Stat: Reanimated Hearts Work Just As Well For Transplants, Study Finds Anew method of heart transplantation that uses machines to reanimate donor hearts from people who have died is just as good as traditional heart transplantation, a new study finds. If adopted broadly in the U.S., the procedure that could expand the donor pool by 30%. (Chen, 6/7)

Covid

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Moderna, Pfizer Sued Over Technology Developed By San Diego Researchers That Made COVID-19 Vaccine Possible Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech were named in lawsuits Tuesday that accuse them of stealing a patented method developed by researchers from The Scripps Research Institute that made the COVID-19 vaccine possible. The two separate patent infringement lawsuits — one against Moderna for its Spikevax vaccine and one against Pfizer and its partner BioNTech for its Comirnaty vaccine — were filed in federal court in San Diego by Promosome. (Rocha, 6/8)

KQED: For Many Long COVID Patients, Qualifying For Disability Is Half The Battle Chris Pham contracted COVID-19 at the onset of the pandemic, in March 2020, and just couldn't kick it. "I was two weeks in, and the first time that I realized something was really wrong was when I decided to take a run," said the now-35-year-old, who had been living in the Bay Area in good health and was training for a triathlon. "I was feeling a little bit better. … But after mile 1, I can remember really thinking, ‘Wow, there's something that's totally wrong with my body.’ And I broke into a cold sweat and I just couldn't run anymore." (Mizuguchi, 6/7)

Stat: CDC Comes Under Fire For Inadequate Update On Its Covid Response Republicans aren't impressed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's reorganization plan, or its efforts to explain it. (Owermohle, 6/7)

HIV/AIDS

AP: Court Seeks Compromise That Might Preserve Preventive Health Insurance Mandates As Appeals Play Out Federal appeals court judges are seeking compromise on whether government requirements that health insurance include coverage for HIV prevention, cancer screenings and some other types of preventive care can be maintained while a legal battle over the mandates plays out. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Wednesday told attorneys on both sides of the issue to report by Friday on the possibility of a temporary compromise in the case. (McGill, 6/7)

USA Today: Why HIV Prevention Drugs, PReP Is Inaccessible For At-Risk Populations Even though the number of people on the medication has increased every year, advocates and academics say it's critical to cut through barriers that prevent people from getting PrEP. That is particularly true for Black and Latino people who are less likely to take the drug but are at higher risk for infection. (Alltucker, 6/8)

Health Industry

State Of Reform: California Health Leaders Advocate For Stronger Healthcare Data Sharing Infrastructure Several healthcare organization leaders discussed easing access to patient data and creating a stronger data sharing infrastructure, which could assist with improving care for patients, at the 2023 State of Reform Northern California Health Policy Conference. One caveat is ensuring the continued protection of patient privacy. (Saunders, 6/7)

Drug Prices

Stat: ‘We Don't Agree’ On Drug Pricing, FDA Chief Tells Biotech Leaders The drug industry has spent the past year speaking against new mechanisms that could limit how much governments or insurers pay for certain new medicines. Robert Califf, the Food and Drug Administration chief, walked on stage Wednesday and told a crowd of biotech leaders that drug costs needed fixing. (Mast, 6/7)

Stat: Democrats Blast Biden Administration Over Alzheimer's Drug Plans Ahead of a major Food and Drug Administration meeting on a new Alzheimer's treatment this week, several Democratic lawmakers are ratcheting up their criticism of how the Biden administration is planning to handle a potential approval this summer. (Cohrs, 6/7)

Around California

Stat: Google Strikes Deal With Mayo To Comb Records With Generative AI Google will embed its generative AI technology into computer systems at Mayo Clinic and other health systems to make it easier to search vast repositories of patient data and automate administrative tasks, the organizations said Wednesday. (Ross, 6/7)

Bay Area News Group: Los Gatos Man Who Saved Life Of Man In Cardiac Arrest Honored By Red Cross When Bruce Richardson saw a man collapse in the parking lot of an auto parts store in Los Gatos, he sprung into action. The man was in cardiac arrest, and Richardson began performing life-saving CPR while an employee at the shop called 911. Richardson, who was part of a volunteer ski patrol and has 23 years of first aid and CPR training, said he knew exactly what to do. (Kanik, 6/6)