News Of The Day

Good morning! Here are some of your top California health stories of the day.

More Than A Million California Toddlers Covered Under Medi-Cal Weren't Tested For Lead Exposure, Searing Audit Reveals: State Auditor Elaine Howle found 1.4 million toddlers enrolled in Medi-Cal had gone untested for lead exposure between over the past decade, and another 740,000 missed one of two required screenings — a failure encompassing nearly three-quarters of the 3 million toddlers covered by the state's publicly-funded health insurance program. She said there had been lax oversight of managed care plans' efforts to ensure that children are being tested but that the agency was implementing a financial incentive program to encourage providers to do the testing. "The rate of eligible children receiving all of the tests that they should have was less than 27 percent," the report said. "Many of these children live in areas of the state with high occurrences of elevated lead... making the low testing rates even more troubling." In 2017, roughly 10,000 children in California were found to have elevated levels of lead in their bodies, the report said. Read more from Elizabeth Aguilera of CalMatters, Cathie Anderson of the Sacramento Bee, and Lauryn Schroeder of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

In related news from the Sacramento Bee: Symptoms Of Lead Poisoning In Children

Judge 'Inclined To Accept' USC's Landmark $215M Settlement Over Allegations Against Campus Gynecologist: Under the terms of the settlement, each woman who saw Dr. George Tyndall during his time at USC would be guaranteed a $2,500 payment, whether or not she had alleged abuse. Women who allege the worst abuse and would be willing to be screened by a psychologist could be eligible for payments of up to $250,000. In a statement, USC said it was pleased with the decision, calling it a settlement that "provides respectful and confidential relief to Tyndall patients at the student health center and formalizes a broad array of campus reforms." Tyndall will not contribute to the settlement, under its terms, nor will he admit liability or wrongdoing. His attorney said Monday that her client continues to deny wrongdoing. Finalizing the settlement closes the door to a large portion of USC's legal exposure, but it does not end the institution's mounting costs related to the Tyndall scandal. Read more from Mariel Padilla of The New York Times and Matt Hamilton of the Los Angeles Times.

Newsom Wants To Direct $750M In Budget To Help Getting Homeless Off The Street: In the current state budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers directed $650 million to help local governments address homelessness, and the additional infusion of $750 million the governor is considering could be used to pay rent for homeless people, build housing for them and improve shelters. The money would come from one-time surplus funds projected for the upcoming fiscal year, Newsom's office said. Newsom's full budget proposal is due Friday and will kick off months of negotiations with lawmakers. Read more from Sophia Bollag of the Sacramento Bee.

Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.

More News From Across The State

Hospitals

San Francisco Chronicle: SF's Laguna Honda Hospital Patient Files Elder Abuse Suit Following Scandal
A resident at Laguna Honda Hospital has filed the first lawsuit against the facility following the patient abuse scandal that roiled the city last year, alleging hospital staffers secretly took photographs of his anal and genital areas and disseminated them for their own entertainment. The suit, filed Monday in San Francisco County Superior Court, comes after a series of bombshell allegations of similar behavior disclosed last year by the city attorney's office and Department of Public Health. (Cassidy, 1/7)

Homeless Crisis

San Francisco Chronicle: California Will Open Vacant State Land For Homeless Shelters Under Newsom Order
California will open vacant state land to emergency shelters for homeless people under an executive order that Gov. Gavin Newsom intends to sign Wednesday. The order, which Newsom announced ahead of his annual budget plan due this week, would also create a fund to pay rent and build affordable housing for homeless people. The governor will propose to start the fund with $750 million in taxpayer money, which the Legislature would have to approve. (Koseff and Fagan, 1/8)

Los Angeles Times: Study: L.A. Can Help Mentally Ill Inmates Avoid Homelessness
More than 60% of the inmates with a mental illness in the Los Angeles County Jail would be eligible for diversion if there were more facilities capable of providing supportive care, according to a study released Tuesday. Such a move would save the county hundreds of dollars a day in incarceration costs for each inmate and, for many, end a cycle of being arrested and released, then becoming homeless and getting arrested again, the medical director of the county's Office of Diversion and Reentry, Kristen Ochoa, said at a news briefing. (Smith, 1/7)

Public Health

Capital Public Radio: Amid Vaping Controversy, California Schools And Health Officials Want To Teach Kids How To Quit
Across California, posters and billboards from the state health department warn young people about the dangers of vaping. State lawmakers introduced a bill this week to end all store sales of flavored tobacco, and the federal government recently moved to ban some e-cigarettes. But experts say bans and information campaigns don't get at one crucial problem: how to help young people who are already addicted to nicotine. (Caiola, 1/7)

Wildfires

The California Health Report: Wildfires Expose Gaps In Disaster Relief For Undocumented Communities
Shortly after two fires broke out almost simultaneously in Ventura County last October, residents started calling administrators of a local charitable fund called the 805 UndocuFund to ask for financial help. Most of the callers were farmworkers who'd lost work during the fires because smoke and evacuations forced their employers to temporarily shut operations. Some were families who'd lost power, and with it a weeks' worth of food because their refrigerators turned off. Others had been forced to pay for childcare they couldn't afford after area schools closed. Because of their immigration status, the callers couldn't claim unemployment benefits or other government-sponsored disaster relief. But since many of them already lived on limited incomes, just a small financial hit could mean not being able to pay rent or put food on the table. (Boyd-Barrett, 1/7)

Mental Health

LAist: More Than Half Of LA County Inmates Who Are Mentally Ill Don't Need To Be In Jail, Study Finds
Thousands of people who are mentally ill are locked up in L.A. County jails at any given time. But should they be behind bars? That's the question the Board of Supervisors set to answer when they requested RAND researchers study the mentally ill jail population back in August 2018.On Tuesday, that report was presented to L.A. County leaders - and largely echoed findings by their own Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR) in a preliminary study completed 10 months ago. The answer: A majority — more than 60% of them — could instead be safely cared for in the community, if enough housing and community services were made available. (Perry, 1/7)

Marketplace

Los Angeles Times: U.S. Health System Costs Four Times More To Run Than Canada's
In the United States, a legion of administrative healthcare workers and health insurance employees who play no direct role in providing patient care costs every American man, woman and child an average of $2,497 per year. Across the border in Canada, where a single-payer system has been in place since 1962, the cost of administering healthcare is just $551 per person — less than a quarter as much. (Healy, 1/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Who Wins In A Personal-Injury Lawsuit? It Can Be The Doctor
One day in 2011, Dave Pebley and his wife were in their motor home on the side of the highway with a flat tire when a big rig slammed into them. The jolt sent Mr. Pebley to the hospital with injuries to his face, neck and lower back. The California resident sued the driver and his employer. But instead of using his Kaiser health insurance to continue treatment, Mr. Pebley enlisted medical specialists who treated him for no upfront cost. Instead, they agreed to recoup their fees only once his lawsuit resolved. The arrangement paid off for Mr. Pebley, his lawyers and his doctors when a jury awarded him $3.6 million in damages, including $644,000 in past and future medical costs. The defendants challenged the verdict, arguing the medical bills were excessive. (Randazzo, 1/8)

National Roundup

The Hill: Conservative Group To Spend $4M Attacking Pelosi's Drug Pricing Plan
A conservative group plans to spend $4 million on an advertising campaign targeting Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) drug pricing plan. The American Action Network — a group aligned with House GOP leadership — will air the ads in 28 House districts, including some where Republicans are running competitive races in 2020, including GOP Reps. David Schweikert (Ariz.), Rodney Davis (Ill.) and Scott Perry (Pa.). (Hellmann, 1/7)

The Hill: New Drug Price Hikes Set Stage For 2020 Fight
Price hikes on hundreds of prescription drugs to start the year are leading to intensifying calls for action from lawmakers and advocates, putting new pressure on Washington. Drug companies kicked off the year by raising prices on a wide range of treatments by an average of about 5 percent, according to the consulting firm 3 Axis Advisors. (Sullivan, 1/7)

The Associated Press: Pharmacies Say Prescribers Bear Opioid Crisis Responsibility
Doctors and other healthcare practitioners who write prescriptions bear ultimate responsibility for improper distribution of opioids to patients, not pharmacists who are obliged to fill those prescriptions, a series of pharmacy chains argued in federal court. The filings, which were submitted Monday to the federal judge in Cleveland who has been overseeing the national opioid lawsuits, asked the judge to rule in the pharmacies' favor and reject claims brought by some Ohio counties. The judge has scheduled an October trial for claims against CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, HBC and Discount Drug Mart. (1/7)

The Associated Press: Big Study Finds No Strong Sign Linking Baby Powder & Cancer
U.S. government-led research found no strong evidence linking baby powder with ovarian cancer in the largest analysis to look at the question. The findings were called "overall reassuring" in an editorial published Tuesday with the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The analysis involving 250,000 women isn't definitive but more conclusive research probably isn't feasible because a dwindling number of women use powder for personal hygiene, the editorial said. (1/7)

The Wall Street Journal: A New Approach To Cancer Treatment Draws Lessons From Darwin
A nascent approach to cancer treatment is using lessons from Darwin's theory of evolution. Called adaptive therapy, the treatment stems from the recognition that cancerous cells, just like other forms of life, mutate and evolve in response to a changing environment. Traditional cancer treatment—continuously bombarding cancer cells with drugs—can encourage drug-resistant cells to multiply, eventually creating an untreatable tumor. Adaptive therapy doesn't try to eradicate the entire cancer. (Abbott, 1/7)