Potential Overhaul for Minimum Wage Legislation in Healthcare Sector: Gov. Gavin Newsom is seeking “major reforms” to pull funding from a costly plan next year to begin raising the statewide minimum wage for health care workers to $25 an hour. The changes, which would have to be approved by lawmakers next year, were “all part of an understanding” with labor leaders before he signed the bill, Newsom said. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Expansion Project Valued at $1.5 Billion Planned by California Pediatric Hospital, According to Becker's Hospital Review
Oakland, Calif.-based UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital is planning a $1.5 billion expansion, San Francisco Business Journal reported Dec. 1. The project will demolish two buildings that aren't compliant with seismic regulations and build a new eight-story, 330,000-square-foot building. The facility will contain a new emergency department, larger operating rooms and a behavioral health unit. The health system is financing the project through debt financing, philanthropy, state funds for pediatric healthcare, and cash. Construction will start in 2027 and wrap up in 2030. (Schwartz, 12/1)
California Hospital Receives $10 Million Donation from 'Big Bang Theory' Producer, Reports Becker's Hospital Review
The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of television producer Chuck Lorre, donated $10 million to Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The donation will fund a program for students from under-resourced communities who are interested in studying medicine. Through the program, the hospital created the Chuck Lorre Research Scholars Program, a 10-week paid summer laboratory program for area college students. The first cohort finished the program in the summer of 2023, according to a Dec. 5 Children's Hospital Los Angeles news release. (Schwartz, 12/6)
Increase in Nurses Pursuing Employment in the U.S. Despite Visa Pause, Reports Modern HealthcareTop of Form
A record number of occupational visa certificates were issued this year to nurses and other healthcare workers by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools. The nonprofit, which helps foreign-educated nurses work in other countries by verifying their credentials for federal and state agencies, said it issued almost 27,000 visa certificates this year—85% of which were for registered nurses—twice as many as in 2022. The number of certificates has quadrupled since 2017. (DeSilva, 12/6)
Implementation Challenges Hamper California's Ambitious Medicaid Experiment, Reports KFF Health News
Nearly two years into Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $12 billion experiment to transform California’s Medicaid program into a social services provider for the state’s most vulnerable residents, the institutions tasked with providing the new services aren’t effectively doing so, according to a survey released Tuesday. As part of the ambitious five-year initiative, called CalAIM, the state is supposed to offer the sickest and costliest patients a personal care manager and new services ranging from home-delivered healthy meals to help paying rental security deposits. (Hart, 12/5)
Reuters: U.S. Encourages Manufacturers of Infant RSV Vaccines to Meet Winter Demand
U.S. officials met with manufacturers of the infant and toddler RSV immunization Beyfortus this week seeking to boost access to the shot, the White House said in a statement on Thursday after senior Biden administration officials met with the companies last week. The officials on Tuesday met with representatives of Sanofi, AstraZeneca and Thermo Fisher "and urged them to work expeditiously to meet demand for immunizations this winter season through the commercial market," the White House said in a statement. (12/7)
NBC News: Mixed Emotions Among Black Patients Over New Sickle Cell Treatment, Combining Hope and Hesitancy
The Food and Drug Administration must decide by Friday whether to approve a new gene-editing therapy to treat sickle cell disease, a debilitating blood disorder that affects at least 100,000 Americans, most of whom are Black. The treatment, called exa-cel, would be the first approved medicine in the U.S. to use the groundbreaking gene-editing tool CRISPR to alter DNA. The new therapy, from Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, is, experts say, a stunning advancement in medicine. (Bellamy, 12/7)
CIDRAP: Research Indicates Developmental Delay Risk in Infants Exposed to COVID In Utero
A new study based on a cohort of Brazilian infants shows those who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infections in the uterus may be at an increased risk for developmental delays in the first year of life. The study appeared yesterday in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. ... At 12 months, 20.3% of COVID-exposed children and 5.9% of the controls received a diagnosis of neurodevelopmental delay. (Soucheray, 12/6)
NBC News: Identification of Potential Fetal Fentanyl Exposure Syndrome by Doctors
At least 10 babies — possibly more than 12 — have been identified with what doctors believe to be a new syndrome related to exposure to fentanyl in the womb. All of the infants have distinctive physical birth defects, such as cleft palate and unusually small heads. ...All were born to mothers who said they'd used street drugs, particularly fentanyl, while they were pregnant. "This is concerning," said Dr. Elizabeth Cherot, the president of the March of Dimes. "As we see these shared characteristics identified, we may be unroofing a real syndrome." (Edwards, 12/5)
Capitol Weekly: Leading the Battle Against Spina Bifida with CIRM Funding, UCD Stem Cell Advocate Plays Fairy Godmother Role
The California stem cell agency had a $9 million moment last week that involved a “stem cell fairy godmother,” two English bulldogs named Darla and Spanky, four lambs and a baby from Texas named Robbie. While it took the agency only moments to hand out the $9 million, it took the fairy godmother more than 25 years to make it happen. Meet Diana L. Farmer, the fairy godmother and the world’s first female fetal surgeon. “I take care of my patients in the womb,” she says. (Jensen, 12/5)
Stat: Dobbs Case and New Abortion Restrictions Pose Threat to Fetal Surgery
The concept of fetal surgery captures the imagination when, from time to time, it makes the headlines. Few pregnant mothers will need the assistance of fetal medicine specialists; fewer still will need a fetal surgeon to save their children. But it can offer parents-to-be a sense of hope: In the appropriate circumstances, doctors may be able to help before the child is even born. Now, anti-abortion laws intended to protect the unborn may do the exact opposite by threatening this already-challenging field. (Francois I. Luks, Tippi Mackenzie and Thomas F. Tracy Jr., 12/5)
Stat: Proposed New Rules Encounter Opposition in Addressing Research Misconduct
Research universities are voicing concerns over some proposed changes to the process for reviewing scientific misconduct allegations, citing worries that new government requirements would hobble their own independent procedures and constitute a huge administrative burden. (Merelli, 12/8)
The Impact of the UNLV Shootings on California Universities: The UNLV shooting that left three dead comes as all University of California campuses are currently providing “refresher training” on active-shooter situations for communities and first responders. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
The 19th: Increasing Frequency of Pregnancy After 35 - Is U.S. Healthcare Keeping Pace?
Federal data shows steady growth in older people becoming first-time parents over at least the past two decades. By 2021, the mean age for first birth hit 27.3, a record high. The share of people in their 30s and 40s giving birth has continually increased since 2000. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2021, close to 1 in 5 pregnancies in America were among people 35 and older, along with almost 12 percent of first pregnancies. In 2000, by contrast, people 35 and older made up about 7.4 percent of first births. (Luthra, 12/7)
USA Today: FDA Grants Approval to At-Home Artificial Insemination Kit for the First Time
Anyone who's struggled with infertility knows that getting treatments can be expensive. Insurance doesn't cover artificial insemination, a procedure that places sperm into the cervix or uterus during ovulation. ... That means that many people who need such treatments to reproduce often can't afford them. But that could be changing with the introduction of a new at-home artificial insemination kit. This week in a historic first, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the kit for use by consumers. (Walrath-Holdridge, 12/6)
Axios: Biden Advocates for Enhancing Free Birth Control Coverage Under ACA
Democrats and reproductive rights organizations are putting renewed pressure on the Biden administration to ensure that health insurers fully cover contraception, citing fresh evidence that companies are failing to meet the Affordable Care Act requirement. (Reed, 12/6)
CalMatters: Understanding Why a California Domestic Violence Law Separates Children from Abused Mothers
Worried that her abusive partner would kill her or her boys, Jackie had nowhere to go and no one to ask for help. She said her partner had angry outbursts, beat her, degraded her and destroyed things in the house. She knew she had to escape. She called the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, hoping for a path to a safe place to stay. Instead, she received a warning that struck a different kind of fear in her. If she didn’t leave her partner within 30 days, the child welfare agency would take her four boys. (Mink, 12/7)
Children on Medi-Cal Facing Lengthy Waits for Critical Mental Health Care: Children on Medi-Cal, California’s insurance program for its poorest residents, might wait months for urgent psychiatric care, according to an audit released last week. Read more from CapRadio.
Los Angeles Times: Preschools Grapple With Challenges of California Law Restricting Expulsions, Including Biting, Kicking, and Block Hurling
California began passing a series of highly lauded laws that restrict state-funded child care centers from suspending or expelling children two years before the pandemic. The legislation was part of a national wave that followed a 2014 Obama administration statement condemning preschool expulsion and clarifying that the practice was banned at federally funded Head Start programs. At least 29 states now have policies restricting or eliminating exclusionary discipline. (Gold, 12/4)
San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF's Autism Study Utilizing AI May Transform Approaches to Treating the Condition
Researchers at UCSF have mapped the microscopic world of autism spectrum disorder in unprecedented detail, pointing toward possible therapies for a subset of patients who have specific genetic mutations, according to a new study. “This opens up kind of a Goldilocks of potential treatment targets,” said one of the study’s authors, Matthew State, a UCSF child psychiatrist and geneticist. “It’s an opportunity for shots on goal that we just have not had before, because of the complexity of autism.” (Fagone, 12/4)
KFF Health News: Concerns Among People of Color Regarding the Association Between Good Healthcare and Appearance
Many people from racial and ethnic minority groups brace themselves for insults and judgments before medical appointments, according to a new survey of patients that reaffirms the prevalence of racial discrimination in the U.S. health system. The KFF survey of nearly 6,300 patients who have had care in the past three years found that about 55% of Black adults feel they have to be very careful about their appearance to be treated fairly by doctors and other health providers. Nearly half of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Hispanic patients feel similarly, as do about 4 in 10 Asian patients. (DeGuzman, 12/5)