Santa Cruz County Health Digest

The Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency has a new second in command. Dr. Miku Sodhi has been selected as the HSA Systems of Care assistant director.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta convened a panel of veterans to discuss the Honoring Our PACT Act, which ensures that veterans exposed to toxic substances during their service receive the care they need.

Frustration runs deep among medical cannabis patients and advocates who say the commercial market created by Proposition 64 in 2016 isn’t meeting their needs.

Some hospitals in Southern California have a nurse vacancy rate of 30 percent, stressing overworked staff and causing some to leave the industry earlier than they planned.

The iconic California burger joint known for its crossed palm trees and cups printed with Bible verses banned its employees in five states from wearing masks at work.

Thousands of Californians died from opioid overdoses in 2021. In response, many communities are making it easier to obtain life-saving overdose reversal drugs while some families are calling for tougher criminal penalties for fentanyl dealers.

California’s experimental new program targets methamphetamine addiction by rewarding patients with gift cards for negative drug tests.

Buprenorphine can lower the risk of overdose fatalities by 50% by helping to reduce opioid withdrawal and cravings.

Excessive drinking during the pandemic increased alcoholic liver disease deaths so much that the condition killed more Californians than car accidents or breast cancer, a California Healthline analysis has found.

Many California caregivers are aging immigrants making near-minimum wage. Two bills to improve pay and safety could benefit elderly Californians facing a caregiver shortage.

California’s more than 170,000 unhoused people often lack the means and mobility to locate and visit a doctor who will accept them. At least 25 street medicine teams throughout the state are trying to fill that gap by providing health care to unhoused individuals in need.

As California gives immigrants access to more public programs, its poverty rate declines, some say. But budget and recession worries slow that progress.

Medi-Cal is changing how it pays mental health providers. Many of those providers say they may no longer be able to afford peer support specialists, home visits and other services.

California health officials say granting the licenses prevents the eviction of hundreds of residents from their homes and provides oversight provisions, including a two-year monitoring period.

County leaders endorsed a new plan that charts a path for at least three years of year-round, 24-7 mobile mental crisis response available countywide, among other beefed-up services.

The spending change would prioritize housing for homeless people, which children's mental health advocates fear will cut their funding.

A new opioid overdose-reversing drug called Opvee is expected to be available over the counter later this year. But some are concerned about the cost and whether insurance will cover it.

As hospitals squeeze Sacramento for more money, experts and former officials warn against falling for fear tactics. They point to healthy profits and a recession-era financing scheme that allows rich hospitals to take tax money from poorer ones.

The state Air Resources Board voted today to ban the substance known as chromium 6, giving platers several years to switch to an alternative the platers say won’t produce the same chrome shine.

The new resource page, available at suicidepreventionservicecc.org, includes opportunity to schedule presentations from service experts, connect individuals with resources and lay out how to engage in supportive conversations.

After unanimously clearing the Senate, a bill expanding first responders' access to workers’ comp for PTSD moves to the Assembly.

Officials are proposing to increase reimbursement rates for some Medi-Cal providers, who say low pay rates prevent them from taking more patients.

California legislative committees in the Assembly and Senate blocked two big climate bills. One would have made the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets more ambitious. Another would have allowed people to sue oil companies over health problems if they meet certain criteria.

To fight the skyrocketing cost of insulin, California is using multiple tactics, including making its own generic versions.

Several hospitals have warned that they are struggling financially after the strains of the pandemic. A new loan program, if approved, could offer short-term relief.

Several hospitals have warned that they are struggling financially after the strains of the pandemic. A new loan program, if approved, could offer short-term relief.

The latest legislative effort to give health care workers a wage that enables them to afford living in California is facing predictable headwinds, with industry lobbyists forecasting mass job cuts and higher costs to patients.

In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed and the Legislature approved a tax penalty on Californians without health insurance. That money was supposed to be used to lower costs for those insured through Covered California, but that has only happened once.

Politicians must contend with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, but they also face demands from leaders of vital health care and transit services for more money to solve their fiscal woes.

Seeking some clues as to what a pending new court-based program set to arrive in Santa Cruz County before the end of next year will look like, city leaders asked for a presentation this week on the so-called CARE court program.

A U.S. Supreme Court order that keeps access to abortion drug mifepristone in place for now could be especially welcome in some safe haven states that would have been hit hard by restrictions.

California will receive $175.8 million—the highest amount of any state settlement yet reached with Juul Labs—of the $462 million total settlement over marketing vaping to kids.