Kaiser Permanente To Downsize Headquarters In California

San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser Poised To Downsize At Oakland HQ In Another Blow To Downtown
Kaiser Permanente, one of Oakland’s largest employers, plans to downsize its headquarters office space in another blow to the city’s downtown. The health care giant “will significantly reduce its space” at the Ordway Building, where it has been headquartered since 1970, according to a building loan servicer note. As a result, the 530,000-square-foot tower faces “imminent monetary default” due to “insufficient cash flow” and was transferred to special servicing earlier this year. (Li, 11/20)

More health news from California —

Los Angeles Times: Union Representing UC Service Workers Launches Two-Day Strike
Nearly 40,000 University of California workers began a two-day strike Wednesday to protest what they claim is bad faith bargaining by university negotiators as the two sides try to hammer out new labor agreements. The work stoppage, which affects service and patient care workers at all UC campuses and medical facilities, will continue until 11:59 p.m. Thursday. AFSCME Local 3299, the union representing the workers, and the university system have been in talks over new contracts for nearly a year. (Petrow-Cohen, 11/20)

The Mercury News: Good Samaritan Hospital Clears Rezoning Hurdle At San Jose City Council
Despite criticism from some city leaders over the past few weeks about HCA Healthcare’s previous service cuts, the San Jose City Council will not stand in the way of the health provider’s plans to build a new facility at Good Samaritan Hospital. Instead, the City Council unanimously approved rezoning the hospital’s campus Tuesday — allowing it to move forward with the permitting process to build new facilities that comply with state seismic law — amid overwhelming support for the project from patients, labor groups and medical professionals. (Patel, 11/20)

Los Angeles Times: Feds Raise Concern About Maternal Care For Black Cedars-Sinai Patients
Federal investigators looking into the treatment of Black pregnant patients at Cedars-Sinai Health System have found evidence that federal laws against discrimination may not have been followed, according to a “letter of concern.” “Our investigation has uncovered evidence that Cedars-Sinai may have engaged in a pattern of inaction and/or neglect concerning the health risks associated with Black maternity patients,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights said in its Nov. 12 letter to Cedars-Sinai officials. (Alpert Reyes, 11/20)

KFF Health News: California Sets 15% Target For Primary Care Spending Over Next Decade
A California agency charged with slowing health costs has set a lofty goal for insurers to direct 15% of their spending to primary care by 2034, part of the state’s effort to expand the primary care workforce and give more people access to preventive care services. The board of the state Office of Health Care Affordability in October set its benchmark well above the industry’s current 7% primary care spending rate, in hopes of improving Californians’ health and reducing the need for costlier care down the road. (Sánchez, 11/21)

From Texas —

Houston Chronicle: Montgomery County Launches New Medical Examiner's Office
Montgomery County is now the 14th county in Texas to become a medical examiner’s office after commissioners unanimously approved the decision without discussion. The Tuesday action comes after commissioners approved the department’s $3.2 million budget in September. Dr. Kathryn Pinneri, who became director of forensic services in 2016, will be the county's first chief medical examiner. (Dominguez, 11/20)

The Texas Tribune: What To Know About Texas Hospitals' Citizenship Question 
On Nov. 1, Texas hospitals that accept Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Plan coverage started asking all patients about their immigration status and whether they are lawfully present in the United States. The requirement is part of an executive order Gov. Greg Abbott issued this summer. The information is statistical only. No identifying information about the patient is passed along to the governor’s office. (Langford, 11/21)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Senate To Prioritize Creating Dementia Research Fund
Two decades ago, state Rep. Tom Craddick could ask a room of his West Texas constituents what illness they feared the most and the answer, unfailingly, was always cancer. A few weeks ago, about the time Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick contacted him about a new blockbuster medical research fund idea, Craddick asked a group of his constituents the question again and no one mentioned cancer. “It was unanimous in the room,” Craddick said. “Alzheimer’s and dementia.” (Langford, 11/21)

From New York, Alabama, and Iowa —

The New York Times: Urologist Who Sexually Abused Patients Is Sentenced To Life In Prison
A urologist convicted of sexually abusing seven patients, including five who were minors, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday, prosecutors said. The doctor, Darius A. Paduch, a fertility specialist, molested boys and young men for years at two prominent New York hospitals, prosecutors said. Hundreds of other young men and boys have also accused Dr. Paduch, 57, of abuse spanning more than 15 years in scores of civil suits. (McFadden, 11/20)

AP: Alabama To Use Nitrogen Gas To Execute Man For 1994 Slaying Of Hitchhiker 
An Alabama prisoner convicted of the 1994 murder of a female hitchhiker is slated Thursday to become the third person executed by nitrogen gas. Alabama this year began using nitrogen gas to carry out some death sentences, the first use of a new execution method in the United States since lethal injection was introduced in 1982. The method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the person’s face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen. Alabama maintains the method is constitutional. (Chandler, 11/21)

KFF Health News: After Institutions For People With Disabilities Close, Graves Are At Risk Of Being Forgotten
Hundreds of people who were separated from society because they had disabilities are buried in a nondescript field at the former state institution here. Disability rights advocates hope Iowa will honor them by preventing the kind of neglect that has plagued similar cemeteries at other shuttered facilities around the U.S. (Leys, 11/21)