Los Angeles County jails tighten controls on overdose-preventing drugs

People Continue to Die of Drug Overdoses in Los Angeles County Jails — Yet County Health Department Cuts Access to opioid addiction treatment for people behind barswrites Cayla Mihalovich of CalMatters.

In a Sept. 16 memo obtained by CalMatters, Chief Medical Officer Shawn Henderson said Correctional Health Services will take a “primary care pause in ordering buprenorphine,” a drug that curbs appetite and prevents overdoses. The new guidelines also direct prioritizing people who first enter the prison system for treatment and putting everyone else who wants medication on a waiting list. As of October 31, over 800 people were on the waiting list.

Injectable buprenorphine costs about $1,600 per shot, with nearly 40,000 doses of buprenorphine administered in Los Angeles County jails as of July 2022. The county allocates about $25 million a year to the treatment program. The Department of Health said the new rules, which limit access to buprenorphine, were created “to help maximize the reach of (the program)”. The statement did not say how making it more difficult or making patients wait longer to access buprenorphine would positively affect the program’s reach.

Critics say the policy change is dangerous and that delaying treatment could lead to more fatal overdoses.

• doctor of Correctional Health Services, who spoke to CalMatters on the condition of anonymity: “Patients are asking me for help. I’m on edge, waiting to see if someone is going to die.”

The change comes as the state is suing Los Angeles County over poor jail conditions and a high rate of in-custody deaths. Overdoses accounted for 28 percent of jail deaths this year, compared with 9 percent in 2016, according to a September memo from the county’s director of correctional health services.

Read more here.

Other justice news: Detainees at an immigration detention center in California City are suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging inhumane conditions. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, alleges the facility is infested with bugs and denies people access to food, water and their lawyers. A former shuttered prison, the facility has served as an ICE immigration detention center since August and is run by the private prison company CoreCivic. Read more by Nigel Duara and Kayla of CalMatters.

From CalMatters economics reporter Levi Sumagasai:

As fire survivors in the Los Angeles area complain about delays and denials of insurance claims, the county on Thursday launched an investigation into State Farm’s handling of policyholder claims. This is the second government investigation of the insurer this year in California.

The county told State Farm that if it was “engaging in illegal or unfair business practices,” it should stop, according to a letter from County Counsel Dovin Harrison. The county also asked the insurer for detailed information, including any claims filed related to the January fires, as well as its practices related to smoke damage and insurance adjusters.

State Farm said in a statement that this investigation by the county “will be another distraction from our ongoing work in California to help our customers recover from this tragedy.” He said he cooperated with earlier an investigation launched by the State Department of Insurance in June.

Fire survivors complained last week that the state’s investigation was taking too long summoned Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will resign.

California’s leading state senator, Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuireis is running for Congress after his 12-year term ends next year, writes Maya S. Miller of CalMatters.

The Santa Rosa Democrat is seeking to represent California’s 1st District — one of the districts that were drastically redrawn under Proposition 50 in favor of the Democrats.

During his time in the Legislature, McGuire focused on wildfire prevention after wildfires in Sonoma and Napa counties destroyed thousands of homes and claimed dozens of lives in 2017. In one of the state’s budget bills this year, he also provided the most “pork barrel” earmarked for local projects in his area.

The 1st District is being held quietly by Republican Doug LaMalfa, who has represented the upstate in Congress since 2013. Because of his support for President Donald Trump’s recent budget bill, which cuts Medicaid spending by more than $1.1 trillion over 10 years, voters criticized LaMalfa in August over a move they say will harm rural hospitals and residents.

Read more here.

On Thursday, the state released the latest update to the California School Scoreboard, a color-coded guide for the public to understand how well K-12 schools are performing. Although a record number of students who graduated last year are considered college and job-ready, other measures on the dashboard are weak. Read more by Carolyn Jones of CalMatters.