COVID Relief Grants Open to CA Small Nonprofits, Businesses Through June

By Selen Ozturk

Those with 26-49 employees in 2021 or 2022, who paid COVID sick leave, are eligible for $5K to 50K.

How Medicare Perpetuates Privilege -- Not Equity...continued

conditions like Alzheimer's disease and sickle cell anemia but also the caregivers, families, and communities disproportionately burdened by these illnesses.

Patients of color also tend to be vastly underrepresented in clinical studies for CEDdesignated treatments and procedures.

Geographical and racial inequality often intersect. The studies in which CED-designated treatments and procedures are available often take place at major research universities in wealthier, urban areas. This creates access barriers for patients who have trouble traveling long distances for care.

Medicare's chief purpose has always been to provide high-quality care to all of its patients without favoring any one group. But by abusing the CED program, CMS has warped a procedure meant to get treatments to patients sooner into a tool for neglecting some patients, privileging others, and deepening the racial, socioeconomic, and ethnic inequities in our healthcare system.

Pamela Price, RN, is deputy director of The Balm in Gilead, a non-profit whose mission is to improve the health of Black people in the United States and Africa. This op-ed originally ran in the Virginia Mercury.

Protect Yourself from Mosquito Bites During

National Mosquito Control Awareness Week

Mosquito bites are more than an itchy annoyance, they can pose serious threats to your health.

While COVID relief grants have phased down nationwide since the end of the federal health emergency declaration, California has announced a new one.

Through June 30, small nonprofits and businesses with 26 to 49 employees in 2021 or 2022, and who paid COVID sick leave, are eligible for a grant ranging from $5K to $50K through the state’s Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) program, outreach partner CalNonprofits has announced.

The program, created by California Assembly Bill 152 and administered through the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA), offers grants funded to match sick leave provided, on small businesses’ payroll records, between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. Eligible businesses and nonprofits must have a physical presence in California.

Robert Gibbons, director of education and advocacy at CalNonprofits, said the bill “was a tailwind piece of legislation for COVID aid toward the end of the pandemic. We were very involved in advocating for this legislation to include small nonprofits, who were previously not given the opportunity to apply for state-reimbursed grants. This issue has become cumbersome in the sense that small nonprofits now have to go back and identify their COVID sick leave with payroll providers and apply for funds, and we’re here to make that process as easy as possible.”

Since being informed in very late May that small nonprofits would be eligible for SPSL alongside other businesses, Gibbons has spearheaded CalNonprofits’ advocacy work at the community and legislative level in collaboration with the

To Combat Skyrocketing Colorectal Cancer Rates, Amend IRA

By Andrew Spiegel

The rate of colorectal cancer in Americans under 55 has nearly doubled since the 1990s, and scientists don't really know why.

By 2030, colorectal cancer is predicted to become the leading cause of cancer deaths for people under 50, and is already the second leading cause of all cancer deaths, behind only lung cancer. We need more and better treatments, and we need them now.

Unfortunately, the new drugpricing rules enacted in last year's Inflation Reduction Act will stymie efforts to develop new cancer treatments.

Under the IRA, Medicare will be able to negotiate with drug makers for lower prices on an expanding list of brandname medications. Drugs are divided into two categories: small- molecule drugs, which are chemical compounds typically available in pill form that patients pick up at the pharmacy and take at home; and biologics, which are extracted from living organisms and usually need to be administered by infusion or injection in a healthcare facility.

Both types of drugs are crucial to oncology treatment. Unfortunately, the IRA all but ensures that investment will pivot away from small molecule drugs towards biologics in the coming years. The IRA makes small molecule drugs eligible for price controls nine years after FDA approval -- four years sooner than biologics.

Those four additional years small business lending platform Lendistry, which the state chose to execute the program and vet applicants.

“One of the most potentially confusing aspects of the grant application for small businesses is employee headcount, given that it shifted drastically for many companies during the pandemic,” he added.

The challenges that may arise during the SPSL filing process do not owe to a lack of interest on the part of nonprofits — “the Lendistry folks were impressed to see that our webinars have turned out more than three times the numbers of small businesses,” said Gibbons — but rather to the limited bandwidth of many small nonprofits.

“That’s where CalNonprofits comes in,” he continued. “Call us, email us, and we will advocate on your behalf as the go-between between you and your payroll provider.” lawmakers need to amend the IRA to exempt both smallmolecule drugs and biologics from price controls for 13 years after approval. It's a simple fix that will allow us to deploy are critical for investors when deciding whether to invest in researching and developing a medication.

“CalNonprofits is the only partner working with Lendistry in California to identify eligible nonprofits, and advocate for them through the application process. This sets a precedent for more inclusivity with the way that we think about helping nonprofits in the context of state legislation,” Gibbons added.

An FAQ page for SPSL written by CalNonprofits and geared specifically toward nonprofit applicants is available here.

An informational webinar on the grant program, hosted by CalOSBA, will take place on Monday, June 26 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., PST. The recording of a previous webinar, livestreamed on June 12, is available here.

Eligibility requirements, an application guide, FAQs, and an application portal for the program is available at the California SPSL website.

To Combat Skyrocketing Colorectal Cancer Rates, Amend IRA...continued all our scientific and medical resources against cancer.

Small-molecule drugs happen to be the only way to target certain cancers. Large molecule biologics are too big to penetrate cell walls and attack cancers with intracellular targets. So it's not as if researchers always have a choice of which type of drug to focus on.

Biologics also come with added complexity in administration. Because they have to be taken under medical supervision, patients often need to travel repeatedly to a hospital, clinic, or infusion center to receive treatment.

Promising small molecule oncological research could lessen this burden. The ability to treat cancer with pills taken at home would not only benefit patients in rural and low-income communities, but also provide relief for our increasingly shortstaffed hospitals.

Prior to the IRA, research into targeted small-molecule cancer therapies was robust, with new studies and drugs popping up all over. One small molecule treatment even showed promise to stave off metastasis in colorectal cancer.

The future of small molecule research, however, isn't nearly as bright today.

Surely the IRA wasn't intended to curtail this research. In order to protect this treatment pipeline,

Andrew Spiegel, Esquire is the Executive Director of the Global Colon Cancer Association.

How Medicare Perpetuates Privilege

-- Not Equity

By Pamela Price

Thanks to Medicare's top official dodging questions by members of Congress, the fight for equity in American healthcare just suffered a further setback.

In late April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, appeared before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to answer questions about why the Medicare program declined a request to fully cover a newly approved Alzheimer's therapy that was shown to delay the progression of the disease. Not surprisingly, the decision has been met with fierce opposition from Alzheimer's advocates -- as well it should.

The regulatory maneuver employed by Medicare disproportionately harms older people living with early Alzheimer's in rural areas and communities of color.

At the center of the Alzheimer's ruling is a little-known regulatory tool known as "coverage with evidence development," or CED. Under CED, Medicare denies coverage for an FDA-approved item or service, except for treatments provided through a very narrowly constructed clinical study.

Ironically, the CED designation was created by CMS, not Congress, in 2005 to help get some of the latest medical device treatments to patients more quickly. Lately, however, CMS has abused CED by applying it to ration care for seniors.

Right now, there are 22 different therapies requiring CED, including treatments for colorectal cancer, procedures for sickle cell disease, and even cochlear implants for hearingimpaired patients.

But what's most disturbing about the agency's abuse of the CED paradigm is that it puts people of color and other underserved communities at a unique disadvantage.

Consider, first, that many of the therapies that land in CED limbo treat conditions that disproportionately affect minority populations. Sickle cell anemia, for example, is a genetic condition found among Black Americans. Meanwhile, Black persons are anywhere from 1.5 to 2 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease compared to white individuals.

Regulatory maneuvers such as CED inequitably restrict access to treatments for persons of color across the nation. Importantly, these treatment delays not only impact individuals living with

National Mosquito Control Awareness Week is recognized June 18 – 24, 2023. With summer approaching, mosquito experts urge Riverside County residents to take action to protect themselves from mosquito bites.

While vector control agencies work diligently to control mosquito populations, which includes treating communal areas, mosquito control is a shared responsibility. Residents of Riverside County can take the following action to help eliminate mosquitoes from their community:

Apply insect repellent containing an EPA-registered active ingredient, including DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or IR3535, to clothes and exposed skin according to label instructions. Repellents keep mosquitoes from biting. It is important to follow EPA and CDC guidelines for the safe use of repellents on children.

Dress in long sleeves and pants, especially if outside at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes that can spread West Nile virus are most active. Install screens on windows and doors and keep them in good repair to keep mosquitoes out of your home.

Eliminate all sources of standing water on your property, including in flowerpots, old tires, buckets, pet dishes, and trash cans. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in very small amounts of standing water Repair leaking faucets and broken sprinklers that can contribute to standing water around your home.

Clean rain gutters clogged with leaves, which can also contribute to standing water. For additional information on mosquitoes and mosquitoborne diseases, please visit the California Department of Public Health Mosquitoes and Mosquito-Borne Diseases webpage.

San Bernardino City Unified School District Leads California And Ranks Fifth Nationally In Energy Efficiency...continued from page 6

Over the last several years, the District has implemented many energy efficiency improvements including variable frequency drives, turbocor and multistage compressors, weather-based irrigation, LED lighting, cool roofs, power factor correction, and many other initiatives. The District’s energy management program has saved close to $50 million in cumulative costs and reduced SBCUSD’s energy use by nearly 40 percent. All vital given that the Inland Empire region has some of the worst air quality in the United States.

“Our district's commitment to sustainability not only contributes to environmental conservation but also yields significant cost savings, allowing resources to be allocated towards enhancing educational programs and student supports. That’s a testament to our dedicated Board of Education, which truly values putting students first.”

To celebrate this remarkable achievement and promote further environmental awareness, the SBCUSD will be hosting an Electric Vehicle event at its upcoming Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, June 20.

Participating vehicle makers include Karma Automotive, with a production facility nearby in Moreno Valley, Zevx, and Phoenix Motorcars.

The District is purchasing its first electric utility truck, which will be on display at the show, from Phoenix Motorcars. And by this fall, SBCUSD will own five Ford Lightning electric trucks.

The event will showcase an impressive array of sustainable vehicles, including electric and conversion models, with participating automobile manufacturers offering insights into the latest advancements in eco-friendly transportation. The District is holding the show in preparation for a large purchase of electric vehicles for its fleet over the next 10 years and eventually transitioning its entire fleet of 330 vehicles to zero-emission vehicles. Board of Education members will have an opportunity to test drive the vehicles on June 20, ahead of the meeting’s start at 5:30 p.m.

This event, held at 4.30 p.m. in the Board of Education parking lot, 777 North F Street, will provide an opportunity for District staff, Board members, and community members to explore sustainable transportation options and learn about their benefits.

Beyond the purchase of electric vehicles, the accolades from the EPA reinforce the District's ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship and energy conservation, said Precie, who oversees the District’s Operations Departments. By implementing energy-efficient technologies, optimizing building operations, and promoting sustainable practices throughout its expansive facilities across 110 square miles, SBCUSD continues to lead by example, inspiring other educational institutions and the broader community to embrace sustainability initiatives.

The San Bernardino City Unified School District invites media representatives to attend the Electric Vehicle event at 4:30 p.m. on June 20, 2023. This event promises to be an enlightening and engaging opportunity to witness the District's dedication to environmental sustainability firsthand.