Joyce Reinecke, executive director of the Alliance for Fertility Preservation, said California's new law could help patients undergoing chemotherapy have the "ability to have children after cancer," in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from California, New Jersey, and North Carolina.

• California: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Saturday signed into law a bill (SB 600) that will require insurers in the state to cover fertility procedures for patients who are undergoing certain treatments that could make it harder for them to birth children. The law declares that fertility preservation treatments, such as egg freezing and sperm banking performed before a medical treatment that can cause infertility, are a basic health care service that must be covered by insurers. Joyce Reinecke, executive director of the Alliance for Fertility Preservation, said the new law could help patients undergoing chemotherapy have the "ability to have children after cancer" (Gutierrez, Los Angeles Times, 10/13).
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• New Jersey: RWJBarnabas Health has signed a letter of intent to acquire Trinitas Regional Medical Center, the organizations announced Thursday. The organizations expect to reach a definitive agreement on the acquisition by the end of 2019. Trinitas President and CEO Gary Horan said the move "will give [Trinitas] the resources … to greatly enhance the already high level of care" it provides throughout 21 New Jersey counties (Porter, HealthLeaders Media, 10/11).
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• North Carolina: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) and Cambia Health Solutions on Friday said they are "mutually terminating their affiliation contract," following the resignation of former BCBSNC CEO Patrick Conway. According to the Wall Street Journal, the insurers previously put the deal on hold and had withdrawn their regulatory applications for the merger. The merged company would have generated about $16 billion in annual revenue and covered more than six million people (Mathews et al., Wall Street Journal, 10/11).