Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web for August 22-28.

Iowa Headlines

Forum debates local health care issues
The hot button issue nationally over the last several weeks has been national health care coverage.  The debate took a local tone as several officials involved in providing and paying for health care took center stage at a forum sponsored by the Benton County Advocates.  V irginia Gay Hospital Administrator Mike Rigge, Dr. Brian Meeker, insurance salesman Bob Moen and pharmacist Jon Clingman spoke about how the current system affects their jobs. (August 24, 2009, Cedar Valley Daily Times)

The great health care debate
Russell Knight, president and chief executive officer of Mercy Medical Center-Dubuque, hopes health care reform addresses a problem that has plagued Iowa’s health system for years.  “Iowa hospitals and physicians produce one of the best combinations of cost and quality in the country,” Knight said. “We’d like to see the payment system take that into account. Right now, Medicare payments are based on the volume of service provided, not on the value of those services.”  John Knox, president and chief executive officer of The Finley Hospital, cautions against rash decisions.  “Our health care system has become incredibly complex, and it will take considerable thought to design changes that will create meaningful reform,” (August 24, 2009, Erik Hogstrom, Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Latham backs reform, but no public option
The nation already has a form of universal health care, U.S. Rep. Tom Latham said to a sometimes contentious crowd at a town hall meeting this week.  “One of the huge costs we have in health care today is the fact that anyone who has a problem that they don’t have insurance – it doesn’t matter whether they’re documented or undocumented – if they go to the emergency room, we have to provide service if that facility takes one dollar of taxpayer funds,” Latham said.  “In effect, we have a very expensive form of universal health care today. Nobody is denied, but it’s the most expensive way you can possibly provide those services.” (August 27, 2009, Jason Clayworth, Des Moines Register)

King sees benefits for illegal immigrants in proposed health legislation
U.S. Rep. Steve King argued this week that loopholes in health care legislation in Congress would allow illegal immigrants access to federal health benefits, despite language in the bill specifically banning undocumented residents from participating.  King’s comments drew a sharp rebuttal from U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, a Waterloo Democrat on the committee that wrote the bill, who called his Iowa colleague’s comments “ridiculous.” (August 26, 2009, Thomas Beaumont, Des Moines Register)

Sioux City hospital to reverse pay cuts
A Sioux City hospital is reversing pay cuts made last spring to help cut costs and close a budget shortfall caused by the sour economy.  St. Luke’s Health System announced Monday that salaries, which were cut in April, will return to previous levels by next month.  President Peter Thoreen said the reductions helped the hospital save about $300,000. (August 26, 2009, Des Moines Register/Associated Press)

See Inside New Mercy West Hospital
Central Iowa’s newest medical center is less than two weeks from opening for business.  Mercy Medical Center West Lakes features state-of-the-art patient rooms that are geared toward getting people healthy and keeping them happy. Big-screen TVs with movies and Internet connections are just one of many features in open patient rooms with big windows. (August 26, 2009, KCCI-TV)

Ames hospital employee named senior athlete of the year
Rollerblading. Hiking. Biking. Running. Swimming. Cross-country skiing:  Cindy Hauber does it all.  “Whatever I can do to get my heart rate up,” Hauber said. Hauber, an Ames resident who has a doctorate in physical therapy and works at Mary Greeley Medical Center, has competed in the Iowa Games, the Ames-based statewide sports festival held each summer, for 21 of the 23 years in which the Games has been in existence. (August 26, 2009, Ben Gouldsmith, Ames Tribune)

BCHC Wins Obesity Prevention Grant
This fall, Independence preschoolers will have the opportunity to participate in a new program geared at preventing obesity and promoting healthy lifestyles.  The program, called “SPARK– Igniting Health in Kids,” is a partnership between the four local preschools (Kidsville, Wee Care, Independence Schools Early Childhood Center and St. John’s), the Therapy & Wellness Connection at the Buchanan County Health Center and the Buchanan County Health Trust. (August 27, 2009, Independence Bulletin-Journal)

U.S. Headlines

White House enlists help of doctors in health care overhaul
The White House is asking doctors to help promote its drive to overhaul health care, marking another effort by President Obama to regain momentum on one of his top-priority issues. White House health advisers held an hour-long conference call with nearly 3,000 physicians and officials of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Surgeons in which they tried to drum up support by answering questions and describing the administration’s goals, participants said.  (August 27, 2009, Alan Fram, Associated Press)

Cooperatives’ record weighed in health-care debate
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a pivotal lawmaker in the health-care debate, wants to deliver coverage to the uninsured by starting up new cooperatives modeled on rural electric cooperatives that were founded during the Great Depression.  But after 75 years, the rural electric cooperatives still rely heavily on federal credit subsidies, have weak balance sheets and, some studies suggest, operate less efficiently than privately-owned utilities. (August 27, 2009, Steve Mufson, Washington Post)

Democrats could learn from LBJ’s Medicare push
One of the big fears among those crowding town hall meetings this summer is that their coverage under Medicare will be cut back.  The debate was just as passionate 45 years ago, when Congress was considering creating Medicare during the Lyndon Johnson administration.  James Morone, co-author of The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office, tells National Public Radio that Johnson’s Medicare push is “one of the great untold stories.” (August 26, 2009, Renee Montagne, National Public Radio)

Competition lacking among private health insurers
One of the most widely accepted arguments against a government medical plan for the middle class is that it would quash competition – just what private insurers seem to be doing themselves in many parts of the U.S.  Several studies show that in lots of places, one or two companies dominate the market. Critics say monopolistic conditions drive up premiums paid by employers and individuals. (August 22, 2009, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press)

Healthy San Francisco rates high in satisfaction
Ninety-four percent of participants in San Francisco’s unique universal health care program are at least somewhat satisfied with it, and 92 percent would recommend it to a friend and think other cities should create similar programs. Four in 10 participants said their care was considerably better since joining the program. (August 26, 2009, Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle)