Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web.

Iowa News

Clarinda goes all in to save MHI
Clarinda found itself square in the center of a high stakes political poker game last weekend when a Des Moines politician ‘anted up’ the Clarinda Mental Health Institute (MHI) for closure. The director of the Iowa Department of Human Services has recommended the Mount Pleasant MHI facility be closed. (Clarinda Herald-Journal)

Doctors learn the team approach in robotic surgery
Doctors at smaller, community hospitals are embracing new technology, but sometimes need a boost. St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids is helping in one area with its robotic surgery program. Visiting doctors are learning about robotic surgery with the hospital’s new $1.9 million dual console. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

We can make safer teenage drivers
The passenger limitation is proposed because 62 percent of people killed in teen driver crashes are passengers. In addition, the risk of a fatality doubles when there is more than one passenger. The risk of a fatality triples between 10 p.m. and midnight, which is the reason for enhancement to the night driving restriction. (Des Moines Register)

U.S. News

Strong reaction follows medical malpractice reform overturn
The Court’s decision reverses a 2005 state law capping non-economic damages — such as pain and suffering — for physicians at $500,000 and hospitals at $1 million. The law aimed to lower medical malpractice insurance rates that were blamed for driving doctors out of the state. But justices said the law was “facially invalid on separation of powers grounds,” meaning that the justices felt that the state Legislature overstepped its constitutional bounds by constraining the judicial branch of government. (The Madison/St. Clair Record)

Obama maps a way forward for a health overhaul
Speaking to enthusiastic supporters at a fundraiser here, President Obama on Thursday evening presented his clearest plan yet to move forward with comprehensive health care legislation, saying that he wanted to meet with Democrats, Republicans and independent experts, lay out the facts for the American people and then, he said, “I think that we have got to move forward on a vote.” (New York Times)

Millions more children added to Medicaid, CHIP rolls
About 2.6 million previously uninsured children gained coverage last year in government health programs, according to a federal study released Thursday. The gains were due to increased need because of the recession and stepped-up recruitment efforts by some states. (Kaiser Health News)

Hospitals: TennCare cuts could close doors on ailing facilities
With the budget on the table, Middle Tennessee hospitals are crunching numbers to determine what impact the proposed TennCare cuts — the largest in the program’s 16-year-history — will have on their bottom lines. They don’t have to get very deep into their calculations to know it’s the hospitals that will feel the crunch most severely, and some may not survive. (Nashville Business Journal)

Tennessee hospitals may impose their own tax
If Tennessee Hospital Association directors can reach consensus on a self-imposed fee to help offset the latest round of TennCare cuts, House Speaker Kent Williams says he is willing to consider it. “I think we need to concentrate on finding a long-term solution,” Rep. Williams, a Carter County Republican, said as he downplayed the possible use of reserves to help hospitals. “And I think the hospital association has a good plan if we can get that accomplished.” (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

Sen. Landrieu defends ‘Louisiana Purchase,’ says Jindal asked for it
Landrieu used a floor speech, press conference and private e-mails from Jindal to fire back against critics of the $300 million-plus in Medicaid funds that became known as the “Louisiana Purchase.” “Nothing about this effort was secret — it was public from the very first meeting that happened at the governor’s mansion in January,” Landrieu said. (The Hill)