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

Iowa News

House OKs reorganization, 98-0
A state government reorganization bill cleared another hurdle Monday when the Iowa House unanimously passed legislation projected to save taxpayers $124.3 million. The bill, approved 98-0, consolidates multiple areas of government. The bill, of version of which has already passed the Senate, is a significant step in finding savings, Democrats and Republicans said. (Des Moines Register)

Will Iowans get “Fair Share”?
The Eggs and Issues legislative forum at Spencer City Hall had a common theme threaded through it: unions. (Spencer Daily Reporter)

Genesis Medical Center-DeWitt donates $250,000 to STAR campaign
Genesis Medical Center-DeWitt will make a $250,000 donation to the Saber Team for Arts and Recreation, or STAR, campaign. STAR is raising $4.6 million in private funding toward a total cost of about $27.3 million for a major renovation and expansion of facilities in the Central Community School District. (Quad-City Times)

Have skill, will travel to do good
Burlington anesthesiologist Kirk Wilcox has devoted a good portion of his life to helping other people. He has been on 31 mission trips over the past nine years, offering his talents in countries such as Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, Kenya, Cambodia, Vietnam and China. Now he is headed for Haiti. (Burlington Hawk-Eye)

U.S. News

In California, exhibit A in the debate on insurance
With health care negotiations stalled in Washington, the Obama administration is seizing on the seething fury felt by nearly 700,000 Anthem customers in California who have received notices of increases that average 25 percent. About a quarter of them are seeing leaps of 35 percent to 39 percent, the company said, at least four times the rate of medical inflation. (New York Times)

Both sides push health debate myths
To hear President Barack Obama tell it these days, the Oval Office has been wide open to Republicans on health care reform for the past year. And Republicans claim Democrats locked them out of the talks from the get-go, writing hyperpartisan bills that catered to their base. Neither is true. (Politico)

What meaningful use means for you now
It has now been a month since the CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology published the interim final rule for EHR certification standards and the proposed rule on the EHR Meaningful Use Incentive Program and meaningful use standards. Another rule proposing the EHR certification process and organizations designated to conduct EHR certification is also expected early this year. (HealthLeaders Media)

A plan to help places hurting for doctors
Michigan has launched a program that offers grants to primary care doctors who work in shortage areas, and help to repay medical school loans. Michigan also hopes to tap into federal incentives to improve doctor practices, and to coordinate and improve care by assigning each uninsured patient to a single doctor. (Detroit Free Press)

iPhone applications are a helping hand in fighting pandemics
A tap on the HealthMap iPhone application brings up a cluster of red pins on a map, representing nearby cases of swine flu. Another tap brings up a form for ordinary Americans to add to the collection by reporting bouts they have or know about. (Boston Globe)

In Haiti, Ania’s story
Ania describes a lot of people who were hurt in lines waiting for help. The University Hospital was packed. They stayed outside waiting for a few days sleeping on the grass. Still injured. She tells us that by Saturday, they decided to go north to Pierre Peyen hospital. She remembers waiting with her mother. That was the last time she saw her. (Boston Globe)