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

Iowa News

80,000 Iowans to see their Wellmark rates jump
The state’s largest health insurer will begin notifying the individual policyholders this week of the increase. Rising health care costs are driving the premium increases, said Rob Schweers, a Wellmark spokesman. Premium increases, which take effect April 1, range between 10 percent and 25 percent, the company said. (Des Moines Register)

Bruce Braley on health care
Representative Bruce Braley talks to the editorial board of the Quad-City Times about health care. (Quad-City Times)

U.S. News

Rural hospital CEOs concerned about doc recruitment
This survey found that there was surprisingly little disagreement between CEOs at non-rural hospitals compared with CEOs at rural and community hospitals about most issues. For instance, both ranked quality/patient safety, patient experience/patient satisfaction, and reimbursement as the two through fourth priorities for their organizations over the next three years. (HealthLeaders Media)

GOP sees possible upside in health care summit
Congressional Republicans see a chance for political gain in President Barack Obama’s televised health care summit next week, even though the president will be running the show. (Washington Post)

Haitian patients in US wait on status amid uncertainty
Some say Haitians should not have been brought to the United States for treatment, while others say they deserve medical attention but should be flown back as soon as they recover. The question – stay or go? – could become a major headache for the Obama administration. (Boston Globe)

Emergency doctors back bill redefining malpractice
Emergency physicians in Tennessee are behind a bill in the legislature that aims to protect them, on-call specialists and hospitals from “unreasonable lawsuits” when they’re rendering emergency care. Under the bill filed last month, the definition of medical malpractice would be changed from “negligence” to “gross negligence,” which would raise the bar for mistakes that could trigger a lawsuit. (Nashville Tennessean)

L.A. County slashes doctors’ reimbursement rate
Supervisors drop rate from 27 percent to 18 percent as of July for emergency room doctors and on-call specialists at private hospitals who treat uninsured patients. The rate cut could lead private hospitals to close emergency rooms and send more patients to crowded county hospitals, officials said. (Los Angeles Times)

Hospital gives kids bedside Web access
Touchscreen bedside units replace traditional hospital TVs and give pediatric patients Internet access, and a new way to communicate with hospital staff. (Information Week)

Most Americans think it’s others who are unhealthy
Despite rising rates of obesity and diabetes, a new survey has found that a majority of Americans believe their health is just fine – it’s everyone else who has the problem. More than 50 percent of respondents said that other people’s health “was going in the wrong direction.” In contrast, only 17 percent said their own health was going in the wrong direction. (HealthDay)