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

Iowa News

Volunteers advocate for hospitals
Legislators and hospital advocates may have a way to head off further Medicaid cuts during the next fiscal year. The Iowa Hospital Association is lobbying for a hospital provider assessment that would tax large hospitals to raise more revenue for the Medicaid program, which would, in turn, draw federal matching funds at a rate of about $2 in federal funds for every dollar of state revenue. (Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil)

Harkin answers criticisms of health plan at Washington summit
Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, spoke at today’s health care summit with the president in Washington, D.C. Harkin address criticism that they need to start over and develop a new health care bill. Harkin says they spent one year crafting this bill. (Radio Iowa)

Free dental clinic now offered in north Iowa
The North Iowa Dental Clinic for the Uninsured and Underinsured is operating half-days as staffing permits. It is located at Mercy Cheslea Creek, 1501 Fourth St. S.W., said LeAnn Eckhardt, RN, clinical leader for Mercy Family Health Line. The free clinic is provided through a partnership of Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa, North Iowa Area Community Action Organization and North Iowa dental professionals, Eckhardt said.

Lawyers say hospital likely to escape liability in Becker case
A Waterloo hospital and psychiatrist probably could not be held legally liable for releasing mental patient Mark Becker the day before he shot and killed coach Ed Thomas, two Iowa lawyers said this week. Clive attorney George LaMarca said the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that mental health professionals generally could not be sued for releasing patients who went on to injure someone. (Des Moines Register)

U.S. News

At health-care summit, Obama tells Republicans he’s eager to move ahead
President Obama declared Thursday that the time for debate over health-care reform has come to an end, closing an unusual seven-hour summit with congressional leaders by sending a clear message that Democrats will move forward to pass major legislation with or without Republican support. (Washington Post)

Summit had no shortage of factual malpractice
At the president’s health care summit at Blair House – all six-plus hours of it – there were some factual missteps in the discussion. (Newsweek)

Race is on to pin blame for high health care costs
Insurers contend that they must pass on ever-higher bills from hospitals and doctors. Hospitals say they are struggling with more uninsured patients, demands by doctors for top salaries, and underpayments from Medicare and Medicaid. And doctors say they are strong-armed by insurance monopolies and hampered by medical malpractice costs. (Wall Street Journal)

Blue Cross of Illinois parent to discuss premium increases
The parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois has been summoned with other health insurance giants to Washington next week to discuss premium increases with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. (Chicago Tribune)

A hospital in Harlem is studying its future
Like St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, North General is trying to restructure itself to avoid closing and has reached out to potential partners and the state for money to keep going, officials said on Thursday. (New York Times)

Violence concerns Colorado hospital administrators
The Colorado Hospital Association wants to increase the punishment for harming an emergency worker, like a doctor, nurse or paramedic. The organization has been making an appeal to local lawmakers. “I never know what I’m going to walk into, anytime I walk into a room,” said Dr. David Rosenberg, an emergency physician at a Denver area hospital. (KMGH)

Immigrants sue state over exclusion from health care
Massachusetts’ exclusion of thousands of legal immigrants from state-subsidized health coverage is unconstitutional and should be struck down by the courts, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday by several of the affected immigrants. (Boston Globe)