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

Iowa News

Hospitalists revive on-site focus
Both hospitals in Dubuque employ doctors who specialize in caring for hospitalized patients. (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Senate approves IowaCare changes
State senators Monday rejected an attempt to offer a basic health plan to more Iowans, but they agreed to let the program pay for care outside of Iowa City and Des Moines. Senators approved a bill, Senate File 2356, designed to improve the IowaCare program. The limited-benefit program now serves about 35,000 uninsured adults who earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $22,000 for a single person. (Des Moines Register)

House sends reorganization bill to Culver with just 1 ‘no’
Iowa House lawmakers late Monday approved a final version of a government reorganization bill that projections say will save taxpayers an estimated $126.4 million. The governor is expected to sign the bill, which includes dozens of recommendations made by a consultant he hired to help find savings. (Des Moines Register)

U.S. News

Obama to highlight cost in new health bill push
President Obama this week will begin a climactic push to rally restive Congressional Democrats to pass major health care legislation by hammering the argument that the costs of failure will be higher insurance premiums and lost coverage for individuals and businesses. (New York Times)

Battle brews over tactic to win passage of health bill
The White House said Monday the leading tactic to win passage of the health-care bill was nothing extraordinary, rehearsing a key argument in the final public-relations battle over the bill. For their part, Republicans accuse the Democratic majority of trying to ram through legislation using a parliamentary trick that Republicans say was never designed for such a big bill. (Wall Street Journal)

House fails to override Pawlenty health bill veto
Despite intense lobbying from religious leaders and community activists, the Minnesota House on Monday failed to override a veto of legislation that would have restored a state health care program for some of the state’s poorest and sickest residents. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Team overseeing national database of dangerous or incompetent caregivers is removed
Federal officials have removed the management team overseeing a national database of dangerous or incompetent caregivers after questions were raised about its accuracy.  A recent news story found the repository was probably missing thousands of serious disciplinary cases against health providers. (Los Angeles Times)

A look at the new field of palliative care
Palliative care is medicine’s response to the dismal way people have died. One purpose is to help patients and families make hard decisions when facing chronic illness or death. The end of life is also when the use and expense of health care soars. Medicare spent an estimated $143 billion in 2009 caring for people in their last year. That is enough to provide health insurance to 35 million Americans for a year. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Study explores child end-of-life scenarios
A small study published yesterday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reports that more than one in eight parents surveyed considered hastening the death of a child with terminal cancer, with the child’s suffering increasing the likelihood of such thoughts. Five parents said they actually asked a caregiver to speed up their child’s death. (Boston Globe)

Physicians plunging into EMRs, but expect lots of help
If the latest survey report of physicians proves correct, droves of small physician practices are going to try to install EMRs very soon. Accenture’s Innovation Center for Health and Institute for Health & Public Service Value worked with Harris Interactive to survey 1,000 U.S. physicians from practices of fewer than 10 practitioners to measure their views of EMRs. Approximately 15 percent of respondents were users of EMRs and 85% were non-users. (HealthLeaders Media)