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

Iowa News

Grassley stands firm on health care bill
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley said Wednesday that President Barack Obama was sincere in incorporating into health care legislation Grassley’s suggestion that Congress put more money into insurance programs for low-income Americans. But Grassley said the gesture was insufficient to win his support for the president’s bill. Grassley also noted the provision Obama suggested did not include Grassley’s proposed spending cuts to pay for it. (Des Moines Register)

Iowa surgeon featured on Discovery TV program
Dr. Dan Waters, cardiac surgeon at Mercy Heart Center in Mason City, will be featured on a Discovery Channel program today. Waters will appear in “Stone Cold,” one in a series of programs on “Surviving Death” being broadcast on the Discovery and Discovery HD Channels. The program will air at 8 and 11 p.m. tonight. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

County delays building new ambulance facility
Budget cuts for fiscal 2011 led the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to propose holding off on pledging funds for a new building to house the ambulance and medical examiner facilities. By not immediately pledging money toward the building project and postponing other payments, the property-tax increase in 2011 will be 1.8 percent rather than 4.3 percent. (University of Iowa Daily Iowan)

U.S. News

Obama’s new game plan: Be more assertive
President Barack Obama will be more assertive with Congress after disappointing members in his first year with mixed signals during the healthcare debate, Democrats say. Obama made a crucial mistake not rallying the party behind a detailed healthcare reform proposal earlier in the debate, Democrats in both chambers broadly acknowledge. (The Hill)

Obama summons waffling Members to the White House to talk health care
Obama reached out to different factions of House Democrats on Wednesday night and asked them to meet with him this afternoon in two separate meetings. Several lawmakers who were invited said Obama didn’t tell them what the meetings were about, but that it was fairly obvious based on the guest list. (Roll Call)

Some small businesses see burden in ‘Cadillac’ tax
Higher-cost plans, dubbed “Cadillac” policies by some, often have generous benefits with low deductibles and co-payments, but this is not always the case. Premiums may also be high because customers are charged more because of their age, gender, geographic area or heath status. (Kaiser Health News)

21 District hospital workers fired for being blizzard no-shows
Washington Hospital Center fired eight more employees this week after they failed to show up for work during last month’s crippling snowstorms. The hospital announced that it has also rehired three of the 16 workers it had terminated. (Washington Post)

Concern over ‘metal on metal’ hip implants
Some of the nation’s leading orthopedic surgeons have reduced or stopped use of a popular category of artificial hips amid concerns that the devices are causing severe tissue and bone damage in some patients, often requiring replacement surgery within a year or two. (New York Times)