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

Iowa News:

Iowa psychiatrists: Cuts would hurt patients, taxpayers
Iowa’s plan to cut at least a quarter of the capacity at its four mental health institutes could prove disastrous and costly, psychiatrists say.  The planned cuts, prompted by the state’s budget crisis, would add pressure to the dwindling supply of psychiatric units at community hospitals, members of the Iowa Psychiatric Society said this week. Hospital care is more expensive than care at the state institutes, they said, and the public often winds up paying for it anyway. (Des Moines Register)

U.S. News

Democratic leaders say health bill will pass
Democratic leaders scrambled Sunday to pull together enough support in the House for a make-or-break decision on health-care reform later this week, expressing optimism that a package will soon be signed into law by President Obama despite a lack of firm votes for passage. (Washington Post)

Sebelius Cautions Health Insurers About Premium Increases
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned health insurers that opposing the Obama administration’s health-care agenda and letting premium increases continue would hurt the health industry. Speaking Wednesday at the America’s Health Insurance Plans national policy forum, Ms. Sebelius said opposition to Democratic legislation “won’t work in the long run for the American people or our health-care system.” (Wall Street Journal)

Democrats move toward grouping health reform with student-aid bill
Democratic leaders said Thursday that they were increasingly inclined to release a final health-care bill that could accomplish two of President Obama’s top domestic priorities: guaranteeing coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans and vastly expanding federal aid for college students. Both proposals, stuck in Congress for nearly a year, are gaining new momentum as Democrats contemplate facing voters in November without having delivered on any of Obama’s major policy objectives.

Reinventing care for poor means relying less on ER
Here’s the daunting task facing Hennepin County Medical Center and other Minnesota hospitals now that Gov. Tim Pawlenty and legislators have struck a deal to continue state-funded health care for the state’s poorest and sickest residents:  First, create a new system to provide comprehensive medical care for 32,000 adults, many of them homeless and chronically ill, add social work and psychological counseling, do it on a budget slashed from $219 million to $91 million — and roll it out in 12 weeks. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

As costs soar, Massachusetts foresees change in health insurance rules
State regulators said yesterday that they will probably change the complex formula they use to determine how many Massachusetts residents face a tax penalty for not having health insurance, because spiraling costs are making coverage unaffordable for too many people.  Each year, the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority board updates the formula it uses to determine whether health insurance is affordable for individuals, couples, and families and whether people in each group should face a tax penalty for not having coverage.