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

Iowa News

A healthy boost for competition?
Doctors walking around some hospitals own the place, a trend that’s sparking calls of unfair competition in Nebraska and across the country. Hospital groups say doctor-owned facilities are plucking the most profitable patients, like those with heart problems, and customers with the best insurance. Such patients are essential because they help to pay for services that typically break even or lose money, such as emergency departments and mental health. (Omaha World Herald)

U.S. News

Health overhaul likely to strain doctor shortage
Better beat the crowd and find a doctor. Primary care physicians already are in short supply in parts of the country, and the landmark health overhaul that will bring them millions more newly insured patients in the next few years promises extra strain. (Associated Press)

Health care overhaul Q & A
Last week, President Obama signed into law the most sweeping health care overhaul in generations. This article looks at how the new health law could affect you, and how soon. (Los Angeles Times)

Health-care overhaul leaves Democrats in stable condition
Shifts among core constituencies suggest that President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) may have reaped some benefit from the legislation’s passage, but the public’s take on the Democratic Party has not budged, and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) appears to be losing popularity. None of the central players in passing health-care reform appears to be winning favor with the bill’s opponents. (Washington Post)

New law deals setback to malpractice foes
The health-care legislation has dealt another blow to a movement seeking to limit the amount doctors have to pay in medical-malpractice suits. As a result, tort-overhaul advocates, who battle the well-organized lobby of plaintiffs’ lawyers, are struggling to find ways to fight back. (Wall Street Journal)

New Medicare chief’s hearing may re-ignite overhaul debate
Donald M. Berwick, a Harvard University scholar and long-time critic of U.S. health care, will be thrust into the political fight over the overhaul law as President Barack Obama’s choice to run Medicare and Medicaid. The pick, requiring Senate confirmation, follows last week’s approval of the biggest revamp of the U.S. system since the 1960s, without support from a single Republican. (BusinessWeek)

Analysis: Economy, not health care, will be focus
Losers in a brutal struggle with President Barack Obama, Republicans now hope voter anger over newly enacted health care legislation will propel them to victory in midterm elections this fall. Forget about it. No matter the impact of health care, the economy still matters most — unemployment in particular — in a country struggling to emerge from the deepest recession in decades. (Associated Press)