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

Iowa News

Iowa facilities named to top hospital list
Health care information provider Thomson Reuters named The Finley Hospital in Dubuque as one of the nation’s top hospitals in the recent report, “100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks.” St. Luke’s in Cedar Rapids was also included on the list. (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Health care reform could decrease use of UI’s student plans
Health care reform could mean fewer University of Iowa students using the university’s student insurance plans, said Richard Saunders, a senior associate director of UI Human Resources. Namely, the law could affect students covered by the UI’s health-insurance plan and recent graduates who find themselves without benefits. (University of Iowa Daily Iowan)

Winners, losers from the 2010 legislative session
Winners in the session included hospitals, which will get a fresh influx of cash through a new provider tax that the state will use to tap extra federal matching money. Then about 75 percent of the additional money will go right back to the hospitals via higher payments for care for low-income Iowans on Medicaid. (Des Moines Register)

AARP praises 2010 Iowa General Assembly for improving health care
AARP Iowa applauds the great steps this General Assembly took to improve health care in Iowa. AARP supported three passed bills, which will improve different components of our Iowa health system. (IowaPolitics)

U.S. News

The last piece in place
President Obama signed the budget reconciliation bill containing a package of revisions to the big health care legislation after giving a speech at Northern Virginia Community College, a setting aimed at drawing attention to the education component of the bill. (New York Times)

Cost issues remain despite healthcare reforms
The issue is particularly important in South Florida, with its high rates of uninsured coupled with healthcare costs that are the highest in the nation or close to it. Any attempt to control costs will have huge effects here — perhaps including reductions in the number of expensive tests and visits to specialists. (Miami Herald)

Firms say part of health law will cost them millions
Although President Obama’s newly minted health care overhaul doesn’t take effect for some time, its impact is already being felt by some American companies. They’re warning that they stand to lose millions of dollars because of a single passage in the law. (National Public Radio)

Small businesses fret over details of health law
Small-business owner Joe Ascioti says Massachusetts’ 2006 health care law has left him facing $15,000 in fines since it took effect. Now, he’s worried the nation’s new health care overhaul could bring similar woes to employers nationwide. (Washington Post)

US system may be next for health innovator
Donald Berwick has never run anything larger than his 110-employee Cambridge consulting firm and think tank and has never worked in Washington. But people who know him say he has the intellect and judgment to run the agency, which touches the lives of one in three Americans. (Boston Globe)

Nurses strike at Temple University Hospital
Several hundred striking nurses and other health professionals rallied outside Temple University Hospital this afternoon, blocking traffic on Broad Street as the crowd spilled into the roadway. The protest came five hours after the workers walked off the job in a contract dispute. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Ranks of homeless rising in Minnesota
Homelessness in Minnesota rose 22 percent in the past three years, reaching the highest level in at least two decades, according to initial findings from a statewide survey by Wilder Research of St. Paul. Analysts blamed the weak economy. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Pediatric ER turns fun and games into effective care
Provena St. Joseph Medical Center this month opened a 5,000-square-foot addition in Joliet dedicated to treating the area’s sick children. The new addition centers on being kid-friendly –– from smaller beds to appropriately sized blood-pressure cuffs to cartoons playing on the in-room televisions. Even the staff is specially trained to treat children. (Chicago Tribune)