Iowa News:

Gov. Culver: Announces new jobs and state savings up to $1 million
Governor Chet Culver announced today that a company specializing in arranging transportation for Medicaid enrollees will locate its Midwestern headquarters in Des Moines this fall, creating up to 100 jobs and saving the state about $1 million annually. (Iowa Politics.com)

Hancock County Memorial Hospital receives $25,000 bequest
Hancock County Memorial Hospital in Britt is the recipient of a $25,000 bequest from the estate of the late Raymond O. Barnes, who passed away in October 2009. Barnes left the bequest to the HCMH Board of Trustees to be used for “benevolent purposes.” (Forest City Summit)

U.S. News

$400M CU hospital expansion breaks ground in 2011
The University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora will break ground early next year on a $400 million expansion that the hospital’s board approved last month, according to an announcement Tuesday. (Denver Business Journal)

Target: Reducing costly hospital readmissions in SE PA
On Wednesday a group of hospital administrators, doctors, nurses, nursing home workers and others will gather at the Union League in Philadelphia to launch an initiative aimed at reducing costly readmissions by 10 percent in over the next 18 months. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Insurers paying doctors faster, despite inefficiency
US health insurers are paying doctors seven days faster, on average, and denying 12 to 18 percent fewer claims than last year, but the claims reimbursement system remains saddled with inefficiency, according to a new ranking of payers set to be released today. (Boston Globe)

Settlement ends last legal challenge to balanced billing of patients
A settlement between state regulators and Southern California-based hospital company Prime Healthcare Services has ended the last legal challenge to California’s ban on balanced billing of patients.