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

Iowa News:

Mercy, St. Luke’s to remain independent
After seven months of studying whether to merge or share more services, Sioux City’s two hospitals have decided not to change anything. In a joint statement this afternoon, Mercy Medical Center and St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center said the hospitals “have not been able to identify a consolidation model that accomplishes their purposes. As a result, the two hospitals will continue serving the community under their current, separate structures in the same manner they do today.” Bob Peebles, Mercy Medical Center’s president and CEO, said the hospital will remain open to future collaboration with St. Luke’s. (Sioux City Journal)

MGMC Volunteer Services receives Governor’s Volunteer Award
Mary Greeley Medical Center Volunteer Services received a Governor’s Volunteer Award from Gov. Chet Culver during a special recognition ceremony July 16 in Ankeny. Mary Greeley Medical Center Volunteer Services was honored with a Length of Service Volunteer Award by the Senior Health Insurance Information program for 20 years of service as a SHIIP sponsor site. The Governor’s Volunteer Awards program was created in 1982, with inaugural awards presented in 1983. The program has grown from a small program only available to state agencies to its present function of providing all Iowa nonprofit, charitable and government organizations with an easy and effective way to honor their volunteers with a prestigious state-level recognition award. (Ames Tribune)

Pella Regional Health Center Announces Community Benefit
The estimated dollar amount of community benefits provided by Pella Regional Health Center in 2009 increased by $1.4 million from 2008. That’s according to a recent assessment of the hospital’s programs and services by the Iowa Hospital Association. The $6.6 million dollars in benefits includes over $4.4 million in uncompensated care; such as charity care, bad debt and unpaid costs of Medicaid. (KNIAKRLS.com)

Iowa could get $32 million less for Medicaid
Iowa could be short at least $32 million in medical services funding for low-income Iowans on Medicaid in 2011. A federal spending plan that moved through Congress Wednesday would send $83.1 million in extra Medicaid funds to help Iowa pay for children’s services and make payments to hospitals and nursing homes. The Iowa Legislature was planning on receiving $116 million in extra Medicaid money, leaving the state budget short at least $32.9 million should the bill pass Congress. (Chicago Tribune)

U.S. Sen. Harkin: Announces nearly $900,000 to train health professionals at Iowa schools
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced that a total of $895,552 will be coming to three Iowa colleges and universities for programs to train health professionals. The funds will be used to strengthen nurse training and education as well as interdisciplinary geriatric education and training. The funds come from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration. Harkin is Chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that funds HHS. (IowaPolitics.com)

U.S. News:

Independence Blue Cross sells FutureScripts pharmacy benefits company
Independence Blue Cross announced Wednesday that it is selling its four-year-old pharmacy-benefits arm – FutureScripts L.L.C. and FutureScripts Secure L.L.C. – to Catalyst Health Solutions Inc., a Rockville, Md., company that says it is the country’s fourth largest publicly traded pharmacy-benefits firm. The $225 million deal is expected to close later this year. It includes the value of a future tax benefit for Catalyst. Pharmacy-benefits managers do everything from negotiating prices with drugstores, to providing mail-order drugs, to monitoring whether patients are taking the best – and best-priced – drugs for chronic health conditions. Independence Blue Cross spokeswoman Liz Williams said IBC started FutureScripts at a time when many insurers saw the potential benefits of integrating medical and pharmacy data. A company could hold costs down, for example, by making sure that diabetics were taking their medicines. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Prognosis guarded for Medicare and Social Security
Medicare and Social Security – the foundation of a secure retirement – are facing strains from an aging population and an economy that can’t seem to get out of low gear. And despite assertions to the contrary by the Obama administration, the new healthcare law doesn’t improve Medicare’s solvency by much. As the government releases its annual financial checkup Wednesday on the two giant programs that support millions of middle-class retirees, the prognosis is guarded. Demand for services is going up, and income from payroll taxes can’t keep pace. Meanwhile, the government has used trust fund surpluses to pay for other needs, leaving Medicare and Social Security with a pile of IOUs. Interest in the trustees’ report is running high this year because it’s expected to delve into the effects of the new federal health care law on Medicare. (Miami Herald)

Republicans trumpet Proposition C vote as Democrats seek to minimize it
Missouri’s vote this week against a core feature of the nation’s new healthcare law further emboldened GOP critics while reminding Democrats of the perils of pursuing change that doesn’t enjoy broad public support. With the requirement to buy health insurance not taking effect until 2014, the wrangling in the judiciary has years to play out. But the politics surrounding the insurance law accelerated swiftly after the vote. Republicans trumpeted Missouri’s passage of a ballot proposition aiming to nullify the provision of the new health care law requiring that all Americans purchase insurance. GOP leaders in Washington pointed to the Proposition C’s passage with 71 percent of the vote as a further repudiation of the new health insurance law and a signal of their impending good fortunes in November. The measure won a majority of voters in every county in the state except for Kansas City and St. Louis city, according to the Missouri secretary of state’s office. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)