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

Iowa News

Clinton fire chief, EMS coordinator placed on paid leave after lawsuit resolution
Clinton’s fire chief and the fire department’s EMS coordinator have been placed on paid administrative leave in the wake of the resolution of a lawsuit claiming the department exaggerated the seriousness of some medical calls to receive a higher reimbursement rate from Medicare and Medicaid. (Quad-City Times)

CDC director Frieden makes 1st visit to Iowa
The head of public health in the United States made a quick visit to Davenport on Wednesday and saluted Iowa’s efforts to curb smoking while citing obesity rates as an area that needs improvement. (Quad-City Times)

Foundation provides $150,000 in equipment, technology to Newton hospital
The Skiff Medical Center Foundation announced its recent purchase of $150,000 in medical equipment to the city-owned hospital made possible through the receipt of portions of two estates and a contribution by a local family. “When hard-working people make generous contributions to the foundation, they become valuable partners that make local health care better and more accessible,” said Skiff Foundation Director Bruce Hoffmeier. (Newton Independent)

Cerro Gordo free clinic names hospital veteran as new manager
The Cerro Gordo County Free Health Care Clinic has a new clinic manager. Karen Slife of Mason City, a registered nurse who has been volunteering at the free clinic, will take over clinic manager duties beginning Sept. 1. Slife has worked since 2005 as a clinical instructor of nursing for Kaplan University. She worked for Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa for 34 years, including as head nurse of the emergency center and director of nursing. (Mason City Globe-Gazette)

U.S. News

With many still in dark, groups shed light on health care law
True or false: The new health care law will cut Medicare benefits for seniors. It will slash Medicare payments to doctors. It will ration health care. In three polls conducted last month, large percentages of Americans answered “true” to each statement. All three are false. (USA Today)

Health care overhaul nitty-gritty: The medical-loss ratio and taxes
What counts as a “federal tax” in insurer-land? That’s the latest question facing regulators charged with turning the health-care overhaul law into actual rules. Those regulators are now wrestling with the medical-loss ratio — what percentage of an insurer’s revenue is dedicated to health-related expenses, versus administrative costs — and into which bucket various kinds of costs should fall. (Wall Street Journal)

Lawmakers in most states have little control over healthcare premiums
Only 19 states have ‘prior approval’ authority over insurance rates. A review of campaign donations shows insurers funneling money to key lawmakers and squelching efforts to expand oversight of premiums. (Los Angeles Times)

Health IT workforce will require higher skill set
As trends in technology change the employment landscape, training and certifying IT workers will require a higher skill set, said Terry Erdle, senior vice president, skills certification, of CompTIA in remarks he delivered at Breakaway 2010, the premier event for IT companies in North America. For healthcare IT workers, for instance, this may mean having a broader knowledge of areas such as security. (Healthcare IT News)

Attending rounds with iPad: Hype or hindrance?
There are some powerful examples of pluses for iPads coming along on rounds.  But before we embrace the iPad as the panacea to all of our technology woes in health care, there are some problems that we need to think about.  (FutureDocs)

Will ACOs be A-OK? Model stirs hopes, questions
Questions remain about which providers are positioned to transition into Accountable Care Organizations, and which providers will become supporting actors in another organization. The California law preventing hospitals from directly employing physicians creates a further wrinkle, although integrated delivery systems like Kaiser Permanente are well-positioned to manage costs while providing team-based care. (California Healthline)

Chinese hospitals are battlegrounds for discontent
Forget the calls by many Chinese patients for more honest, better-qualified doctors. What this city’s 27 public hospitals really needed, officials decided last month, was police officers. And not just at the entrance, but as deputy administrators. The goal: to keep disgruntled patients and their relatives from attacking the doctors.  (New York Times)