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

Iowa News

Latham reviews health care
Area senior citizens who get their prescription drug coverage through Medicare will see some of the first results of the health care reform in October, and U.S. Rep. Tom Latham doesn’t think they’ll be happy about it. The Republican from Ames said that in about two months those people will experience a ”sizable rate increase for Medicare drug coverage.” (Fort Dodge Messenger)

School board OKs nursing course
The Dubuque school board unanimously approved a Northeast Iowa Health Occupations Consortium contract with Northeast Iowa Community College at Monday’s meeting. For the past four years, the district and NICC have contracted to offer a certified nursing assistant course to high school students. Juniors and seniors who completed the course then were able to take the state CNA exam to become fully certified. (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Culver announces $20M in flood assistance
Up to $20 million in state assistance will be available to homeowners, small business owners and individuals who sustained economic losses or damages due to flooding problems earlier this year, Gov. Chet Culver announced. Culver also unveiled details of the state’s Iowans Helping Iowans flood assistance program, a new effort designed to help families and businesses get back on their feet after this summer’s floods. (Sioux City Journal)

U.S. News

Sebelius, Baucus rebuked over health care
Instead of saying thanks, some residents rebuked Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Max Baucus on Monday for the very law that could help potentially thousands of asbestos victims here. The health care reform law passed last year expands Medicare coverage for the sick residents of Libby, where years of asbestos pollution from a vermiculite mine made this the nation’s deadliest Superfund site. (Associated Press)

Mediators call Duluth nurses back to the table
Federal mediators have called Duluth nurses and negotiators for two area hospital systems back to the bargaining table. The Minnesota Nurses Association says in a news release Friday that talks between nurses and hospital administrators for SMDC Medical Center are tentatively scheduled for Wednesday. (KARE/Associated Press)

Frank talk about care at life’s end
Last week, over the objections of New York State’s medical society, Gov. David A. Paterson signed into law a bill — the New York Palliative Care Information Act — requiring physicians who treat patients with a terminal illness or condition to offer them or their representatives information about prognosis and options for end-of-life care, including aggressive pain management and hospice care as well as the possibilities for further life-sustaining treatment. (New York Times)

Health IT contracts offer little protection for buyers
Last week at the American Health Information Management Association’s 2010 Legal Electronic Health Record (EHR) Conference in Chicago, Steven Fox, a lawyer focusing on health IT issues with law firm Post & Schell, urged healthcare providers to ask themselves key questions when acquiring EHR technology to achieve meaningful use, including: What technology and services should be purchased? What is to be paid for and when? How to assure that requirements will be met? And what happens if the product fails? (InformationWeek)

Headed to ER? Some post waits by text, billboard
Need an X-ray or stitches? Online, via text message or flashing on a billboard, some emergency rooms are advertising how long the dreaded wait for care will be, with estimates updated every few minutes. It’s a marketing move aimed at less urgent patients, not the true emergencies that automatically go to the front of the line anyway — and shouldn’t waste precious minutes checking the wait. (Associated Press)

Is there a generational clash in the medical workplace?
Many older physicians — she includes herself in this group — have “tended to live our lives around our careers, with our families secondary,” Professor Sharon Phelan says. “The younger generation refuses to do that. They may have a more even-keeled approach to it or even believe that personal life takes priority over work life.” That means they’re more open to shiftwork and more likely to emphasize a team approach to care. (That attitude is not limited to younger women, she notes; men, too, are putting more emphasis on their family life.) (Wall Street Journal)

New mobile health care products
The U.S. market for health-related mobile—or m-health—products for consumers may double to $600 million this year, according to Parks Associates, a consulting firm in Dallas. The market may double again to $1.3 billion in 2011, Parks Associates says. This Businessweek.com slide show highlights some of the m-health products coming down the pike and which companies are angling for a slice of the growing m-health market. (BusinessWeek)