The health care industry in Iowa knows that in order to cultivate a healthy workforce, you have to work to inspire the youth of the state. That’s exactly what Des Moines University and the Central Iowa Area Health Education Center are attempting to do with their annual YES MED summer camp.

Staff members say that the effects of the program can be seen immediately in the students and they’re sure that, for some, it could prove to be the catalyst for a future career.

For more information, please visit: www.centraliowaahec.org

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfbEWl2oYt0

Recently, the Iowa Hospital Association hosted the sixth annual Swinging for Scholars fundraiser golf tournament at The Harvester Golf Club north of Des Moines.

A record number of participants turned out to support the only fundraiser held for the Iowa Hospital Education and Research Foundation Health Care Careers Scholarship Fund (IHERF).  More than $100,000 in scholarship funds were contributed by a number of Iowa hospitals and other businesses and individuals who are committed to helping educate health care professionals and keep those professionals practicing in Iowa.

This year, 31 scholarships were awarded totaling $93,000 with more than $500,000 having been awarded since the inception of the program.  Eight of the 31 scholarship recipients were present at the event to formally accept their award as well as to express their gratitude for what the scholarship will enable for their careers.

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSayT4hJmDc

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

Iowa News:

Manning Regional Healthcare Center awarded for work with Carroll County Relay
The American Cancer Society is recognizing the Manning Regional Healthcare Center for its contributions to relay for life. MRHC has been named a Silver Sponsor this year with donations by their 15 member team named Strides of Hope.  Fund raisers this year for strides of hope included a spaghetti supper, a Valentine’s Day basket auction, and a Christmas stocking auction. Members of the team say that preliminary totals raised for this year’s Relay are over $5,700 dollars. (1380KCIM.com)

St. Luke’s CEO: Hospital taking risk in buying land for medical mall
It’s well known that St. Luke’s Hospital has been buying up property in the new Cedar Rapids Medical District centered along 10th Street SE, including land on which Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa plans to build a $36-million medical building it calls a medical “mall.” However, Ted Townsend, president/CEO of St. Luke’s Hospital, said this week that St. Luke’s Hospital has taken a risk in buying property because it has no signed agreement that commits PCI to build its new building in the Medical District. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

H3N2 seasonal flu already surfacing in Iowa
Flu cases in Eastern Iowa are getting national attention. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is citing two Iowa flu outbreaks as it advises doctors to be on the lookout for seasonal influenza. Four members of an Iowa college sports team became ill in one outbreak last month. In the second case, nine children in a child care center became ill with the flu, according to the CDC. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

U.S. News:

Senate Gives Final Passage To State Aid Bill, House Summoned For Tuesday Vote
Senators voted Thursday to give $26 billion in aid to states and schools, $16 billion of which will be directed to Medicaid programs around the nation as the House prepares to return during its recess to cast votes on the legislation. (Kaiser Health News)

IBM unveils strategy in electronic health records
I.B.M. has been quietly saying for months that it planned to enter the market for electronic health records, a business being primed with hefty government subsidies. The only question has been how Big Blue, a company geared to deal with big corporations, would cater to the messy, fragmented market of physicians. I.B.M. provided its answer Thursday morning. It’s not going in alone, but as a technology partner. The offering will be a Web-based subscription service, but enhanced by I.B.M. data-mining technology and tweaked by the scientists in its research labs. And I.B.M. is going into electronic health records selectively, and not yet marketing to small practices with just a few doctors. I.B.M.’s partner is a subsidiary of the insurer Aetna, ActiveHealth Management, which makes disease management software and personal health records. ActiveHealth will provide the user record and decision support technology, while I.B.M. provides the cloud computing services and data-intelligence technology. (The New York Times)

States enact healthcare law as lawsuits proceed
State governments are implementing the controversial healthcare law, even in places where elected officials are challenging its constitutionality. Across the country, state employees are working to define new rules that health insurance companies will have to follow. They’re also applying for a wide variety of federal grants offered under the law. Government officials offer a number of reasons why states are implementing a law their governors and other elected officials oppose. Some cash-strapped states are taking the opportunity to grab federal funds. Many governments are taking a cautious approach in making sure they comply with the new federal law — at least until the courts tell them they don’t have to. (The Hill)

McKesson CEO talks about transforming healthcare
Most of McKesson’s work is behind the scenes, distributing drugs to pharmacies and hospitals. Over the past decade, under the leadership of CEO John Hammergren, the company has built up a large healthcare information technology business as well. Hammergren spoke with Forbes Technology Editor Kerry Dolan about how the company is growing, who it’s partnering and competing with, and how technology can improve the delivery of healthcare in the future. (Forbes)

On June 16-17, the Iowa Hospital Association hosted its summer leadership forum: Reform and the Road Ahead. Conference objectives were to discuss the current MedPAC recommendations regarding health care payment reform, how scale matters in health care and what the impact of the current U.S. economy will have on the entire health care industry.

The following video is the second in a two-part series of interviews conducted with a couple of the forum’s esteemed speakers. IHA had the chance to speak with David Swenson, Associate Scientist, Department of Economics at Iowa State University. Swenson provides his unique perspective on where the country is at in the current economic recession and how it may affect the economics of health care in the near future.

Part one of the series was posted last week and featured Herb Kuhn, President and CEO of the Missouri Hospital Association (Jefferson, MO), who discussed his thoughts on how health care reform will impact states like Iowa and Missouri.

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyiolSNFgBg

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)