More Hospitals Banning Videos in Delivery Room

'Patients are harassed mercilessly,' one hospital employee says

(NEWSER) - One of the country's biggest medical debt collectors has reached a new low: sending employees into hospital emergency rooms to "encourage" patients to pay past medical debts before receiving treatment. The Minnesota attorney general is investigating Accretive Health's practices; its debt collectors are allegedly instructed to all but pose as hospital employees, use scripts to demand payment, and in some cases even discourage patients from getting care. Debt collectors have also approached patients after surgery or in the labor and delivery department. More»

Peter Orszag: No one wants to work Saturdays, but we need them to

(NEWSER) - If we're serious about raising the quality of health care while lowering its cost, doctors need to do two things: The first is suck it up and work weekends, writes Peter Orszag. There are plenty of compelling reasons: People who are hospitalized on Saturdays and Sundays don't fare so well, for one. A 2007 study found that for every 1,000 heart-attack sufferers admitted on the weekend, 9 to 10 more died versus weekday admissions. Our hospitals sit idle 25% of the time, meaning we're not using our expensive equipment and space fully. More»

(NEWSER) - Everybody's thinking small on health care reform, writes David Goldhill in the Atlantic. Our system is so abysmal—the headline on his lengthy piece is "How American Health Care Killed My Father"—that it needs a radical restructuring, and that should start with insurance. Let's just stop buying it, or all but. Everyone should be required to have catastrophic insurance to cover bills above, say, $50,000. For everything else, the system should be pay-as-you-go. More»

Will accept lower payments for Medicaid, Medicare

(NEWSER) - The nation’s hospitals have struck a deal with White House and Senate negotiators that will save the government $155 billion over 10 years, the Washington Post reports. The hospitals will accept lower-than-expected Medicare and Medicaid payments, and a gradual reduction in the amount paid to help care for the uninsured. The government, meanwhile, has promised that a public insurance plan would pay better-than-Medicare rates. More»

(NEWSER) - Filthy, bug-infested Iraqi hospitals still lack basic equipment and supplies that could save thousands of lives, McClatchy reports. With sectarian violence down, doctors and aid groups are blaming government corruption for the nation's health woes. "The government has money," said a fourth-year resident at a Baghdad hospital. "So you tell me why I can't get basic medicines at the best ER in Baghdad." More»