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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Health Care Reform Articles - November 25, 2010

Role Of Nurses In Primary Care May Expand : NPR

Copyright © 2010 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
NEAL CONAN, host:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington.
Expanded health coverage could bring millions of new patients into already crowded doctor's offices, and in a lot of places, primary care physicians are already scarce.
Last month, a report issued by the Institute of Medicine proposed that better-trained nurses can fill a big part of that gap and reignited an old debate about what's called scope of practice. Should nurses be authorized to order tests, write prescriptions and take on other responsibilities now reserved to doctors?


November 24, 2010

Mistakes Still Prevalent in Hospital Care, Study Finds




Efforts to make hospitals safer for patients are falling short, researchers report in the first large study in a decade to analyze harm from medical care and to track it over time.
The study, conducted from 2002 to 2007 in 10 North Carolina hospitals, found that harm to patients was common and that the number of incidents did not decrease over time. The most common problems were complications from procedures or drugs and hospital-acquired infections.

State Holds Health Insurance Hikes Under 10 Percent

After rejecting double-digit increases earlier this year, Massachusetts regulators are allowing a more modest round of rate hikes to take effect in January for health insurance policies covering small businesses and individuals.
State officials hailed the smaller increases as a victory in Governor Deval Patrick’s campaign to rein in escalating health care costs.

51 Percent Of Americans Want To Keep Or Expand Health Care Law

Published: Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 4:00 AM
STEVEN THOMMA, McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- A majority of Americans want Congress to keep the new health care law or actually expand it, despite Republican claims that they have a mandate from the people to kill it, according to a new McClatchy Newspapers-Marist poll.

On Health Policies, U.S. Lags Other Nations: Survey

Access, costs are better managed in other countries, report finds

THURSDAY, Nov. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Patients in the United States are more likely to forgo medical care because of cost than residents of other developed countries, a new international survey finds.
Compared with 10 other industrialized countries, the United States also has the highest out-of-pocket costs and the most complex health insurance, the authors say.


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