Â鶹ŮÓÅ

The Mississippi Supreme Court has let stand the state's approval of a plan by Harrison HMA, owners of Gulf Coast Medical Center, to build a hospital in Biloxi. The Mississippi Department of Health issued a certificate of need for the project in 2012. Mississippi requires a CON in a process designed to avoid duplication of health care services and control costs. (8/6)

Plans to convert most of Laurel Regional Hospital to an outpatient facility are stirring concern among residents and community leaders who say they are worried about losing jobs and medical services in an area that is far from other hospitals. (Koh, 8/6)

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, hospitals have been penalized by taking away Medicare dollars for people who are readmitted. New records show that in the fourth year of the federal program, hospitals lost out on $420 million nationwide. Readmission rates have lowered since the penalties started, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which analyzes health data. Heart failure readmission rates were up at 24.7 percent between July 2008 and June 2011, but dropped to 22.7 percent between July 2010 and June 2013. (Waller, 8/6)

Georgia's largest public hospital improperly charged more than 730 rape victims for forensic exams, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation has found. Under state law, Grady Memorial Hospital is supposed to provide rape exams free to victims and send the bills to a special state fund billing them is considered as unfair as a shooting victim paying police to dust the weapon for fingerprints. (Mariano, 8/6)

The Charleston VA Medical Center is expecting a record 10 percent growth for the fiscal year that winds up at the end of next month. Director Scott Isaacks told local media outlets Wednesday that each week between 150 and 200 veterans are enrolling as new patients at the Ralph Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center. (8/6)