Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Mobile Clinics Help Hospitals Hit The Road To Increase Access
There鈥檚 been a lot of talk about the mobile health revolution; making it possible to see your doctor from your living room or couch. But this is mobile health that doesn鈥檛 fit in a phone. In fact, it's 40 feet long and looks like a mix between an RV, a school bus and a doctor鈥檚 office. It鈥檚 a mobile health clinic. (Silverman, 5/12)
Lawmakers in the Louisiana House reshuffled the dollars in a nearly $26 billion state operating budget proposal Thursday, choosing to protect the safety net hospitals for the uninsured at the expense of the TOPS free college tuition program. (DeSlatte, 5/12)
University Hospitals' operating income increased 10.6 percent last year following the addition of three new medical centers that boosted its patient volume to more than 1 million, according to a new report by the hospital network. (Ross, 5/13)
A federal health agency has found no evidence of regulatory breaches at the Rockford Center following a suicide outside the Stanton psychiatric hospital in March. The investigation took one day to complete, according to the report, commissioned by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and released by state health officials Wednesday. (Fishman, 5/12)
A hospital that treated a man before he fatally stabbed two people and wounded several others at a home and mall said Thursday that it was barring a state contractor that provides mental health evaluations. In a letter to state officials, Morton Hospital said the contractor, Norton Emergency Services, was putting patients at risk by not providing "critical and timely services." (Salsberg and Pratt, 5/12)