New Nurse Concern: Bush Administration To Halt Medicare Payments For "Hospital Errors"

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In an unprecedented cost-cutting move, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra cost of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a new policy that the administration says could save lives and millions of dollars.

The Bush administration estimates the new policy will save Medicare $20 million a year. But other experts say the savings could be substantially greater.

Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and benefits for patients.

Seniors Head South To Mexican Nursing Homes

CASA DE ANCIANOS, MEXICO - For $1,200 a month, about a quarter of what an average nursing home costs in Pennsylvania, Ms. Lawndale, 72, gets a studio apartment, three meals a day, laundry and cleaning service, and 24-hour care from an attentive staff, many of whom speak English. She wakes up every morning next to a glimmering mountain lake, and the average annual high temperature is a toasty 79 degrees.

"This is heaven," she says. "If you need help living or coping, this is the place to be. I don't know that there is such a thing back (in the USA), and certainly not for this amount of money."

Nurses Warm To Global Fever Campaign

 BALTIMORE - Inspired by what they see as an increasing number of illnesses, injuries and deaths related to global warming, a growing number of nurses are rallying for a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, and an end to global warming.

Calling it a form of "preventive medicine" they argue,  "Stop carbon dioxide emissions and global warming and the risk of severe heat waves and tropical storms will diminish."

"Nurses are becoming engaged and involved and concerned," one said. "It's a big thing to ask, but nurses are getting it."

New Government Website On Cardiac Care Apparently Can't Compare Hospitals

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Data posted on a website by the Federal Government, which for the first
time was supposed allow consumers to compare the level of cardiac care at thousands of hospitals nationally, has so far has shown not much difference between the hospitals.

The site, http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, now rates the level of cardiac care provided by more than 4,000 hospitals nationwide based on mortality statistics, the first time the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted hospital information based on outcomes.

Feds Cancel Funding For A Los Angeles Hospital

LOS ANGELES - Federal regulators said Friday that they are pulling $200 million in funding from a troubled hospital that serves one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, forcing it to all but shut down.

The decision came after the county-run Martin Luther King Jr. Harbor Hospital failed two federal inspections.

At a news conference late Friday, Los Angeles County's chief medical officer told reporters that the hospital would close its emergency room Friday night and that patients would be moved to other hospitals within two weeks. The emergency room was closed at 7 p.m. Friday.