The Fiscal Times reports on medical miracles and their place in the national health care reform debate with a likely subheading: high health care costs. "The idea of foregoing heroic efforts and new technologies to save dying patients is anathema for most Americans...

The Washington Post has a section today titled "Scenes from the 21st century doctor's office." One feature, written by Manoj Jain, an infectious-disease specialist in Memphis, advocates for a new system of "bundled" Medicare payments to doctors. He notes that currently, "patients, insurance companies and Medicare pay separately for each procedure in the predominant 'fee-for-service' model...

The Dallas Morning News: "Lawmakers have been thinking ahead to a massive shortfall, topping $10 billion, that's probably coming when they write the next budget in 2011. But state officials told them Monday that they'll have to fix a hole in the current budget, too. Rising health care costs have dug a hole of about $1.7 billion, the officials said...

Medicare payment issues including rising costs, caps on physical therapy and other outpatient services for some patients are in the news. The Dallas Morning News reports that Medicare Advantage plans with drug benefits are getting more expensive: "Seniors in those plans will pay an average of $39.61 a month this year in premiums, up 14...

If Reform Fails The New York Times Any change as big as this is bound to cause anxiety. Republicans have happily fanned those fears with talk of "dangerous experiments" on the "best health care system in the world." The fact is that the health care system is broken for far too many Americans. And the country cannot afford the status quo (3/6)...

Building on previous studies that found racial differences in hospice use, a new study from the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife and Boston University School of Medicine finds that blacks and Hispanics use hospice for advanced heart failure at a rate of up to 50 percent less than whites, despite a markedly higher rate of incidence of the disease in these populations...

New Century Infusion Solutions, Inc. (NCIS), the first Oncology Benefit Management (OBM) company, is pleased to announce the publication of a white paper by the Lewin Group: "Medicare Cancer Care Coordination Using The Integrated Single Specialty Provider (ISSP) Model." The report estimates that over a 10-year horizon, a payer could realize oncology savings of "$16...

Several news organization have "fact checks" on the reconciliation procedure and health reform provisions. The Associated Press examined then-candidate Barack Obama's Oct. 2007 statement of "We're not going to pass universal health care with a 50-plus-one strategy...

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The frustration of finding out what hospitals and doctors charge for common services -- from routine office visits to diagnostic tests and surgical procedures -- could soon get a lot easier in Wisconsin...

What: More than 100 neurologists from 40 states will be in Washington, DC, March 8-9, 2010, for "Neurology on the Hill," an event hosted by the American Academy of Neurology to educate lawmakers about the need for health care reform changes that consider neurologists and the patients they treat, including people with Alzheimer's disease, stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, mi...

The American Medical Association has made deals with computer retailer Dell, and Ingenix, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, to "help physicians adopt and implement electronic health records", the Chicago Tribune reports. The terms of the deals were not released, but one part of the arrangement with Ingenix will be to offer doctors a Web-based medical record system called CareTracker...

The San Francisco Chronicle: "A federal appeals court barred California on Wednesday from lowering Medi-Cal payments to doctors and hospitals by 5 percent and from cutting in-home care workers' wages by nearly 20 percent, saying the state's budget crisis doesn't justify violating federal laws that protect the poor and disabled. In four rulings, the Ninth U.S...

People with Medicare have one last chance to change their Medicare health plan before they are locked into their plan for the rest of 2010. During the Open Enrollment Period, which began January 1 and lasts through March 31, people with Medicare are allowed to change their choice of Medicare health coverage once...

Despite the loss of the Democrats' supermajority necessary to pass comprehensive national healthcare reform, new federal legislation is needed to promote greater efficiency in the medical delivery system. Comprehensive reform of Medicare's provider-payment system would accelerate delivery system change but would be highly disruptive for many hospitals and physicians...

USA Today: "President Obama offered to add a handful of Republican ideas to his 10-year, $950 billion health care plan Tuesday but was rebuffed and urged to start over.The letter from Obama to the GOP signalling his interest in four specific Republican health reform ideas was met with an icy reception from Republican leaders. ...

States consider major cuts to Medicaid services and reimbursement rates to help fill gaps in the budget. The Associated Press: "Lawmakers are considering cutting all services for nearly 26,000 people with disabilities as South Carolina tries to plug a $560 million budget hole...

Why Aren't We Talking About Prices? U.S. News & World Report If our opaque and often secretive health-payment system were made transparent, the ground would be laid for consumers to find better premiums and prices for their families. One way to do this would be through open, fair, and guaranteed access, for any citizen, to competing insurers anywhere in the country (Bernadine Healy, 3/2)...

Los Angeles Times: "Senate leaders Tuesday night resolved an impasse over emergency aid to the jobless that had driven a wedge into Republican ranks and given Democrats a political weapon...

News outlets covered different aspects of fraud in the health care system. NPR/KSMU: "Experts say a different type of identity theft is on the rise -- one that could compromise both the victim's credit and physical safety...

House Democrats are preparing to introduce legislation on Medicare drug prices and an effort to tackle some individual health issues while Congress debates a comprehensive bill. Congress Daily: "Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and more than 50 House members will propose legislation today that directs Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices...