Americans made about 1.1 billion visits to physician offices and hospital outpatient and emergency departments in 2006, which works out to an average of four visits per person per year, according to statistics released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of visits to physician offices and hospital outpatient and emergency [...]

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) has been boasting his state’s health insurance reform initiative has reduced the number of uninsured by half, with nearly 300,000 more people added to the state’s health insurance rolls. What he doesn’t mention is that four out of five of them are relying heavily on taxpayer subsidies for their health [...]

Some uninsured Florida residents may get easier access to health care coverage under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Charlie Crist.
The new law lets insurance companies offer scaled-back health plans without all the usually required coverages. That might make insurance available to some people for as little as $150 a month, Crist said.
Under the law, some [...]

The AMA and more than 70 other organizations are conducting a comprehensive multi-specialty survey of America’s physician practices. The results will be used to positively influence national decision makers to ensure accurate and fair representation for all physicians and patients, and to articulate the challenges of running a practice that provides expert patient care, while [...]

Medicare will start hitting hospitals where it hurts in October, and other insurers are hot on the trail.
That has the nation’s hospitals exploring innovative programs to prevent injury and infection: Hand-washing spies. Surgical sponges that sound an alarm if left in the body. Even a room sterilizer that promises to wipe out bacteria left lurking [...]

Experts paint a picture of a system that is not working well and getting worse. In a 2006 report, the Institute of Medicine documented the problems and recommended fixes.
Kellermann’s Grady Memorial Hospital trauma service treated the 35 victims of the bombing at the 1996 Olympics. But a decade later, he questions whether it could respond [...]