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May 31, 2012 Among recent health care consumers, 16 percent said they'd looked for prices beforehand, compared with 11 percent who'd answered that way two years ago. The most common source is a doctor's office, cited by 50 percent of people who checked on prices.

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May 31, 2012 CPRA study found psychiatric patients waited an average of 11.5 hours in hospital emergency rooms before being treated or released. That's in part because many hospitals have decided it's not economically viable to keep psychiatric wards open.

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May 25, 2012 A new poll finds 34 percent of patients hospitalized for at least one night in the past year said "nurses weren't available when needed or didn't respond quickly to requests for help." We asked nurses why that might be. Stories poured in about being overworked, comparing the job to "spinning plates."

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May 24, 2012 KQEDWhen it comes to time, there is a stubborn feeling among patients that doctors are in too big of a hurry. That is troubling — and frustrating — to physicians who feel that they are already packing more into every workday and are stretched thin by paperwork.

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May 23, 2012 Fauquier Hospital in Warrenton, Va., offers services not usually found in your average hospital. Not only is every one of its patient rooms a private one, it offers food cooked and delivered to order, and hand massages. But experts say it's the actual involvement of patients and families in their own care that sets it apart.

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May 22, 2012 KHNThough they may be well-meaning, not to mention more affordable than trained interpreters, relying on accidental interpreters, such as family members, during medical treatment isn't the best idea, research has found.

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May 21, 2012 Katie Beckett, 34, died Friday morning in the same hospital where she once made history. Beckett spent most of the first three years of her life in an Iowa hospital because she needed to breathe on a ventilator much of the day. Medicaid would only pay for the expensive treatment if she stayed in the hospital. Her case led to a change in that rule.

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May 21, 2012 Our call-out on Facebook for people to share their experiences of the health care system yielded close to 1,000 responses. From Oregon to Florida, respondents told wrenching tales of bankruptcies, medical errors, and treatment delayed or foregone because of cost.

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May 17, 2012 Accretive Health, under fire for how it collects on health care debts, is fighting back. The company has lined up some political luminaries, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to press its case.

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May 10, 2012 KHNThe government has identified hundreds of hospitals where Medicare patients are incurring especially high or low bills. Hospitals around McAllen, it turns out, aren't as terrible as they were made out to be, according to Medicare's calculations of how much it spent for the average patient from three days before admission to a month after discharge.

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April 27, 2012 KHNNonprofit hospitals pay no federal, state, or local taxes. In return, they are expected to offer a community benefit, including free and discounted care for low-income patients. But a study by the Congressional Budget Office found that, on average, not-for-profits are providing only slightly more uncompensated care than for-profit hospitals.

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April 24, 2012 KHNLos Angeles has some 2 million uninsured residents. It has long had one of the most disorganized public health systems, too. Now, Dr. Mitch Katz is looking to reshape the system and match patients with their own doctors.

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March 29, 2012 As the Supreme Court weighs the fate of President Obama's health care law, several European countries are also debating the future of their health care systems. They include Britain and France, nations which have had universal coverage for decades, but are having to adjust to changing demographics and rising costs.

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March 20, 2012 KHNEven as Florida leads the Supreme Court challenge against the federal health law, a private and a public hospital both prepare for an influx of new patients if the law's Medicaid expansion survives.

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