DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad reiterated his contention Monday that residents at the Iowa Veterans Home are getting top-quality care and expressed concern that criticism of leadership at the Marshalltown facility is becoming increasingly political. However, a key Democrat who has raised concern about quality of care and safety issues at the veterans’ home [...]

Only half of people in the United States who have ever been infected with hepatitis C get proper testing for the liver-destroying disease, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday. Proper testing is a two-step process in which people who have antibodies get referred for a second, more sophisticated test to detect the virus. According to [...]

Majority Democrats in the Iowa Senate refused Wednesday to approve a House-passed version of Gov. Terry Branstad’s Healthy Iowa plan – likely sending the issue of expanding health care coverage for lower-income Iowans to a conference committee to resolve differences. Senators voted on a 26-24 party-line verdict to reject Republicans’ alternative to an expansion of [...]

After about 35 years of letting Cedar Rapids patients choose where they want to be seen, the largest cardiology clinic in Eastern Iowa will provide care only at St. Luke’s Hospital. Officials with UnityPoint Clinic-Cardiology, formerly known as Cardiologists L.C., said the change will become effective June 1, allowing the group of cardiologists to focus [...]

DES MOINES – Over Democratic protests that a Capitol committee room is not the place to make medical decisions, Iowa House Republicans approved a health and human services budget prohibiting public funds for abortions and discouraging elective Cesareans sections. Approved on a party line vote, 14-11, the plan that next goes to the full House [...]

DES MOINES — A House committee pushed through Gov. Terry Branstad’s Healthy Iowa plan Monday even as some members of the majority Republican Party expressed misgivings about the plan. “I’m being a good soldier,” said Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant. “Today I helped move the bill forward at the governor’s request and when it comes to [...]

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics must find more budget efficiencies and grow patient volumes in response to financial challenges in the health care industry, UI hospital leaders said Wednesday in seeking state regents approval of next year’s budget. It’s not a new message from hospital leaders, but they repeated it Wednesday during a state [...]

By Leah Grout Garris, for The Gazette Len Petska, an 88-year-old Cedar Rapids resident, calls the SilverSneakers class he attends his “can-do class.” “Because of this class, I can do things I never used to be able to do,” he says. Petska has struggled with shoulder problems for 30 years. After participating in the SilverSneakers [...]

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics leaders want state regents to approve a 6 percent increase to the hospital rate for the 2014 fiscal year. The state Board of Regents meets Wednesday and Thursday in Cedar Falls. The meeting information was released Thursday. The new UIHC rate would be effective July 1. Determining the proposed [...]

Looking into the eyes of her dying patient’s children last week, Mercy Medical Center nurse Sarah Pudenz asked if they wanted to lower the bed rail and lie down next to him. Pudenz moved the tissue box closer to them as their father neared the end of his life. She asked if she could get [...]