Demand for inpatient behavioral healthcare providers holds steady; Low income families on high deductible plans on the rise;

> The annual National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems survey reports that inpatient admissions for behavioral health treatment was up 3.5 percent between 2006 and 2007, with average lengths of stay up slightly, to 9.7 days in 2007. Article

> The number of low income families on high deductible plans is on the rise, according to new research from Harvard Medical School's Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention and the Children's Hospital. The study found that larger employers are increasingly moving employees with families to high deductible plans. About one-third of these have at least one child with a chronic condition. Traditionally, high deductible plans have attracted healthy and wealthy people. Article

> Patient safety practices aren't tracked in Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) according to a new Government Accountability (GAO) report. The new study cites more than 50,000 lapses in safety procedures in southern Nevada ASCs alone. Well documented cases of patient exposure to blood borne diseases such as Hepatitis C have plagued ASCs in Nevada and other states in recent years. Article 

And finally... Action video games are like carrot; they help improve your eyesight! University of Rochester researchers claims that playing action video games can improve contrast sensitivity much like a pair of glasses or corrective surgery can. Video games can teach the visual cortex to make better use of the information it receives, according to U of Rochester's new research. Article

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