Medicaid expansion would create 43,000 jobs in North Carolina;Geographic purchasing coalitions save hospitals millions;

News From Around the Web

> Expanding North Carolina's Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act would create 40,000 jobs by the end of the decade and add $21 billion in federal revenue, a new study by the Center for Health Policy Research concluded. Study

> Affording medical care is much more of a hardship for Americans now than it was in the past, according to a new poll conducted by the New York Times and CBS News. Article

> Geographic-based hospital purchasing coalitions save participating institutions millions of dollars a year and can also improve care, WBUR reported. Article

Provider News

> More than 700 hospitals will lose 1 percent of their Medicare payments in fiscal year 2015 because they failed to reduce hospital-acquired condition rates and meet patient safety benchmarks put in place by the Affordable Care Act, according to a statement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Article

Healthcare IT News

> It's hard to deny the influence patients as consumers are having on the healthcare industry, and many predict 2015 will be the year of the consumer. Article

And Finally ... Petition pressures 8-year-old HIV-positive Chinese boy to leave village--his grandfather is among the signers. Article