Mount Sinai launches real-time patient feedback tool; Knight foundation launches health challenge;

News From Around the Web

> The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York has launched a real-time patient-feedback survey tool--RateMyHospital--for cancer patients receiving treatment in the facility's Derald H. Ruttenberg Treatment Center. The tool is accessible on smartphones and via mobile web browsers. Announcement 

> The Miami-based Knight Foundation--which supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism and advance media innovation--is launching a health challenge this month focusing on the question: "How can we harness data and public information for the health of communities?" Collaborators include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the California HealthCare Foundation. Announcement

Provider News

> Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Minnesota next week, and as a result of this historic step, gay couples working for the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota who wish to keep their health insurance benefits will have to quickly take the next step in their relationships--they must get married. Article

Health Finance News

> Mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector rose quarter-over-quarter, with the value of deals exploding, according to Irving Levin & Associates, but the volume is lower compared to the second quarter of 2012, and hospital deals were down significantly. Article

> Price increases on personal expenditures for healthcare goods and services are at their lowest levels in nearly half a century, but that data has been the subject of debate. Alan Krueger, chairman of the President's Council for Economic Advisers, noted that prices rose a mere 1.1 percent during the 12 months ending in last May. Article

And Finally... You can't treat royalty like that. Article