U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD, R-La., has introduced legislation that aims to expand healthcare access for Medicaid and Medicare patients, particularly for rural patients in areas with large numbers of freestanding emergency rooms, according to the senator's office.

1. Employers get serious about the underlying drivers of their healthcare costs.

Panama City, Fla.-based Bay Medical Sacred Heart will resume limited inpatient care on Jan. 2, according to a news release obtained by the Panama City News Herald.

A power outage attributed to funding cuts at Ripley, Tenn.-based Lauderdale Community Hospital forced patients to relocate Dec. 31, according to a Fox 13 news report.

Seventy-seven patients, including newborns, were temporarily evacuated Dec. 29, after a small fire erupted at Jacksonville, Fla.-based Baptist Medical Center, according to the Florida Times Union.

Every Massachusetts 911 operator will learn new call-taking protocols to help them avoid the types of mistakes that slowed emergency responders' search for a patient who died just a few feet from CHA Somerville Hospital's emergency room, according to The Boston Globe.

Geneva, N.Y.-based Finger Lakes Health is requesting permission from the New York State Department of Health and the Office of Mental Health to close the inpatient behavioral health unit at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital, according to The Chronicle-Express.

Some public hospitals in Washington are turning to respite programs to address the state's worsening homelessness issue, reports The Seattle Times.

Thirty-one members of the medical team at St. Cloud (Minn.) Hospital gave birth to 32 babies in 2018, according to Fox 9.

Florence-based North Alabama Medical Center is breaking records for surgeries completed and emergency room visits since opening in a new building Dec. 6, according to the Times Daily.

Hospitals now have until Jan. 4, 2019, to submit data for the Hybrid Hospitalwide Readmissions measure to CMS' Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program.

A patient reportedly smuggled a gun into the University of Kansas Health System St. Francis campus in Topeka on Dec. 14 and shot himself, according to WIBW-13 News.

Waterloo-based Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-Iowa will end certain reproductive services to meet Catholic guidelines, according to local news station KWWL.

A California hospital that closed during the summer will not open by Jan. 1 as anticipated, according to the Press-Telegram.

The American Medical Association says it wants to improve national U.S. health next year by creating ways to treat chronic disease such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Americans living in the census region known as the West North Central have the longest average travel time to the nearest hospital, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank based in Washington, D.C.

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Brenham (Texas) has suspended labor and delivery services until Dec. 21, according to The Banner-Press.

Timothy Fisher, MD, obstetrician and gynecologist at Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system will conduct a three-year investigation into why nine rural New Hampshire hospitals have closed maternity care units.

Nearly one-third of U.S. hospitals have violated emergency department care standards set by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act in the last decade, according to an investigative report from WebMD and Georgia Health News.

TeleTracking has partnered with Broward Health to power a Patient Logistics Center to streamline operations and help provide more efficient assistance to patients.