A Bad News Day for Hospitals

Here's what we're checking out today:

Health Insurance: Los Angeles' City Attorney has sued national health insurer HealthMarkets and its financial backers, including Goldman Sachs Group, for selling "junk insurance" to consumers and businesses, Duke Helfand of the Los Angeles Times reports.

Patient Safety: California Watch's Christina Jewett checks out public data on hospital errors in California, and while there are no baby mixups, there are a lot of things left in patients' bodies after surgery. You can check her data for your own community's hospitals here.

Breast Cancer: The Chicago Tribune's Deborah L. Shelton reports on a new study showing that many Chicago-area hospitals that screen for and treat breast cancer cannot prove they are meeting widely accepted quality standards. Not a great news day for hospitals, is it?

Struggling Hospitals: New York magazine's Mark Levine examines in-depth the closure of a West Village nonprofit hospital in light of financial pressures facing the city's hospitals and those nationwide. You can also check out our tips for covering safety net hospitals here.

Pharma Bucks: Here's a nice roundup of local coverage made possible by reporting tools from ProPublica's Dollars for Docs investigation and database.