Doctors: No Painkillers Until You Sign Our Pain Contract

Pain Meds: To fend off addicts and lawsuits, doctors increasingly are asking patients to sign controversial pain contracts before prescribing potentially addictive painkillers like Vicodin, Michelle Andrews reports for Kaiser Health News.

Health Reform: Hoping to influence the health reform debate and get its message of coordinated care closer to national lawmakers, California-based Kaiser Permanente opened a Washington, D.C. demonstration clinic near the Capitol Building, Gardiner Harris reports for the New York Times.

Health IT Prize: The CEO of the Heritage Provider Network in California is offering a $3 million, X prize-style award to anyone who create a set of equations that can best predicts which patients will be hospitalized and for how many days within one year, based on a given data set. But could the contest really help make health care more efficient? Annie Lowrey investigates for Slate.

Immigrant Health: Mexican migrants are more prone to mental health disorders compared to Mexicans who were born in the United States, according to a new study examined by Shari Roan for the Los Angeles Times.

Blood Test, Remade: Wired magazine's effort to explain and retool the traditional blood test is fascinating – and just won a National Magazine award.

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Photo credit: amayzun via Flickr