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News outlets report on rural health issues including the decline in the number of doctors accepting Medicare patients in Arizona and the search for low-cost health solutions in Mississippi. The Arizona Republic reports that a growing number of doctors in rural Arizona are refusing to see new Medicare patients and notes it is a problem that other parts of the country are reporting also...

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that removal of the Medicare rebate for synovial joint injections to relieve the pain and discomfort of arthritic joints will cause financial and physical suffering for thousands of elderly Australians. The typical patient who needs a joint injection is a person in their sixties or seventies with intractable knee or shoulder pain while on the waiting list - sometimes for years - for a joint replacement.

Expanding health coverage might not cost as much as policymakers assume. New findings from researchers at Harvard Medical School demonstrate that individuals who were either continuously or intermittently uninsured between the ages of 51 and 64 cost Medicare more than those who had continuous insurance coverage in the years prior to Medicare eligibility.

A new report by the Government Accountability Office "finds that state and federal officials failed to detect millions of dollars in Medicaid prescription drug abuse," USA Today reports.

A new report by the Government Accountability Office "finds that state and federal officials failed to detect millions of dollars in Medicaid prescription drug abuse," USA Today reports.

Urban Institute: Estimating the Cost of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities - In this brief, researchers analyze the cost burden associated with excess rates of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke and renal disease among Hispanics and African Americans relative to non-Hispanic whites. The study predicts that in 2009, "Medicare alone will spend an extra $15.

In Ohio, a nursing home coalition warns of "life-threatening health risks" if Medicaid reimbursements are cut under Gov. Ted Strickland's proposed budget plan while diabetes patients in the state are threatened by a lack of coverage. The