In Case You Missed It — Healthcare Daily Digest for Wednesday, 9 January

It all may come down to birth control. “It” being the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — and the “come down” part means that many religious hospitals have grave concerns about what the ACA may require (or “force,” depending on your rhetorical flair) of them under these new plans, even with accomodations.

A significant player in this debate is Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association (CHA), an influential lobby that represents 600 Catholic hospitals and 1,400 long-term care facilities across the nation.

This issue is worth paying attention to, as it could be the likely rallying point for conservatives who do not see value to the ACA as currently presented.

Other headlines making news today:

Screening May Cost As Much As Treating: “It’s known that we’re spending over $1 billion on treating cancer, but we were surprised to find that we’re also spending over $1 billion for screening,” said Dr. Cary Gross, the study’s lead author.

• Maybe Don’t Take Them to Restaurants, Movie Theaters, or, You Know, in Public, Either: Widespread flu prompts Carolinas HealthCare to restrict child visitors.

• Please Let None of These Work: “So, we asked ourselves as the 31st annual deal hookup started Monday (and continues into Thursday), “What pickup lines do biotech dealmakers use?” We found some creative answers under the Twitter hashtag #jpmpickuplines.” Oh boy.

• Whitepaper: Best Practices In Managing Healthcare System Conversion A/R Data Costs: You can download it here.

• Just TRY to Stay Awake Through This Keynote: NorthStar Anesthesia CEO to Speak at Accountable Care Organizations Summit.

• 11 Data Security Tips From Industry Experts: Because we all can use a little help now and again to make sure our Ts are crossed and our Is dotted. (Rather than the other way around, amiright? Hey, where are you going?)

• Math is Whatever We Want it to Be: According to a Forbes.com piece, Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott is using… oh, how to put this delicately. I’ll let Carol Gentry, a long-time Florida health reporter, do the heavy lifting: “Scott is using inaccurate numbers based on a ‘flawed report’ for his reasoning against participating in an expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.”

• Once You Figure Out How to Play, Let Me Know: “Welcome to the Future of the Hospital!, this blog post proudly proclaims. And then there’s a premise and some forecasting and I tuned out so fill me in once someone wins, please?