Experts say the nation’s nursing shortage—which already has prompted hospitals to recruit nursing staff from countries such as the Philippines and India—is now prompting a growing number of hospitals to recruit in Mexico, the Associated Press reports. Although the recruitment of nurses from Mexico is still in its “early stages”—with only 58 Mexican nurses taking the U.S. nurse licensing exam in 2002—experts say the opportunity to multiply their salaries by as much as 10 times will likely lead others to…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) invite investigators to submit R01 and R03 research grant applications on health literacy. The goal is to increase scientific understanding of the nature of health literacy and its relationship to healthy behaviors, illness prevention and treatment, chronic disease management, health disparities, risk assessment of environmental factors, and health outcomes including oral and mental health. Such knowledge will help enable healthcare and public health systems to…

Partly in response to allegations that hospitals “routinely” charge uninsured patients up to four times more for care than those with health insurance, hospital officials yesterday called on lawmakers to enact universal health coverage, saying it would help relieve the cost of caring for indigent patients, the Associated Press reports. The testimony was given at a meeting of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, which has been investigating whether hospitals overcharge uninsured patients and subject them to “aggressive” collection tactics in…