21.   Alternately, if doctors saw more patients than the number set in the contract, Columbia could be eligible for higher reimbursement.

22.   And a new procedure can often be used by a larger pool of patients than before, raising overall costs.

23.   Aspirin is safer and has a more immediate benefit for acute stroke patients than previously believed, according to a study in the June issue of the journal Stroke.

24.   According to UNOS, the problem with the new government policy is that some transplant centers take much sicker patients than others, and some have many more patients.

25.   But it showed that after investing, the doctors as a group referred more patients than before to Columbia hospitals and fewer to competing hospitals.

26.   But preventative care has improved and more specialists are available to Medicaid patients than before.

27.   First, they have relatively low toxicity, doing far less harm to the patient than drugs now in use.

28.   Home health agencies in the two states anticipate that Medicare will pay them hundreds of dollars less per patient than before.

29.   Holly Snow of GHA notes that hospital-based facilities treat sicker patients than other nursing homes.

30.   If it costs them more to care for the patients than their annual fee pays them, the doctors and hospitals could lose money.