NPR's Joanne Silberner looks at a program for breast cancer patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital which sends the patient home immediately following a mastectomy... on the same day as the procedure. The U.S. Congress and some state legislatures are threatening to force insurance companies to cover 48 hours of hospital care for the surgery. The patients at Johns Hopkins like the short-stay program. Doctors say care can not be legislated. But other surgeons worry that not all hospitals will provide a program as wonderful as the one in place at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

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