News
S&P to monitor non-profit hospital tech spending
Over the next few years, credit rating firm Standard & Poor's plans to take a much closer look at the extent to which not-for-profit hospitals keep up with their peers in making technology Read more...
Health plans to boost premiums, squeeze providers
As readers know, several leading health plans have taken a profitability beating over the last several months, for reasons that include operational issues, medical costs and losses in the financial Read more...
Study: Uninsured ranks could be much lower
I know, you do everything you can to qualify patients for government programs when they're uninsured and need care. Despite that, uninsured patients continue to generate high bad debt levels for Read more...
MN governor vetoes medical debt history bill
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) has vetoed a bill that would have banned healthcare providers from collecting, using Read more...
Case study: ND system must cut $15M in costs
It's a sign of the times. Struggling with the boogeymen faced by most of its peers, including inadequate reimbursement and rising uncompensated care levels, Fargo, N.D.-based MeritCare Health System Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: Safety net EDs work to limit nonemergency care
As emergency departments with safety net hospitals continue to see more non-emergent patients, many are working harder to redirect patients to more appropriate channels of care, such as outpatient Read more...
ALSO NOTED: Investment losses put UPMC in the red; Shriners St. Louis fires financial official over "irregularities"; and much
> It was bad financial news for the usually-profitable University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which lost $7 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2008 after suffering steep losses on its Read more...
Following peers, Kaiser profits plunge
As FierceHealthFinance readers probably know, the last few weeks have been ugly for health plans, many of which announced disappointing first-quarter results. True, it's worth bearing in mind that Read more...
Tenet sees $31 million loss for Q1
Dogged by expenses from lawsuits, Tenet Healthcare announced a $31 million first-quarter loss. Tenet reported a net loss of $31 million for the first quarter of this year, compared with a profit of Read more...
MN bill blocks hospitals from using debt info pre-care
Arguing that such a practice is coming, even if it isn't widely observed yet, Minnesota legislators have approved a bill forbidding hospitals from using information about a patient's medical debt Read more...
Hospital, family tussle over bills for dead patient
Here's the kind of story that gives hospital collections departments a bad name. It seems that due to internal communication problems, a Seattle-based healthcare provider continued to bill the Read more...
Case study: SC system pulls off turnaround
A South Carolina health system has turned things around dramatically for its two hospitals, turning a $5.7 million profit for 2007 after languishing for years. The Sisters of Charity Providence Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: HCA on acquisition trail
HCA CEO Jack Bovender has made it official--he's on the acquisition trail. The company is looking to acquire a large, urban not-for-profit system with lead position in a fast-growing market, Read more...
ALSO NOTED: FL hospitals see dramatic growth in uncompensated care; LifePoint wants to buy; and much more...
> Costs for uncompensated care have gone through the roof in Florida, according to the state's hospital association. Read more...
Insurer troubles could mean more bad debt for providers
In recent weeks, health insurers have started announcing financial results, and the news hasn't been good. WellPoint, for example, Read more...
Paid Research Reports
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