financial metrics

Health plans need new approaches to profitability

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Now I get it. To get back their healthy profits--which have taken a serious plunge of late--all U.S. health plans have to do is a) raise premiums and b) lower reimbursements for providers. Easy as Read more...

S&P to monitor non-profit hospital tech spending

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

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...

MN governor vetoes medical debt history bill

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) has vetoed a bill that would have banned healthcare providers from collecting, using Read more...

West Penn Allegheny Health profit up

admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Largely due to its success in refinancing debt and boosting investment earnings, Pittsburgh's West Penn Allegheny Health System turned a $6.9 million net profit for the first six months of fiscal Read more...

Readers share thoughts on not-for-profit ratings

admin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Last week in this space, I said that while I understand why Wall Street ratings firms focus Read more...

Non-profit finances deserve second look

admin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:59:59 -0400

Looked at one way, it's easy to see why an agency like Moody's would be less than enthusiastic about the financial prospects of not-for-profit hospitals. Just consider what's going on in many Read more...

Moody's shows little enthusiasm for non-profit hospital finances

admin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:59:58 -0400

It's tough to find there, buried within the careful language, but I think the net of the recent "special comment" from Moody's Investors Services might be that the agency is cautiously Read more...

HealthSouth gets credit upgrade, but questions remain

admin — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:59:56 -0400

For HealthSouth, it looks like a good news/bad news situation in terms of feedback from key financial ratings firm Moody's Investors Service. On one hand, Moody's affirmed the B3 corporate family Read more...

Painful cash crunch leaves few good options

admin — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:59:59 -0400

Painful cash crunch leaves few good options Wow, things are still painful out there. Even if your facility had auction-rate bonds outstanding, and managed to bail out of them successfully, you're Read more...

Case study: NJ hospital refinances bond debt

admin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:59:55 -0500

Want to know how much it costs to bail out of the imploding auction-rate bonds market? For one New Jersey hospital, the price tag was $16 million. The Hackensack Medical Center received permission Read more...