Richard Pizzi

Oman-Gibson Associates, a national healthcare real estate development and project management company, has formed a $40 million investment fund to support the acquisition of new medical office buildings and specialty medical clinical space throughout the country.

More than 60 percent of business leaders surveyed in a Zogby International poll believe the employer-based healthcare system is not sustainable in the long-term.

The American Hospital Association has suggested that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services consider using a separate market basket to update payments for inpatient psychiatric facilities under the IPF prospective payment system.

Bad debt is a problem bedeviling many healthcare institutions during these bleak economic times, as the volume of uninsured - and underinsured - patients increases.

The ongoing recession will help ease or even end the registered nurse shortage in many areas of the country, according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs.

The world vaccine market has grown 21.5 percent since 2007 to reach $19.2 billion, and a new report forecasts the market to more than double by 2013.

A report from the Missouri Hospital Association says the state's hospitals provided more than $1.8 billion in community benefit in 2007 – an increase of $200 million from the previous year.

Middle market healthcare executives favor the Obama administration's proposed healthcare reform initiatives by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, according to a study by the CIT Group.

Hospitals have had a difficult year, with charity care and bad debt increasing, investments losing value, Medicaid cuts and all the uncertainty over healthcare reform.

While healthcare finance news from the various states continues to contain job cuts and increases in the number of uninsured, there have been some positive developments in the last week.