News

St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic, N.J., has completed a reorganization plan and appears to be on it’s way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy status.

The Kansas Health Policy Authority implemented a 10 percent Medicaid reimbursement rate reduction on January 1 that affects more than 25,000 healthcare providers and could ultimately overburden Kansas hospitals with Medicaid patients.

State Medicaid programs around the country continue to take the brunt of legislative budget cuts in early 2010, and hospitals are feeling the heat.

Chrissy Yamada is chief financial officer at Evergreen Healthcare (Kirkland, Wash.)

Commentary from Stephen W. Bernstein, partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery and is head of the firm’s Health Industry Advisory Practice Group.

Commentary from John Casillas, senior vice president of the HIMSS Medical Banking Project

In late February, we learned from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services that the U.S. not-for-profit healthcare sector had begun to stabilize. Or at least it had stabilized enough so that S&P expects its healthcare ratings and outlooks won’t be tanking in 2010.

The federal government's latest report has healthcare rising to 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Economists warn this is unsustainable, and Congress has agreed.

President Barack Obama had hoped to pass healthcare reform by the end of 2009, but the last major action Congress has taken on the effort came on Christmas Eve when the Senate passed it's overhaul package by the slimmest possible margin.

President Barack Obama has requested a $3.8 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2011 that includes $81.3 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services – a $1.7 billion increase over what Congress approved in fiscal year 2010.