Preliminary medians data for fiscal year 2011, recently released by Moody’s Investors Service, show sluggish top line revenue growth, flat inpatient admissions, but an improved bottom line profitability due to expense reductions.  Overall, the rating agency noted that the data support its negative outlook for hospitals in 2012.   “ . . . we believe […]

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act in June.  Experts expect one of three possible outcomes:  the Supreme Court will rule the entire healthcare law unconstitutional, rule the entire law constitutional, or rule that the individual mandate is unconstitutional while upholding the remaining provisions of the law.   […]

Much of today’s activity in hospitals and health systems continues to focus on consolidation.  Hospitals have been here before, but today’s pressures have added to the list of strategic reasons to consider partnerships with other hospitals or health systems.   “Many of the forces behind today’s consolidation are similar to those in the past. However, […]

I’ve been working in healthcare finance for about 26 years and I can’t think of another time when we had this level of risk within the industry. (Eric Jordahl, Kaufman, Hall & Associates)   A phrase commonly heard in many industries—risk management—migrated to the healthcare industry several years ago. But the financial crisis has moved […]

Hospital and health system board members are frequently required to interpret the financial “language” of healthcare—in both the financial statements and ratios of their organization and essential industry reports—in order to make informed decisions. As important as it is to understand the financial picture, the terminology can be daunting.  An excerpt from a recent Special […]

“The book on U.S. health reform is not yet written. ACA [Accountable Care Act] is a chapter. The market will write others. What’s clear is that the affordability of health care—costs—is a theme that will run through each. It’s time to get serious about costs. To avoid the discussion is to guarantee the demise of […]