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Booster shot | Despite a shortfall in patient-care revenue for the past 25 years, hospitals turned a profit thanks to investments and other revenue

By Joe Carlson | August 02, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
Imagine sneaking a peek at the financial ledgers of your local mechanic and finding out that in the past two decades he had never in any year earned enough money fixing cars to pay the expenses of his repair shop.
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Accounting for nursing care | Researchers urge use of ‘nursing intensity' data in hospital billing

By Joe Carlson | August 02, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
Although nursing care has always been one of the larger single expenses in acute-care hospitals, some experts have never been satisfied with how nurses' services have been lumped into the same overall “room and board” charges as routine hospital costs.
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Putting it on the books | Proposed rules wouldn't allow hospitals to keep leases off balance sheets

By Melanie Evans | July 12, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
Hospitals and health systems won't be able to lease equipment or property with contracts that keep such obligations off the balance sheet under a proposed change to accounting rules expected within months.
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Better than expected | Federal stimulus funding helps limit rise in uncompensated-care costs

By Vince Galloro | July 05, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
Heading into 2009, it was easy to understand predictions for uncompensated care that ranged from dire to apocalyptic. The credit crunch that began in 2007 was wreaking havoc on the financial system in 2008. Unemployment had climbed to 7.4% in December from 5.5% in June, according to the U.S. Labor Department, and economists were predicting that it might reach 10% for the first time in 25 years.
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Taking it to court | California hospital sues Citigroup, insurer over auction-rate bonds, saying it wasn't told of the market's risks

By Melanie Evans | May 03, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
Tri-City Medical Center exited the auction-rate bond market earlier this year, following many not-for-profit hospitals that fled the market after its 2008 collapse. But unlike other hospitals, Tri-City Medical Center has sued its bank and bond insurer over the now-largely defunct financing vehicle.
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Tying it together | Bundled payment projects proceed, with some snags

By Jennifer Lubell | May 03, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
Bundling payments to hospitals and doctors for episodes of care is gaining momentum in the federal government and in the private sector as a way to increase provider accountability and improve care—but lingering challenges may deter its application on a broader scale.
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Pensions picked apart | Some hospitals, systems freeze defined-benefit plans

By Melanie Evans | April 19, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
Pension plans, a retirement benefit on the decline for decades, are growing even less common at hospitals and health systems since the recession began.
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Exit time for investors? | Private-equity firms may be looking to shed deals

By Vince Galloro | April 05, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
While Cerberus Capital Management is drawing a lot of attention for its plunge into hospitals, several of its private-equity peers might be contemplating the other end of the process—how they will exit their hospital investments.
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Building on their reputation | Universal Health Services subsidiary selling construction/design expertise

By Vince Galloro | February 01, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
Sometimes the way you say goodbye determines whether the door will open for you the next time you knock.
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Making good on bad debt | For first time, tax-exempt hospitals required to get specific on charity care

By Melanie Evans | January 04, 2010 | Print Magazine Print Magazine Subscription Details
In the coming year, hospitals and health systems exempt from some taxes will, for the first time, list the exact amount they spend on subsidies for needy patients and other health-related activities on federal records available to the public.
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