A credit analyst for not-for-profit healthcare providers is cautioning that the new state health insurance exchanges may introduce more short-term risk than benefit.
Moody's Investors Service said in a report Friday that while the exchanges may lead to a bump in the number of insured patients, the larger unknowns will be what happens with insurance contract terms; the potential migration of patients who currently have private insurance to exchange plans; and bad debt for patients.
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Highmark's turn to try to stanch losses at Pittsburgh's West Penn Allegheny Health System has begun.
Roughly 260 workers at the health system were laid off today and another 200 vacant jobs were eliminated. The four-hospital system, the hub of Highmark's new eight-hospital Allegheny Health Network, has hemorrhaged cash and lost patients in recent years. Now the system must shrink accordingly, said Dan Laurent, an Allegheny Health Network spokesman.
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