Indiana University Health wouldn't say anything more about shelving expansion plans for Methodist Hospital other than a brief e-mail that contained this:
“Because of several external factors, such as lingering recession and healthcare reform-related uncertainties, IU Health has delayed the construction until it can fully ensure the design of the new critical-care bed tower will align with the future healthcare environment.”
The statement went on to say that “the design and timing of future construction is uncertain.” Plans had called for a critical-care bed tower to meet patient demand.
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
As Congress and the White House wrangle over a compromise to avert the fiscal cliff, the anxiety (for hospitals) and expectation (among experts) regarding possible Medicare cuts is clear, as my colleague Jessica Zigmond reported.
Now, new reports on state budgets suggest continued strain on Medicaid (another major insurer) despite a modest recovery under way.
State budgets have recovered slowly from the last recession. Medicaid, which is jointly financed by states and the federal government, accounts for the single largest state expense. Medicaid paid $152.5 billion to hospitals in 2010, or nearly one-fifth of spending on U.S. hospitals that year.
Even the good news about state budgets comes with a caveat. For the first time since the downturn, state revenue in the coming year will exceed revenue states collected in 2008—but only without adjustment for inflation, the National Association of State Budget Officers reported last week. (It is “a turning point,” the group said.)
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
One major credit rating agency upgraded more not-for-profit hospitals and systems than it downgraded between July and September, and deals—mergers, acquisitions and leases—were behind better credit in several cases.
Moody's upgraded 12 not-for-profit healthcare borrowers with $3.2 billion in outstanding debt last quarter compared with the seven downgraded borrowers with $957.3 million of debt, Moody's said in a new report.
Indeed, deals have been so numerous and have so influenced credit that Moody's Investors Service now says it was wrong earlier this year when it said that 2012 would likely close with more downgrades than upgrades. The year may end with an equal number of each, the report said. “We're not prognosticators here,” said Moody's associate analyst Carrie Sheffield. “We do have a negative outlook for the sector” and analysts expected to see more downgrades than upgrades, she said.
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
More than three years out from the end of the Great Recession, the economy's weak and fitful recovery has continued to deliver disappointing job growth. Hospitals have reported fewer patients and more uninsured since the recession, which stripped some households of health insurance as the economy shed jobs.
But here's some news that may be welcomed by hospitals. Newly released Census Bureau figures show that an erosion in employer-sponsored insurance, which accelerated during the downturn, halted in 2011.
Unsurprisingly, the percentage of people with health insurance through an employer dropped sharply in 2009 (56.1% from 58.9% the prior year) and continued to slide in 2010 to 55.3%. But last year's 55.1% was not a significant difference from the year before, the Census Bureau said. You can read more on the Census Bureau figures in this week's Modern Healthcare.
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
Not-for-profit hospitals cannot escape a weak economy, and the sector won't get through the next few years as easily as it did the Great Recession.
That's essentially what analysts said last week in reports from two of the major ratings agencies.
As I have reported previously, hospitals came out of the worst recession since the Great Depression with solid margins. Hospitals protected those margins by holding onto cash and cuts to spending on labor, supplies or services.
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
New projections for U.S. health spending, released earlier this week, were the latest figures to suggest that households and employers have responded to the weak economy by spending less on healthcare.
The trend has been pronounced in federal spending estimates and projections since 2009, when U.S. health spending growth hit a historic low rate of 3.8%. (The average annual growth rate, since record keeping began in 1960, is 9.6%.) The first look at 2011, included in this week's data, shows the “lingering effects of the recent recession and modest recovery,” wrote the economists and actuaries who compiled the projections for the CMS in the journal Health Affairs.
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
As has been reported here previously, the cost of healthcare regularly creates financial stress for U.S. households. The Great Recession made matters more difficult. Even with insurance coverage, falling ill frequently means trouble with medical bills and debt.
For hospitals, that translates to write-offs for patients who cannot pay. Healthcare executives, analysts and actuaries have also said a noticeable slowdown in healthcare spending that accompanied the weak economy suggests that households may be delaying medical care.
Delays appear to be widespread among older adults who lack insurance. That's according to a new analysis of access to care and financial distress among adults age 55 and older. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation analyzed survey data from the Center for Studying Health System Change for adults ages 55 to 64 and seniors covered by Medicare.
The analysis, published in a recent report, compared survey responses for uninsured and privately insured older adults too young for Medicare. Adults were asked if they had unmet medical needs, delayed seeking care, had difficulty paying for prescriptions or if their household struggled with medical bills.
Unsurprisingly, uninsured older adults were more likely to report access and financial problems. Nearly all uninsured adults who struggled with access said the reason was cost.
Here's a look at comparisons:
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
The collective deficit for state budgets for the coming year is the smallest yet since the recession ended, a new survey shows.
But at $54 billion, the gap underscores how states continue to struggle from the economic downturn, write Elizabeth McNichol, Phil Oliff and Nicholas Johnson at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which conducted the survey.
State deficits “remain large by historical standards, as the economy remains weak and unemployment is still high,” they say.
As if to prove the point, the survey comes as Illinois lawmakers voted to slash Medicaid spending to address the state's budget woes, the Associated Press reports.
States may not fully recover for another seven years, should state tax revenue grow at last year's 8.3% rate, said the researchers. That's because of the “deep hole” states are in since the recession. Here's what the 2007-2009 recession looks like compared with the prior one:
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
