Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed a new healthcare cost containment bill in August, and hospitals may feel negative pressures on their operating margins as a consequence, according to a report from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

Natchez (Miss.) Regional Medical Center will make its final payment to creditors next week, meaning the 179-bed hospital is now free from Chapter 9 bankruptcy, according to a Natchez Democrat report.

Paul Staton has been the permanent CFO of the University of California Los Angeles Hospital System since March 2005. Despite the pressures of running a billion-dollar organization, he thinks the experience is nothing short of "fun."

Iowa Health System in Des Moines and Henry Ford Health System in Detroit have both finalized agreements with Meridian Health Plan, a physician-owned Medicaid HMO.

Liquidity at today's hospital is of utmost importance, both in the eyes of the CFO and credit rating agencies.

California has completed a yearlong transition of moving 380,000 seniors and people with disabilities with Medicaid coverage from fee-for-service plans to managed care, but there were many speed bumps along the way, according to a report from the California HealthCare…

Here are 12 issues dealing with Medicare or Medicaid that occurred in the past two weeks, starting with the most recent.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanguard Health Systems, Boston-based Tufts Medical Center and the New England Quality Care Alliance — a non-profit physician network of Tufts with 1,600 physicians — will sponsor a Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan.

In fiscal year 2011, relatively large community hospitals, academic medical centers and other system hospitals with 400 or more beds recorded stable revenue numbers compared with FY 2010. However, what is the status of the smaller local hospitals, especially those…

For almost five years, Eric Peburn has led the financial drive behind Halifax Health, based in Daytona Beach, Fla., and the health system's balance sheet is strong to say the least.