CMS awarded $69.4 million to the Colorado Health Insurance Cooperative — a Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan and the 18th such CO-OP to receive a loan.

Here are 14 issues dealing with Medicare or Medicaid that occurred in the past week, starting with the most recent.

The following is reprinted with permission from HFA Partners.Earlier this week, New York state regulators announced they have licensed Build America Mutual Assurance Company, or BAM, to insure municipal bonds in 26 states. BAM expects to start operations in September…

Overall, hospices will receive a 0.9 percent increase in Medicare payments in fiscal year 2013 under the annual update to the hospice wage index, according to an AHA News Now report.

John Mordach, CFO of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, is a veteran of academic medical centers across the country — and he also knows about to keep academic medical centers above the medians.

For the second quarter ended June 30, 2012, Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Hospitals reported almost identical net income figures, as both quarters hovered around $40.3 million.

King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services reported a positive second quarter, as net income rose 3.8 percent year-over-year from $103.6 million in 2011 to $107.6 million this year.

California insurance officials have ordered Blue Cross of California to stop all attempts to recover alleged overpayments from providers if the claims are more than one year old and lack evidence of fraud.

The credit and debt markets have been markedly different since 2008, when the United States and much of the world officially entered a financial crisis that impacted the credit of almost every borrower.

Sean Whilden has been the CFO of Houston Healthcare in Warner Robins, Ga., since December 2011, and the two-hospital system is continuing its strong financial performance within Georgia's Houston County.