Profit at Indianapolis-based health insurer WellPoint dropped 8.3 percent in the second quarter ended June 30, 2012, from $701.6 million in 2011 to $643.6 million.

Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Hospitals has entered into a credit agreement for $800 million in loans — a $450 million term loan and a $350 million revolving credit facility, which matures in July 2017.

If Pennsylvania does not expand its Medicaid program in 2014 under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the impacts could be "devastating financially" for hospitals, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.

As the government gears up to expand Medicaid, 13 states have made or are about to make cuts to their Medicaid programs to offset budget pressures, according to a Kaiser Health News report.

Per capita costs of all healthcare services covered by Medicare and commercial insurers rose 6.05 percent year-over-year through May 2012, down slightly from last month's numbers, according to the Standard & Poor's Healthcare Economic Indices (pdf).

Mike Tretina has served as CFO of Mary Greeley Medical Center, a 220-bed, city-owned hospital in Ames, Iowa, since February 2009, and it has become one of the more vibrant community hospitals in the Midwest.

Net income at Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates dropped 24 percent, from $48.61 million in the second quarter of 2011 to $36.95 million in the most recent quarter, marking the second straight loss of its 2012 fiscal year.

Betsey Bayless, president and CEO of Phoenix-based Maricopa Integrated Health System, proposed to put a new tax on November's ballot, but the health system's board of directors struck it down, according to a report from The Republic.

Knox County Hospital in Barbourville, Ky., is officially in the hands of county officials after financial troubles have driven the hospital downward, according to a Times-Tribune report.

The article below is reprinted with permission from The Capital Issue, a quarterly newsletter published by Lancaster Pollard.For investment committee members it is important as fiduciaries to have an understanding of not only why the investment portfolio is structured the…