Non-profit hospital boards set the stage for the organization's finances, but misguided fiscal governance can lead a hospital toward financial ruin, according to a white paper from Lancaster Pollard (pdf).

Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems will offer $1 billion in senior notes due in 2020 in order to pay off other debt that is due in 2015.

Indianapolis-based health insurer WellPoint and Amerigroup, one of the largest Medicaid managed care insurers in the country, have agreed to terms in which WellPoint will acquire Amerigroup for $4.9 billion.

Employers will likely pay more if they shift group health plan benefits to federally-subsidized exchanges created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a new white paper.

Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals is trying to cut $859 million from the state Medicaid program, a reduction that may put some of the state's public and rural hospitals at risk of closure, according to a News Star report.

An infographic from Objective Health shows, on average, 300-bed hospitals using cost-to-charge ratios overestimate the profitability of orthopedic surgery by $1.2 million each year.

The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate approved an American Hospital Association-supported bill on Friday that includes changes to pension contribution rules, according to an AHA News Now report.

Healthcare spending for children grew faster than spending for adults between 2007 and 2010, and more than tripled the inflation rate from that time, according to a report (pdf) from the Health Care Cost Institute.

Fitch Ratings has released an analysis of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and its impact on hospitals, according to a Reuters report.

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