The National Business Group on Health and Towers Watson recently released their 17th annual survey (pdf) on employers and how they purchase value in healthcare, and this year's survey revealed several new and emerging trends.

Naya Kehayes, managing principal and CEO of Eveia Health Consulting and Management, recommends hospitals and other providers ask payors these six questions regarding the release of records and the right to audit and inspect within managed care contracts during negotiations.

Tampa, Fla.-based Shriners Hospitals for Children and health insurer Cigna have struck a deal that adds all 20 of Shriners' hospitals and 200 employed physicians across the country to the Cigna network.

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare recently cut hospital maternity payments for women on state welfare, and hospitals are now scrambling to make up for the lost funds, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.

Georgia may expand managed care for Medicaid beneficiaries with more for-profit health insurers as the state braces for a Medicaid deficit of $600 million within the next three years, according to a report from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

An Alabama decision to cut $68 million in Medicaid funding will impact not only the nearly one million beneficiaries who rely on state-funded healthcare, but also physicians and emergency rooms caring for those patients, according to a Times Daily report.

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

Jenny Barnett-Sarpalius, CFO of Catholic Health East in Newtown Square, Pa., oversees the financial planning and directing for the health system's 33 acute-care hospitals, and according to Fitch Ratings, CHE's financial outlook is stable for the foreseeable future.

Revenue cycle software firm Craneware recently received the Amerinet Supplier Performance Award for companies with services under $25 million.

Outside of labor costs, the supply chain eats the largest chunk of change out of a hospital's operating budget, and hospital CFOs are continually looking for ways to maximize savings and efficiency within this controllable process.