Hospital margins fell from positive 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to negative 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a report from the American Hospital Association and the Colorado Hospital Association.

Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, N.C., reported a net loss of more than $551 million for 2008; comparatively, the system gained $280 million in 2007, according to a report in the Charlotte Business Journal.

St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic, N.J., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to a report by the South Bergenite.

East Connecticut Health Network canceled a deal to purchase Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs, Conn., according to a report by the Hartford Courant.

By the beginning of 2010, U.S. hospitals and other healthcare providers will face something their colleagues in California, Florida and New York slogged through for three years, a new force in regulatory oversight called Recovery Audit Contractors.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue proposed an $80.7 million, or 10 percent, cut in state Medicaid reimbursements to Georgia hospitals, according to a report by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

The University of Connecticut Medical Center in Farmington asked the state for $475 million to build a new facility, according to a report by CBS affiliate Eyewitness 3 News.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell proposed a $20 million budget cut to hospitals that disproportionately serve Medicaid patients and the uninsured poor, according to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A report by Thomas Reuters Healthcare found that 50 percent of hospitals in the United States lost money in the third quarter of 2008, according to a Thomas Reuters news release.

Here are statistics on the average percentage of insurance coverage by type held by patients visiting nonprofit hospitals, by type of insurance, according to the IRS's Exempt Organizations Hospital Compliance Project Final Report.