Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Ariz., Hospitals See New Financial Challenges Despite Medicaid Expansion
Operating margins at Arizona hospitals are declining despite a recent financial boost they got when the state expanded its Medicaid program, new data show. While uncompensated care in Arizona hospitals has dropped by one-third since the Medicaid expansion, other expenses are up, officials say. (Innes, 3/29)
Large nonprofits, particularly health-care systems, are facing again a potential gutting of the state tax refund they receive on purchases. North Carolina Senate Bill 700 would reduce sharply the sales tax refund amount that a nonprofit or not-for-profit could receive in a fiscal year from $31.7 million to $70,370. (Craver, 3/29)
Prime Healthcare Services' lawyer took exception to Attorney General Kamala Harris' remarks that she might not subject others vying for a chance to buy the financially distressed Daughters of Charity Health System to the same "onerous" and "unprecedented" conditions that led Prime to back out of its $843 million bid. (3/29)
The new Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital doesn't open until June, but that's hard to tell with all the people darting in and out of buildings at the South Los Angeles medical facility. ... "This place has a heartbeat," says Dr. Mark Ghaly, deputy director for community health and integrated programs for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. "The heartbeat is not the hospital." The focus of medical care, Ghaly argues, has shifted away from hospitals. And with its emphasis on preventive treatments, with its new urgent-care center and outpatient and public health clinics, the new MLK campus, he says, provides a state-of-the-art answer to the question: How do you build a hospital in 2015? (Karlamangla, 3/28)
