Hospitals emerging as powerful healthcare sales force

As community groups, brokers and insurers prepare to recruit people for enrollment in medical plans that go on sale in October under the health-care overhaul, nobody has a bigger financial stake in their success than hospitals. And few may work harder to sign up consumers for the health-insurance marketplaces than hospitals themselves. "This is a major project for the next year," said Craig Cooper, spokesman for Genesis Health System of Iowa, which hopes to enroll thousands of patients and substantially cut its $60 million annual bill for people who cannot afford to pay for care.