Hospitals flex lobbying muscle to bypass some cuts

For all the hits the hospital industry took in the final fiscal cliff deal, it managed to persuade Congress to avoid some of the biggest cuts that had been looming over it for years: cuts to outpatient payments, graduate medical education and "bad debt" payments. The hospitals aren't celebrating—Congress still cut the industry elsewhere, and hospital lobbyists insist those savings will be painful. But the fact that hospitals escaped the most widely expected cuts shows that the industry still holds real power with lawmakers.