More Medicare Reform, More Struggling Hospitals

“By 2021, this could lead to more than 194,000 jobs lost,” their study says.

With no plan laid out as yet for how the American Jobs Act would be funded, it’s hard to say with certainty what will happen next. A "more ambitious deficit plan" is set to be released today that would "not only cover the cost of the jobs bill, but stabilize our debt in the long run,” the President says.

From my perspective, though, if even steeper Medicare and Medicaid cuts find their way through Congress, healthcare leaders nationwide can expect to see struggling organizations pushed to the brink or even to bankruptcy, along with an even greater spate of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. The consolidation of healthcare is a certainty at this point. How swiftly it will takes place, however, depends entirely on the speed and size of the cuts lawmakers make to Medicare and Medicaid.