The Hall Family Foundation has donated $43 million to a massive expansion project by Kansas City, MO-based Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics. The $800 million expansion at Children's Mercy will more than double the size of its complex and increase its presence in the Kansas City-area suburbs. The Hall Foundation gift is the largest in the hospital's 110-year history, officials said.
Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle has proposed a deal to buy a neighboring condominium complex for $93 million as part of an expansion project. The deal is contingent on the state Legislature passing a law allowing the sale of such a condo complex.
An Eastern Kentucky hospital that hired the state's former Gov. Ernie Fletcher as a consultant got a $3.4 million state settlement in the final weeks of the Fletcher administration for disputed Medicaid claims. Records from the state Department for Medicaid Services show that Kentucky agreed to pay $3,446,836 in exchange for Pikeville Medical Center dropping its claims for additional reimbursement.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the San Francisco healthcare program for the uninsured can continue while a lawsuit challenging the initiative is pending. The initiative requires companies with at least 20 workers to provide health coverage or pay the city a fee to help offset the program's estimated price tag. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association sued, arguing that the mandatory contributions the city imposed had violated federal law and placed a burden on members.
Brentwood, TN-based hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc. has set 2008 profit guidance within range of Wall Street expectations, but guided for weaker-than- expected revenue. Community Health expects full-year profit from continuing operations between $2.25 and $2.45 per share on revenue between $11 billion and $11.3 billion. Analysts expect profit of $2.30 per share on revenue of $11.56 billion.
Healthcare spending in the United States surpassed $2 trillion for 2007. The ominous prediction is that if allowed to proceed unchecked, spending will balloon to more than $4 trillion by 2016 or almost 20% of the gross domestic product. Put in an international perspective, we spend more than twice what Germany, France, Canada or Australia do and yet most of our health outcomes are far inferior to theirs. New York state's bill for healthcare, extrapolated from the national numbers, would have been approximately $140 billion in 2007 and could inflate to over $280 billion by 2016.