LaRay Brown, a senior vice president for New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, estimates there are 300 patients currently residing in the city’s public hospitals who are either well enough to be discharged or would benefit more from specialized care, the New York Times reports.

Reason: Under state law, public hospitals cannot discharge patients without proper housing.

Each of these patients, many of whom are illegal immigrants, cost hospitals about $100,000 per year. Thing is, many would be better off in other types of facilities, such as nursing homes, which would cost just $20,000, Brown says. While Medicaid often covers emergency care for elderly patients or illegal immigrants, it won’t cover continued care, so the hospitals and taxpayers are footing the bill.

And finding a solution is challenging. One option involves hospitals covering the cost to admit these patients to nursing homes or specialized care facilities. However, these facilities are reluctant to take patients without medical insurance for fear of missing out on reimbursements, hospital executives say.

Other issues: Hospitals don’t want to appear callous by trying to get rid of these patients, and elected officials are wary of trying to get federal programs to reimburse hospitals for their care for fear of being seen as encouraging illegal immigration, according to the New York Times story.

A new report by federal analysts found that the reduced spending in 2010 (the last year for which data is available) was due to a combination of high unemployment, lower household income, a reduction in the number of people with private insurance and some folks opting to skip needed care (or choose cheaper options) because they simply couldn’t afford the preferred treatment.

According to the report by CMS, in 2010, health spending grew just 3.9%, only 0.1 percentage point faster than 2009. Total health spending in 2010 was $2.6 trillion, about $8,402 per person. To date, 2009-2010 had the slowest rate of growth of any two-year period in the 51 years this data has been tracked.

More troubling, although this rate is “slowing,” health spending still grew exceptionally faster than the rest of the economy. About 45% of the spending was shouldered by government agencies at all levels — up from 41% in 2009. That increase is largely the result of growing Medicaid enrollment and enhanced federal matching rates from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

At the household level, spending was up 2.8% in 2010. One-third of such spending was employee contributions to private health insurance. People weren’t necessarily getting more for their money though. A significant portion of the increased spending was due to higher cost-sharing requirements for some employees, a trend toward plans with higher deductibles and/or co-payments, and many people having to pay out-of-pocket for health care after losing their health insurance coverage.

The need for outpatient facilities in particular is expected to increase as the industry adapts to the ongoing health reform and a move toward accountable care organizations. Outpatient facilities generally provide more access at the local level, and at a lower-cost care overall.

Another driver behind that activity is an expected increase in mergers and acquisitions. The company said that the anticipated activity — of both hospital mergers and the acquisition of physician practices — will create real estate dilemmas for the organizations involved.

• Most organizations (82.3%) reported that all of their medical directors have contracts. Of those contracts, the majority, (72.9%) are for just one year — the fourth year in a row that number has increased.

• Wages are 3.9% higher on average for independently contracted medical directors to account for foregone taxes, benefits and insurance payments.

• The number of organizations offering performance bonuses to medical directors was up 4.3percentage points from 2010, to 26.9%.

Median hourly rates increased by an average 3.0% from 2010 to 2011.

The data is intended to help health care organizations make compensation decisions and learn more about current market trends. For more detail, visit IHS’ survey page.

According to prosecutors, between October 2007 and April 2011, Morrison transferred funds from Munson’s Regional Healthcare Foundation’s bank account to an account for her former business. She used the money for such necessitates as buying dozens of boxes of trading cards.

Morrison is required to forfeit any funds and goods she acquired from the crime. So far, over $36,000 has already been seized from various bank accounts.

The suit was filed by the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association in the U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

The suit claims that the 5% rate cut will limit patient access to health care providers in violation of federal law that requires Medicaid payments to hospitals be sufficient to ensure “that beneficiaries have equal access to services.”

The Medicaid rate cut is expected to save the state $95 million this year.

The report, State Trends in Premiums and Deductibles, 2003-2010, found that 62% of people live in states where health insurance premiums are equal to 20% or more of earnings for a middle income worker under 65.

On average, premiums for an employer-sponsored family plan increased by 50% between 2003 and 2010, to $13,871 annually. Even in the five “lowest-cost” states, premiums ranged between $11,379 and $12,409.

And employers aren’t picking up as much of the cost anymore. Since 2003, the employee-paid portion of health insurance has increased by 63% — far more than incomes have risen, and a higher proportion of the total cost.

But workers aren’t getting more for their money — they’re getting less. According to the report, only 52% of employees had a deductible in 2003; by 2010, it was 74%. And the size of the average per-person deductible has increased by a whopping 98% over the same time period.

The committee was set up to find a compromise on how to cut $1.2 trillion in federal spending over the next decade. Failure to do so — which the committee officially announced on Nov. 21 — means the back up plan of “sequestration” takes effect. That means automatic cuts of that $1.2 trillion is cut from domestic and defense programs starting with 2013 spending.

Most directly affecting the health industry are planned cuts to Medicare — capped at 2%. Understandably, providers are worried about the effect that’ll have on their bottom lines.

The American Medical Association released a statement by President Peter W. Carmel, M.D., noting that cuts triggered by sequestration, along with the planned Jan. 1 physician payment cut of 27%, mean physicians may be forced to limit the number of Medicare patients they serve.

Similarly, the American Hospital Association’s statement warned that the cuts to Medicare will affect not just the elderly and disabled who rely on Medicare but their families who have to pick up the slack, as well as hospitals’ ability to provide essential services. The statement is available here (downloadable PDF).

“Sequestration means that arbitrary reductions in resources for patient care under Medicare will now be set to take effect under the law for the remainder of the decade,” Richard Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association (PDF), said in a statement. “This will have an impact not just on the elderly and disabled beneficiaries of the program, but on their families,” he continued. “It will also have an impact on the ability of hospitals to provide essential public services to the communities they serve given the impact that Medicare has on the entire healthcare system. It is likely that Congress will reconsider whether this approach should take effect in January 2013 as required under current law.”

Hospitals that are for-profit, that serve higher rates of blacks, and/or serve higher numbers of Medicaid patients are far more likely to close.

The researchers looked at data from California hospitals during the period from1998-2008. Their report is available for download here.

According to the researchers, for every 10% increase in black patients served by a hospital, the risk of closing the emergency department increased by a whopping 40%. For every 10% increase in Medicaid patients, the risk jumped 17%.

For-profit hospitals in general had a 65% higher chance of closing their emergency departments than non-profits.

The study is especially troubling since emergency departments are increasingly the only provider of preventive care — especially in the poorer neighborhoods where they’re more likely to close.

That’s the message from a recent study from Medical Liability Monitor. The study of rates from 40 insurance companies found that 55% of rates stayed flat compared to last year.

Among those that did change, however, most went down for the sixth year in a row, with 90% decreasing between 0.1% and 9.9%.

Changes varied based on geography, ranging from a 3% increase in New Hampshire to an 11.4% drop in Mississippi.

The actual rates paid may have decreased even more as more insurance companies have started offering schedule credits — 11% of companies introduced new credits this year, and 20% did so last year. Overall, 30% of companies increased the amount of credits they offered this year, and none reported a decrease.

What’s behind the drops in rates? The report attributes the trend largely to more doctors joining Accountable Care Organizations, more doctors becoming employees of larger hospitals and practices, and other initiatives promoted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.