Nonprofit Hospitals Face Debt Trouble

The growing inability of patients to pay Medicaid bills, operating losses, and other financial factors are putting nonprofit health organizations at greater risk of defaulting on their loans, reports The Wall Street Journal.

These factors, combined with a complex system of issuing debt, have created a situation leading to the downgrading of the credit rating of many nonprofit hospital systems in recent months, the newspaper reports. One observer tells the Journal that this may result in nonprofit hospital systems defaulting in the first or second quarter of 2009.

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