The Wall Street Journal on Thursday examined two New York hospitals that boosted revenue by providing care to low-income populations. Summaries appear below.

• "How a Hospital Stumbled Across an Rx for Medicaid": The Journal on Thursday examined how Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City used a year-long preventive care heart program for low-income patients to persuade the state to offer higher Medicaid reimbursement rates at its outpatient clinic. The program could "offer a way to help ease the U.S.'s seemingly intractable health care crisis," according to the Journal. Under the program, the hospital provides preventive care at no cost to low-income East Harlem residents in exchange for higher Medicaid reimbursement rates at its outpatient clinic. The hospital assumes that its inpatient beds will be filled with better-paying patients, making up for lost Medicaid revenue. For its part, the state "hopes the program will help reduce its ballooning Medicaid expenditures by cutting down on expensive trips" to the emergency department, the Journal reports. James Tallon, president of the United Hospital Fund, said reducing hospital rates is "the Holy Grail of Medicaid cost savings" (Carreyrou, Wall Street Journal, 6/22).
  
  
• "How a Harlem Hospital Healed Itself": The Journal on Thursday also examined how Harlem-based North General Hospital went from a $20 million revenue loss in 2003 to a $2.6 million surplus in 2005 due to a number of measures geared toward "treating ailments that afflicted Harlem residents in high rates." The hospital struck an alliance with Mount Sinai under which North General pays $2.7 million annually for access to 16 Mount Sinai surgeons who perform vascular surgery, lung biopsies and other specialized procedures, the Journal reports. Mount Sinai also provides North General with access to specialists in urology, rheumatology, radiology and pediatric psychiatry. North General underwent several other measures to boost revenue, including adding ambulatory services and expanding its HIV/AIDS center. The hospital also opened a Women's Health Center after recognizing that "infant mortality is a health problem that looms large in the Harlem community," the Journal reports (Gerena-Morales, Wall Street Journal, 6/22).