Conflicting hospital performance data: who's right?

Take your pick. The hospital field's financial performance for 1989 was either: (a) bad; or (b) worse. The answer depends on whose performance report you're looking at. Three recently released reports by Van Kampen Merritt Investment Advisory Group, Health Care Investment Analysts Inc. and the Healthcare Financial Management Association disagree on just how bad hospitals' financial picture really is--although all agree that the situation is bleak at best.