Reimbursement cut affects Lafayette-based home health company: Home health provider LHC Group says its first-quarter profit dropped 34% as the company absorbed a cut in Medicare reimbursements. For the three months ending March 31, Lafayette-based LHC earned $7.7 million, or 42 cents per share, compared with a year-ago profit in the first quarter of $11.7 million, or 64 cents per share. Revenue rose from $145.2 million to $161.8 million, but costs for the rapidly expanding company rose from $74 million to $89 million. Recently, Medicare cut reimbursement rates for providers such as LHC by 5.2%. LHC reaffirmed its 2011 guidance, calling for earnings to range from $2.15 to $2.25 per share, along with revenue in the range of $2.15 to $2.25.
‘Twilight’ effect: Jacob continued a 12-year run as the most popular name for boys in 2010, according to the Social Security Administration’s list of the 1,000 most popular baby names, released today. Isabella was the most popular name for girls for the second year. The wildly popular Twilight books and movies have main characters with the names Isabella and Jacob. Nearly 22,000 boys were named Jacob in 2010, followed by Ethan, Michael, Jayden and William. Nearly 23,000 girls were named Isabella, followed by Sophia, Emma, Olivia and Ava.
