1. Hospital billing trick saddles the ill with unexpected costs

Beginning in August all hospitals, including those in the Toledo area, will be required to notify Medicare patients if they are considered on outpatient observation status after being hospitalized more than 24 hours.

Observation status is a confusing concept. It allows Medicare patients to be admitted, treated the same as any other patient by the hospital staff, but be classified as an outpatient — even after two days or more of care.

It began as a way to keep people in the emergency department a little longer to decide if their condition was severe enough for hospital admission.

Observation status has now morphed into an accounting trick to help the government save health-care dollars, said Dr. Ann Sheehy, division head of the Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin Hospital. READ MORE

2. Sweet spot found in Oak Openings

About once a week, you can find Eric Shanteau lying in a swath of pine needles soaking in the serenity of an off-trail wooded area at Oak Openings Preserve Metropark.

Or you might find him there with his iPhone 6 camera focused on the top of the red pines that gently sway 75 feet in the air, taking one of many shots he has snapped of “The Spot” since discovering it a few years ago.

But you’ll only find him if you know where The Spot is. Or even what it is.

“It’s like nothing else around here that I have ever seen,” said Shanteau, 38, of Maumee. “It’s almost as though I’m on vacation or on an adventure or taking this hike, but then again, I’m 10 minutes from my house. It’s like an escape for me. … You can lay down on your back and look up and it’s amazing how the trees sway and you can hear the noise and see how tall they are. You just completely remove yourself from Ohio for a moment.”

The Spot is about 4 acres of land in the middle of Oak Openings where 1,200 red pine trees were planted more than 60 years ago as a way to halt soil erosion. It has inspired a mammoth social media following since Shanteau — a graphic artist who lists mobile photography as a hobby — discovered it four years ago and posted a photo on Instagram. READ MORE

3.  UT, BGSU grads celebrate spring commencement

The University of Toledo’s graduates received a challenge Saturday afternoon to go into the world and “become a champion for positive social change.”

Johnnetta Cole, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, gave the commencement address to UT’s soon-to-be graduates, urging students to take on poverty, hunger, climate change, or any other cause that speaks to them.

During four springtime ceremonies at BGSU on Saturday, 2,287 students graduated, including 1,768 with bachelor’s degrees, 76 with associate’s degrees, 404 with master’s degrees, and 20 with doctoral degrees. Among the total graduates, 611 graduated with honors for a qualifying grade-point average.

Among the May classes were 88 international students representing 25 countries.

Students ranged in age from 19 to 60, according to university records. READ MORE

4. Venture investment up in Ohio, Michigan

Venture capital funds in Ohio invested $41 into seven companies, and in Michigan $79 million was invested into 13 companies in the first three months of this year, with the two states ranking 21st and 14th among all states, respectively.

Such funding in Ohio in the past three years has amounted to $848 million in 218 deals, surpassed only by Illinois among Great Lakes states, according to the quarterly MoneyTree report from accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association.

That type of funding amounted to $741 million in 193 deals in Michigan during that period.

What’s encouraging, say experts, is that the levels of venture capital funding around the Great Lakes looks to be growing slowly but surely, a positive development for home-grown companies in need of local seed money or second rounds of funding so that they don’t have to leave the state in order to grow. READ MORE

5. Secor Building may return to luxury roots

The Secor Building in downtown Toledo could again be the Hotel Secor.

The owner of the 10-story building, which opened in 1908 as the city’s premier hotel, is hoping to tap into Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits for redevelopment into a 144-room luxury hotel.

Owner Jim Zaleski said he hopes to obtain $5 million in historic preservation tax credits for the nearly $20 million redevelopment project.

The 138,000-square-foot building at Jefferson Avenue and Superior Street has served a wide range of tenants since it was acquired in 1999 by Mr. Zaleski and a former partner. READ MORE

First Published May 9, 2016, 1:26 p.m.