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Profits at the more than 4,800 U.S. community hospitals continued their steady rise last year, hitting $76.1 billion, a 43% increase since 2011.
Total net revenue reached $979 billion in 2016--including nursing home results--and expenses were $903 billion, according to the 2018 edition of the American Hospital Association's Hospital Statistics report aggregating hospital financial and utilization trends, which was released Thursday. Hospitals' overall operating margin was 7.7% in 2016, compared with 7.9% in 2015. The annual report includes data on all 4,840 registered community hospitals in the U.S.--159 fewer than in 2012.
But data from consulting firm Deloitte show that around the same time, between 20% and 30% of hospitals experienced negative operating margins, revealing a significant divide between hospitals that are faring well and those struggling to stay afloat.
"If you drilled down and disaggregated the numbers, you'd see a lot of unevenness between the hospitals that are doing well and are being able to figure out how to generate profits and those that are struggling and in fact have closed," said Mary Crossley, a professor in the University of Pittsburgh...