Earlier today, we released our quarterly report on the financial performance of Massachusetts hospitals. This edition includes the first three quarters of fiscal year 2010.
Overall, hospitals did well. More than three-fourths of the Commonwealth’s sixty-five acute hospitals earned a profit during the period, and the number of hospitals with non-operating losses (17%) fell by half from fiscal year 2009 (34%). The median total margin – the amount of surplus relative to a hospital’s revenue – rose to 2.5%.
As the primary hospital monitoring agency in the state, DHCFP collects annual and quarterly data that allow us to monitor the financial health of Massachusetts’ hospitals. Hospitals are an integral part of our health care system, an engine of economic growth in this state, and often a significant employer in the community. Therefore, it is critical that we understand how each hospital is performing.
Because Massachusetts hospitals are so different – from large teaching hospitals to small critical-access hospitals – we review how peer groups of teaching hospitals, community hospitals, and disproportionate share hospitals, serving predominately low-income government-sponsored populations, perform relative to each other. For instance, the agency conducts geographic analyses to identify regional differences in profitability.
In addition to the quarterly reports, we produce individual hospital fact sheets that allow for a much finer analysis of the data. These fact sheets include several years of financial information and other indicators not found in the reports.
To view the reports and the fact sheets, visit our website at www.mass.gov/dhcfp.
Good post, I will be waiting fot the financial health of hospitals in 2011.
Posted by: Hospitals | November 10, 2011 at 08:42 AM