PHC4 | Financial Analysis 2011 | Volume Three

Financial Analysis 2011 - Volume Three - News Release

Contact: Gary Tuma, Communications Director
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PHC4 REPORT FINDS FINANCAL TRENDS MIXED AT NON-GENERAL ACUTE CARE HOSPITALS

Harrisburg, PA - November 16, 2012 - Non-general acute care facilities in Pennsylvania remained financially sound as a group during Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11), although some types of hospitals on average experienced improvement while other types had either a mixed or slightly declining status. The findings are included in Financial Analysis 2011, Volume Three, a report released today by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4). It contains financial data on four types of hospitals—rehabilitation, psychiatric, long-term acute care, and specialty—for the fiscal year that ended in 2011.

Rehabilitation hospitals showed the strongest overall gains. Their average statewide operating margin improved 3.76 percentage points, from 10.37% in FY 10 to 14.13% in FY11. Their average total margin also climbed 3.21 percentage points, from 10.65% to 13.86%.

Freestanding psychiatric hospitals’ average operating margin dropped 0.67 of a percentage point, from 5.90% in FY10 to 5.23% in FY11, but their average total margin rose 0.19 of a percentage point, from 4.55% to 4.74%. Long-term acute care hospitals saw small declines of less than one percent in both – 0.26 of a percentage point in average operating margin, from 6.23% to 5.97%, and 0.14 of a point in average total margin, from 4.93% to 4.79%.

“While the various categories of hospitals in this report showed mixed financial results in 2011 compared to the previous year, their overall profile indicates that they are generally stable. They remain in good position to continue providing important services to patients in Pennsylvania who rely on these facilities for particular types of medical treatment,” said Joe Martin, executive director of PHC4.

Financial Analysis 2011, Volume Three is the final report for 2011 in PHC4’s series on the financial health of Pennsylvania’s medical facilities. Volume One, released in May 2012, contained financial data on the state’s general acute care hospitals. Volume Two, released in September, concentrated on the state’s ambulatory surgery centers.

Following are other key findings from the FY11 Volume Three report:

Specialty hospitals provide unique types of services and their financial data is reported individually rather than in aggregate. All but one of the six specialty hospitals in the state had positive operating and total margins.
The number of patients receiving rehab care increased 2.8% and the number of rehab patient days increased 1.4% statewide.
Medical Assistance provided more than half (54.9%) of the patient revenue at Pennsylvania’s 19 psychiatric hospitals. Of all the patients that received inpatient psychiatric care at general acute care hospitals, 23.2% were Medical Assistance participants.
Long-term acute care facilities received 73.4% of their patient revenue from Medicare.

The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council is an independent state agency charged with collecting, analyzing and reporting information that can be used to improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care in Pennsylvania. Copies of Financial Analysis 2011, Volume Three, are free and available on the Council’s website at http://www.phc4.org.