Georgia Hospital Profits Will Sharply Increase If Medicaid Is Expanded

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Hospital Organizations' both future Hospital Operating Income and Bottom Line Income will be bolstered very robustly due to many of the Uninsured getting insurance and also due to the many of the Underinsured getting much better insurance.

And for Hospital Organizations operating hospitals in States electing to Expand Medicaid, this future Profit growth will be exceptionally robust.

There are specifically two items which will drive higher Hospital Organization profits due to the ACA and also especially due to States electing the Expansion of Medicaid.

First, there is the Operating Statement Provision for Bad Debts' earnings charge which will be dramatically reduced due to the substantially better insurance situation of hospital patients.  This Provision for Bad Debts' earnings charge is usually a separate report line on a Hospital Organization's audited Operating Statement.

And second, there is the Operating Statement Uncompensated Charity Care Costs' earnings charge for the amounts hospitals spend on charity care which will also be dramatically reduced.  This Estimated Costs for Uncompensated Charity Care is disclosed in a Hospital Organization's footnotes which accompany its audited financial statements.

So what about the amounts of these two items?  Well, they are very large, especially when compared to the related Hospital Operating Income.

From a review of the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), below here are the most recent audited year's Provision for Bad Debts and Uncompensated Charity Care Costs for the 9 Georgia Non-Profit Hospital Organizations which had Net Assets above $400 mil currently.  Children's Health Care Atlanta was not included below:

				One Year	One
			One Year	Estimated	Year	One
		Most	Provision	Cost of	Total	Year
		Recent	For	Uncompensated	Earnings	Hospital
		Annual	Bad	Charity	Charge	Operating
		FYE	Debts	Care	of Both	Income
			mils $s	mils $s	mils $s	mils $s
Georgia Hospital Organizations
Wellstar Health System		Jun 2012	185	99	284	97
Piedmont Health Care		Jun 2012	125	23	148	127
Gwinett Hospital System		Jun 2012	108	34	142	33
Northeast Georgia Health System		Sep 2012	77	27	104	44
Central Georgia Health System		Sep 2012	45	25	70	15
Phoebe Putney Health System		Jul 2012	44	24	68	15
Archbold Medical Center		Sep 2012	53	14	67	15
Hamilton Health Care System		Sep 2012	33	14	47	48
University Health (Richmond County)		Dec 2012	22	24	46	(6)
Total all 9			692	284	976	388
Provision for Bad Debts						692
Uncompensated Charity Care Costs						284
Operating Income Excluding Bad Debts and Uncompensated Charity Care Costs						1,364

So, these 9 Georgia Non-Profit Hospital Organizations had Audited Total Hospital Operating Income of $388 mi1 in the most recent fiscal year audited.  Driving down this $388 mil Total Hospital Operating Income were Total Provisions for Bad Debts of $692 mil and Total Costs of Uncompensated Charity Care of another $284 mil.  Thus, exclusive of these two earnings charges, Total Hospital Operating Income would have been $1.364 bil, which is $976 mil higher than the reported $388 mil.
 
Granted these two earnings charges will not be totally eliminated with the ACA and in combination with States electing to Expand Medicaid, but a substantial amount of these two earnings charges will be eliminated, and especially so if States elect to Expand Medicaid, which is the predominant driver of these two earnings charges being very substantially reduced.

And the above two large earnings charges are just for one year.

I really don't understand how a financially savvy State Governor and financially savvy State Legislatures could possibly vote to not Expand Medicaid.  The US Government is 100% funding the first three years of Medicaid Expansion.

Further, if Medicaid is Expanded, the Hospital Organizations will be getting these just huge increases in their annual earnings in each future year, which will ultimately accrue to the benefit of State citizens when they are hospitalized and will be paying much lower hospital charges.  It will also cut the US Debt markedly since the US Government is paying for a good chunk of these hospitalization charges.

I really can't understand why some State Governors and State Legislators would want to financially hammer their State Hospital Organizations, their State citizens and the US Government Debt load like this.

Very financially astute Republican State Governors like Ohio's John Kasich and Florida's Rick Scott, who also has a keen insight on this issue since he was formerly a CEO of a large hospital organization, already have this all figured out.  And so has Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer.  And so has the perceptive US stock market which has moved up dramatically the market prices of the common stocks of the Publicly-Held Hospital Organizations.