Friday, March 21, 2014

Georgia Non-Profit Hospitals Net Assets Up 65% Under Obama and the Affordable Care Act

From a review of the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), I found 11 Non-Profit Hospital Organizations headquartered in the State of Georgia with Net Assets (i.e. Financial Strength or Total Assets minus Total Liabilities) at the most recent date of more than $400 mil each.  Below here are the Net Assets of these 11 at both the most recent reported date and also at the Fiscal Year End (FYE) closest to the beginning of the Obama Administration:






FYE Balance Net




Most
Balance Sheet Assets



Most Recent
Sheet Net %



Recent Balance
Date Assets Change



Balance Sheet
Beginning Beginning During
City State Sheet Net
Obama Obama Obama
Hospital Organization HQs HQs Date Assets
Admin Admin Admin




mil $s

mil $s









Children's HealthCare Atlanta Atlanta GA  Sep 13      2,883
Dec 08       1,482 95%
Wellstar Health System Marietta GA Dec 13     1,319
Jun 09          715 84%
Piedmont Health Care Atlanta GA Dec 13     1,099
Jun 09          608 81%
Central Georgia Health System Macon GA  Mar 14      1,089
Sep 09          789 38%
Emory Healthcare Atlanta GA  Aug 13         753
Aug 09          570 32%
Phoebe Putney Health System Albany GA Jan 14        677
Jul 09          481 41%
Northeast Georgia Health System Gainesville GA Dec 13        660
Sep 09          307 115%
Archbold Medical Center Thomasville GA Dec 13        484
Sep 09          364 33%
University Health (Richmond County) Augusta GA Dec 12        481
Dec 08          317 52%
Gwinnett Hospital System Duluth GA Dec 13        473
Jun 09          327 45%
Hamilton Health Care System  Dalton GA  Sep 13         421
Sep 09          289 46%









Total all 11


   10,339

       6,249 65%

As you can see from the above chart, the Total Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 11 Georgia Non-Profit Hospital Organizations increased by a very impressive 65% to $10.339 bil for their average 4.34 years so far during the Obama Administration.

The lowest percentage of Net Asset growth of the 11 Hospitals was a very respectable up 32%.

Very positively impacting this very robust increase in the Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 11 Georgia Hospital Organizations were actions taken by both the Obama Administration and the US Fed to strengthen the US Financial Foundation which was severely damaged from the financial meltdown in late 2008.

In addition, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has also played a key role in this very impressive increase in Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 11 Georgia Non-Profit Hospital Organizations.

A remarkable thing is that these very robust increases in Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these Non-Profit Hospital Organizations occurred when these Non-Profit Hospitals were also playing very instrumental roles in the substantial annual percentage growth reduction of Total US Health Care Costs which occurred in each of the most recent three years under the ACA.

With such impressive Net Asset percentage increases of these 11 Georgia Hospitals, a key beneficiary of this will be Georgia citizens electing to buy health insurance on the Health Insurance Exchange.  This strong Net Asset growth gives these Georgia Hospitals the financial flexibility to moderate their pricing for hospital procedures in their negotiations with health insurance companies which ultimately determines what insurance premium prices are set at by health insurance companies on the Health Insurance Exchange.
 
Georgia Struggling Hospitals

There are so many Georgia Hospitals outside the Atlanta area which are struggling financially, posting year after year of Operating Losses.

In addition, there are also some Safety Net Hospitals in the Atlanta area which are generating large Operating Losses year after year.  To illustrate just one, from a review of their financial statements in EMMA, the Safety Net Hospital Grady Memorial Hospital registered Total Operating Losses of $248 mil for the 5 years ended December 2012.

But it's not just Grady which is really suffering financially.

From EMMA, I found 24 Georgia Non-Profit Hospital Organizations.  Fourteen of these 24, or 58% of them, generated Operating Income as a Percentage of Total Operating Revenues of less than 1.0% in their most recent fiscal year, as you can see from the below chart.  And 9 of these 24 Georgia Hospital Organizations posted Operating Losses in their most recent fiscal year.





Operating

Operating Total Income

City Income Operating (Loss)

HQs (Loss) Revenues Margin


mils $s mils $s %
Georgia Hospital Organizations










Southern Regional Health Riverdale           (20.6)              247 -8.3% Jun 2013
Hosp Authority Wilkes County Washington             (1.2)               15 -8.2% Apr 2013
Dekalb Regional Health Decatur           (27.0)              415 -6.5% Jun 2013
Hosp Authority Liberty County Hinesville             (2.2)               37 -5.9% Nov 2011
Hosp Authority Fulton-DeKalb County (Grady Memorial Hosp) Atlanta           (29.9)              705 -4.2% Dec 2012
Columbus Regional Healthcare Columbus           (17.5)              424 -4.1% Jun 2013
Hosp Authority Valdosta & Lowndes County Valdosta             (5.3)              293 -1.8% Sep 2013
Memorial Health Savannah             (5.9)              542 -1.1% Dec 2013
Phoebe Putney Health System Albany             (6.2)              669 -0.9% Jul 2013
University Health Richmond County Augusta                -                457 0.0% Dec 2012
Central Georgia Health System Macon              0.3              749 0.0% Sep 2013
Piedmont HealthCare Atlanta              1.2           1,597 0.1% Jun 2013
Floyd Healthcare Rome              2.0              328 0.6% Jun 2013
Athens Regional Health Athens              3.5              432 0.8% Sep 2013






Total all 14
        (108.8)           6,910 -1.6%

When you have 58% of your Georgia Hospital Organizations with these huge Operating Losses or extremely modest Operating Income, the responsible thing to do is to deal with them and not ignore them.  So far, the State of Georgia has irresponsibly decided to ignore them.

The best and only way to substantially strengthen the very poor Operating Results of these so many struggling Georgia Hospitals is for the State of Georgia to fully expand Medicaid.  This action will dramatically improve the profits of every single Georgia Hospital.

A key side benefit here to Georgia citizens is that the resultant profit enhancements and thus Net Asset enhancements of all of these Georgia Hospitals due to Medicaid expansion will give these Georgia Hospitals the financial flexibility to moderate their pricing for hospital and other health care procedures in their negotiations with health insurance companies which ultimately determines what insurance premium prices are set at by health insurance companies on the Health Insurance Exchange.