Maine Non-Profit Hospitals Net Assets Up 54% Under Obama and the Affordable Care Act

From a review of the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), I found 2 Non-Profit Hospital Organizations headquartered in the State of Maine with Net Assets (i.e. Financial Strength or Total Assets minus Total Liabilities) at the most recent date of more than $200 mil each.  Below here are the Net Assets of these 2 at both the most recent reported date and also at the Fiscal Year End (FYE) closest to the beginning of the Obama Administration where financial statements were available:

						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
Eastern Maine Healthcare System	Brewer	ME	Dec 13	666		Sep 10	427	56%
MaineGeneral Health	Gardiner	ME	Dec 13	273		Jun 09	184	48%
Total of both				939			611	54%

As you can see from the above chart, the Total Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 2 Maine Non-Profit Hospital Organizations increased by an impressive 54% for their short average 3.88 years during the Obama Administration.

In just the past 6 months, the Total Net Assets increase during the Obama Administration grew substantially from 36% to 54%.

Very positively impacting this very robust increase in the Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 2 Maine 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 impressive increase in Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 2 Maine 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 2 Maine Hospitals, a key beneficiary of this will be Maine citizens electing to buy health insurance on the Health Insurance Exchange.  This strong Net Asset growth gives these Maine 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.

Maine's Struggling Hospitals

Maine's 2 Huge Hospitals are doing just dandy.  From their most recent year's IRS Form 990s included in the State of Maine's Dept of Health website, Portland-based Maine Medical Center generated $78.4 mil of Bottom Line Income on $946 mil of Total Revenues (Profit Margin of 8.3%) and Bangor-based Eastern Maine Medical Center posted Bottom Line Profit of $62.6 mil on $1,254 mil of Total Revenues (Profit Margin of 5.0%).

But the other 33 Maine Hospitals filing their IRS Form 990s generated Total Bottom Line Profit of a very modest $10.7 mil on Total Revenues of $2,689 mil.....yielding a Profit Margin of a meager 0.4%.

Below here are the 25 Maine Hospitals posting Bottom Line Income Margins of 2.5% of Total Revenues or less:

				Bottom
		Bottom		Line
		Line		Profit
		Profit	Total	Margin
Maine Hospital	City	(Loss)	Revenues	%
		mil $s	mil $s
Mount Desert Island Hospital	Bar Harbor	(2.6)	52.5	-5.0%
Mercy Hospital	Portland	(10.1)	207.1	-4.9%
Parkview Adventist Medical Center	Brunswick	(1.5)	34.4	-4.4%
Penobscot Bay Medical Center	Rockport	(3.5)	106.5	-3.3%
Houlton Regional Hospital	Houlton	(1.4)	42.6	-3.3%
Down East Community Hospital	Machias	(0.7)	35.4	-2.0%
Calais Regional Hospital	Calais	(0.6)	33.8	-1.8%
St. Andrews Hospital & Healthcare Ctr	Boothbay Harbor	(0.2)	18.4	-1.1%
Central Maine Medical Center	Lewiston	(2.9)	328.1	-0.9%
St. Mary's Regional Medical Center	Lewiston	(1.2)	153.8	-0.8%
Aroostook Medical Center	Presque Isle	(1.6)	217.9	-0.7%
Rumford Hospital	Rumford	(0.2)	37.7	-0.5%
York Hospital	York	(0.1)	163.0	-0.1%
Franklin Memorial Hospital	Farmington	-	90.0	0.0%
Mid Coast Hospital	Brunswick	-	0.1	0.0%
Penobscot Valley Hospital	Lincoln	-	26.5	0.0%
Northern Maine Medical Center	Portland	0.1	46.2	0.2%
Inland Hospital	Waterville	0.7	121.7	0.6%
Sebasticook Valley Hospital	Pittsfield	0.8	57.5	1.4%
Redington-Fairview General Hospital	Skowhegan	1.2	73.6	1.6%
Blue Hill Memorial Hospital	Blue Hill	1.0	54.4	1.8%
Spring Harbor Hospital	Westbrook	0.7	32.2	2.2%
Southern Maine Medical Center	Biddeford	3.9	176.7	2.2%
Goodall Hospital	Sanford	2.2	91.7	2.4%
Millinocket Regional Hospital	Millinocket	0.7	28.2	2.5%
Total all 25		(15.3)	2,230.0	-0.7%

When you have a very high percentage of your State's Hospitals struggling financially like this, the responsible thing to do is to deal with this major problem and not ignore it.  So far, the State of Maine has decided to ignore it.

The best and only way to substantially strengthen these struggling Maine Hospitals is for the State of Maine to fully expand Medicaid.

A key side benefit to Maine citizens of Maine Medicaid expansion is that the resultant profit enhancements and thus Net Asset enhancements to all of Maine's Hospitals would give them 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.