Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Nevada Hospital Net Assets Up 25% Under Obama and the Affordable Care Act

From a review of the excellent Nevada Dept of Health and Human Services website, I found 4 individual Hospital Organizations headquartered in the State of Nevada with Net Assets (i.e. Financial Strength or Total Assets minus Total Liabilities) at the most recent date reported of more than $200 mil each.  Below here are the Net Assets of these 4 individual Nevada Hospitals as well as of all Nevada Hospitals combined in both the 4th Quarter 2013 and also in the 1st Quarter 2009 thus during pretty much the entire Obama Administration:





Net





Assets





%




Change



Net Net During



Assets Assets Obama
Nevada Hospital City/County State 4Q 2013 1Q 2013 Admin



mil $s mil $s
Hospitals With Net Assets > $200 Mil




Summerlin Hospital Medical Center Clark County NV           427           274 56%
Valley Hospital Medical Center Clark County NV           323           322 0%
St Rose Dominican-Siena Campus Clark County NV           282           156 81%
Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital Rural NV           270             94 187%






Total all 4 with Net Assets > $200

       1,302           846 54%






All Other Hospitals with Net Assets<$200 mil Various NV           785           817 -4%






Nevada State Total

       2,087        1,663 25%

As you can see from the above chart, the Total Net Assets (Financial Strength) of all Nevada Hospitals combined increased by 25% during the Obama Administration.

University Medical Center of Southern Nevada

There are many Hospitals in Nevada which are struggling financially, but none more so than the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada.

The University Medical Center of Southern Nevada generated Operating Losses of $50 mil in 2013, $108 mil in 2011, $81 mil in 2010 and $92 mil in 2009, for Total Operating Losses of $331 mil in those 4 years.

Nevada's So Many Severely Struggling Hospitals

The excellent Nevada Dept of Health and Human Services website shows key financial data for each Nevada Hospital for each of the years 2009 through 2013.  In the chart below are the Total Operating Income (Loss) and Total Operating Revenues of all Nevada Hospitals along with the related Percentage Operating Margin for each of these 5 years:



Nevada



Total

Nevada
Operating

Total Nevada Income

Operating Total (Loss)

Income Operating  Margin
Year (Loss) Revenues %

mil $s mil $s




2013 36.5             4,668 0.8%
2012 -6.7             4,593 -0.1%
2011 -44.8             4,362 -1.0%
2010 -100.3             4,198 -2.4%
2009 -107.6             4,110 -2.6%




5 Year Total -222.9           21,931 -1.0%

The only good thing I can say about the above numbers is that they are improving.  When all of a State's Hospitals combined lose $223 mil over the most recent 5 years, you have a very serious health care delivery problem.  This is very depressing and clearly says that Nevada Hospitals have just been crushed financially starting with the 2008 financial meltdown and still desperately need help.

On the very positive side, the State of Nevada has elected to fully expand Medicaid, which substantially improves the profitability and thus also the Net Assets of all Nevada's Hospitals, particularly the ones that are struggling financially.  When you combine this with the fact that all of Nevada's Hospitals have increased their Net Assets by 25% during the Obama Administration, a key beneficiary here will also be Nevada citizens electing to buy health insurance on the Health Insurance Exchange.  This very solid Net Asset growth gives all of these Nevada 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.