New York Non-Profit Hospital Organizations Net Income Only 6.0% of Revenues in 2013

From a review of audited annual financial statements shown at Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), I found 10 New York State Non-Profit Hospital Organizations with Net Assets above $400 mil each and which have or will have soon audited financial statements in each of the most recent 4 years.

These 10 New York Non-Profit Hospital Organizations generated Total Bottom Line Net Income of a modest 6.0% of Total Operating Revenues in 2013 and only a slightly higher 6.6% in 2012.

Seven of the 10 New York Non-Profit Hospital Organizations posted Bottom Line Profit Margins of under 5.6% each in 2013.

It should be pointed out that these are modest Bottom Line Profits of the largest, most financially strong New York Hospital Organizations which even include very robust Investment Returns due to the hot stock market in both 2013 and in late 2012, and thus on an Operating Income (Loss) basis, these Profits are substantially lower in both 2013 and in 2012.

To illustrate this latter point, New York and Presbyterian Hospital had Total Investment Returns of $154 mil in 2013 included in Non-Operating Income, which was equal to 76% of its Total Operating Income of $202 mil also in 2013.

As a second illustration, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center posted Total Investment Returns of $293 mil in 2013 included in Non-Operating Income, which substantially exceeded its Total Operating Income of $178 mil also in 2013.

And as a third illustration, North Shore Long Island Jewish Health posted Total Investment Returns of $206 mil in 2013 included in Non-Operating Income, which more than doubled its Total Operating Income of $84 mil also in 2013.
 
Below are the Bottom Line Net Income and Total Operating Revenues for each of these 10 New York Non-Profit Hospital Organizations for both 2013 and 2012:

		Most	2013				2012
		Recent	Bottom	2013	2013		Bottom	2012	2012
		Fiscal	Line	Total	Net		Line	Total	Net
		Year	Net	Operating	Income		Net	Operating	Income
New York Hospital Organ	City HQs	End	Income	Revenues	Margin		Income	Revenues	Margin
			mil $s	mil $s	%		mil $s	mil $s	%
Non-Profit Hospitals
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	New York	Dec 13	503	3,025	16.6%		295	2,789	10.6%
Mount Sinai Hospital	New York	Dec 13	163	1,914	8.5%		178	1,773	10.0%
New York and Presbyterian Hospital	New York	Dec 13	356	4,265	8.3%		326	3,975	8.2%
Icahn School Medicine Mount Sinai	New York	Dec 12	89	1,625	5.5%		119	1,578	7.5%
Montefiore Medical Center	New York	Dec 13	182	3,346	5.4%		163	3,084	5.3%
Hospital for Special Surgery	New York	Dec 13	39	833	4.7%		34	766	4.4%
North Shore Long Island Jewish Health	Great Neck	Dec 13	252	7,002	3.6%		262	6,607	4.0%
Catholic Health Services Long Island	Rockville Centre	Dec 13	45	2,096	2.1%		53	2,003	2.6%
Albany Medical Center	Albany	Dec 13	13	1,014	1.3%		31	935	3.3%
NYU Hospitals Center	New York	Aug 13	(29)	1,948	-1.5%		219	1,989	11.0%
Total all 10			1,613	27,068	6.0%		1,680	25,499	6.6%

More than anything, Hospital Patient Charges drive US Health Care Costs.  When you view a typical US Hospital bill for patient services, it is easy to understand why US Health Care Costs are so much higher than that in any other major country.

One reason US Hospital bills are so high is that many of the larger Non-Profit Hospitals Systems set their pricing for hospital procedures so that they make a lot of money and retain it tax free, further increasing their already massive treasure chest of Investments in Equity and Debt Securities, which also grow tax free.

Thus, US Hospitals are playing a key role in determining ultimately whether health insurance premiums are fairly priced on the health insurance exchanges.

Well, as you can see from the above very modest profit amounts along with my earlier discussion of them, New York is one State whose large Non-Profit Hospital Organizations are not being greedy in generating high profits.

With New York Hospitals generating such modest profits, a key beneficiary will be New York citizens buying health insurance on the Health Insurance Exchange.  New York Hospitals, for the most part, have not been nor will they be baking in excessive Hospital profits demands in their negotiations with health insurance companies on pricing for hospital procedures which ultimately determines what insurance premiums are set by health insurance companies on the Health Insurance Exchange. 

Another factor which will help keep insurance premium prices reasonable in the Health Insurance Exchange is that New York has wisely elected to expand Medicaid.  This will increase nearly all New York Hospital profits substantially and thus permit New York Hospitals to be even more reasonable in their negotiations with health insurance companies on pricing for hospital and other health care procedures which ultimately drives what health insurance premiums are set at by health insurers on the Health Insurance Exchange.