Friday, October 17, 2014

Arkansas Non-Profit Hospitals Net Assets Up 45% Under Obama and the Affordable Care Act But Many Hospitals Are Struggling.....Mark Pryor Was Ahead of the Curve on Medicaid Expansion

From a review of the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), I found 3 Non-Profit Hospital Organizations headquartered in the State of Arkansas 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 3 Arkansas Hospital Organizations 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









Arkansas Children's Hospital Little Rock AR Jun 14           913
Jun 09           582 57%
University Arkansas Medical Sciences Little Rock AR Jun 13           784
Jun 09           642 22%
Baptist Health Little Rock AR Dec 13           737
Dec 08           449 64%









Total of all 3


        2,434

        1,673 45%

As you can see from the above chart, the Total Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 3 Arkansas Non-Profit Hospital Organizations increased by 45% to $2.434 bil so far during the Obama Administration.

Very positively impacting this increase in the Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 3 Arkansas 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 increase in Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 3 Arkansas Non-Profit Hospital Organizations.

A remarkable thing is that these 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 Net Asset increases of these 3 Arkansas Hospitals, a key beneficiary of this has been and will continue to be Arkansas citizens electing to buy health insurance on the Health Insurance Exchange.  This Net Asset growth gives these Arkansas 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.

Arkansas Struggling Hospitals

From EMMA, I found 11 Arkansas Non-Profit Hospital Organizations with Total Annual Operating Revenues of $10 mil or more.  All 11 of them have Operating Income as a Percentage of Total Operating Revenues below 5.0%.  Below here are the 6 of them with Operating Income as a Percentage of Total Operating Revenues below 1.0%:










Operating Most


Operating Total Income Recent

City Income Operating (Loss) Fiscal

HQs (Loss) Revenues Margin Year


mils $s mils $s % End
Arkansas Non-Profit Hospital Organizations









University Arkansas Medical Sciences Little Rock     (629.4)      1,819 -34.6% Jun 2013
Jefferson Hospital Association Pine Bluff         (4.4)         179 -2.5% Jun 2013
Baptist Health Little Rock       (16.1)         837 -1.9% Dec 2012
Conway Regional Medical Ctr Conway         (2.6)         135 -1.9% Dec 2012
Baxter Regional Health Mountain Home         (2.1)         152 -1.4% Dec 2013
Arkansas Methodist Hospital Paragould          0.3           64 0.5% Jun 2012






Total all 6
    (654.3)      3,186 -20.5%

As you can see from the above chart, the majority of Arkansas Hospitals are struggling financially.

By far the best and only way to solve this financially devastating problem is for the State of Arkansas to fully expand Medicaid, and after much debate, Arkansas has decided to do it.  Thus there should be a resultant massive inflow of Patient Revenues from Medicaid expansion, and thus all of these financially struggling Arkansas Hospitals should get substantial operating profit improvement and thus also a very nice Net Asset improvement.

And since Arkansas decided to expand Medicaid, one of the key beneficiaries of this resultant very healthy improvement in the Total Net Assets of all Arkansas Hospitals should be Arkansas citizens electing to buy health insurance on the Health Insurance Exchange.  This exceptional Net Asset growth from Medicaid expansion would give all Arkansas 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.