Georgia Non-Profit Hospitals Net Assets Up 79% Under Obama and the Affordable Care Act..... Michelle Nunn is Right to Support Medicaid Expansion

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	Jun 14	3,525		Dec 08	1,482	138%
Wellstar Health System	Marietta	GA	Mar 14	1,318		Jun 09	715	84%
Central Georgia Health System	Macon	GA	Jun 14	1,116		Sep 09	789	41%
Piedmont Health Care	Atlanta	GA	Dec 13	1,099		Jun 09	608	81%
Emory Healthcare	Atlanta	GA	Aug 13	753		Aug 09	570	32%
Northeast Georgia Health System	Gainesville	GA	Jun 14	699		Sep 09	307	128%
Phoebe Putney Health System	Albany	GA	Jul 14	670		Jul 09	481	39%
University Health (Richmond County)	Augusta	GA	Dec 13	566		Dec 08	317	79%
Archbold Medical Center	Thomasville	GA	Jun 14	498		Sep 09	364	37%
Gwinnett Hospital System	Duluth	GA	Jun 14	470		Jun 09	327	44%
Hamilton Health Care System	Dalton	GA	Jun 14	459		Sep 09	289	59%
Total all 11				11,173			6,249	79%

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 79% to $11.173 bil 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 has been and will continue to 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.