St. Mary's Health and Deaconess Health are both in Evansville.
Indiana University Health, St. Vincent Health and Community Health Network are all in Indianapolis, IN which is 170 miles from Evansville.
Fransican Alliance is in Mishawaka, IN which is 320 miles from Evansville.
Baptist Healthcare System, Norton Hospital, Jewish Hospital and the University of Louisville Hospital are all in Louisville, KY which is only 120 miles from Evansville.
HCA, Vanderbilt Health, Community Health Systems, LifePoint Hospitals and Amsurg are all located in the Nashville, TN Metro area which is only 150 miles from Evansville.
The massive Ascension Health, BJC Healthcare, Mercy Health and SSM Health Care are all in the St. Louis, MO Metro area which is only 170 miles from Evansville.
Mercy Health ..... formerly, Catholic Health Partners ..... is in Cincinnati which is only 220 miles from Evansville.
Hospital Sisters Health System is in Springfield, IL which is 230 miles from Evansville.
Advocate Health Care Network, Northwestern Memorial Health System, NorthShore University Health System, Rush University Medical System, Cadence Health and University Chicago Medical Center are all in Chicago which is 290 miles from Evansville.
HealthSouth and the UAB Health System are both in Birmingham, AL which is 340 miles from Evansville.
The huge Trinity Health is in Livonia, MI which is 460 miles from Evansville.
The renown Cleveland Clinic is 470 miles from Evansville.
And the even more renown Mayo Clinic is 620 miles from Evansville.
Thus, as a backdrop for this upcoming Bernanke speech and continuing a much deserved tribute to Bernanke's key role in helping the US avoid a Deep, Prolonged Financial Depression, I think it would be helpful to update just what has been going on with Non-profit Hospital Organization's Financial Strength and Bottom Line Earnings (Losses) both right after the 2008 US financial meltdown and presently.
When you visualize a hospital, all you see are very expansive land, huge buildings and tons of hospital equipment.
Thus when you review a balance sheet of a hospital, you expect to see these real estate and equipment investments comprising the overwhelming portion of total hospital assets.
But this couldn't be further from the truth.
By far the dominating assets of non-profit hospital organizations are investments in equity and debt securities. These soft assets have accumulated over decades and decades and result from untaxed profits of non-profit hospitals being stacked up as investments on the hospital balance sheet.
And when the stock market has a good run, these investments grow in amount like weeds.
So before the US financial meltdown hit in late 2008, non-profit hospital organizations had strong balance sheets with tons of investments in stocks and bonds.
Then the 2008 financial meltdown hit and non-profit hospital organizations really took it in the chin financially. They had to mark down their massive investments in stocks, bonds and derivatives precipitously. As a result, their previously pristine financial strength measure of Total Net Assets ..... the excess of their Total Assets over their Total Liabilities ..... was flat-out leveled.
And it wasn't just the massive amounts of investments in common stocks and bonds which were on the books of these non-profit hospital organizations. In addition, there were massive amounts of investments in common stocks and bonds that were off books, in footnotes. These would be the huge amount of investments in pension trusts of non-profit hospital organizations.
Further, when you review the type of investments in bonds and other debt instruments, you can see there were so many that were investments in US Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Also, there were many investments in residential mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
When you go back to the financial meltdown in 2008, not only did the stock market end up crashing, but also so many financial institutions were about to go belly up.
And because of their massive losses, mostly driven by both Credit Losses and Derivative Losses, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bankrupt, with losses so large and expected to continue for many years.
Thus so many non-profit hospital organizations were also in serious financial jeopardy. Not only did their investments in common stocks crash, but they had massive investments in debt instruments linked to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two flat out bankrupt entities.
And they also had massive investments in US corporate debt, where the corporations had huge amounts of investments linked to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
And much of these hospital investments in US corporate debt were with corporations whose earnings had collapsed with the deep recession.
Also, with the deep, lengthy recession, hospital bad debts from patient accounts receivable were continually going through the roof. And so were hospital charity care costs, which were also continually and dramatically increasing due to the deep, lengthy recession.
Suffice it to say that many Non-Profit Hospitals were in serious financial jeopardy in late 2008 and early 2009, before the Fed, led by Ben Bernanke, went into action.
By Bernanke's actions, the end result was a stock market that subsequently nearly doubled over the next three years and by much more over the next six years, a rescue of the auto industry, and a massive turn around of so many financial institutions which were clearly headed for the junk pile, including AIG, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, Bank of America, Citigroup, and so many banks. And also the bail out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These very troubled financial institutions were all cleaned up by the US Federal Government with Ben Bernanke playing a very key role, with an overall result of not costing US taxpayers a dime.
Also, non-profit hospital organizations are highly leveraged with tons of debt. By Bernanke's action to substantially reduce both short-term and long-term interest rates, the financial pressure from huge amounts of debt was dramatically alleviated.
Let me quantify just how financially weak these non-profit hospital organizations were after the 2008 US financial meltdown and and how financially strong they are now, due primarily to both Bernanke's economic actions and the economic impact of the Affordable Care Act.
From a thorough review of EMMA, I found 67 US Non-Profit Hospital Organizations with Total Revenues above $2.5 bil in their most recently reported fiscal year.
These 67 US Non-Profit Hospital Organizations had Audited Total Bottom Losses of a massive $12 bil in their 2008 or 2009 fiscal year end which included the US 2008 Financial Meltdown.
In their most recent fiscal year reported, these same 67 US Non-Profit Hospital Organizations had Total Bottom Line Earnings, predominately Audited Amounts, of a massive $29 bil.
Yeah, that's an incredible $41 bil of annual earnings improvement from what happened in the US Financial Meltdown year.
Do you think these Non-Profit Hospital Organizations might like Ben Bernanke? But do you think they have showed him any gratitude for what he did for them?
Below here are the Earnings (Losses) and Total Revenues for each of these 67 US Non-Profit Hospital Organizations.
| 2008-09 | |||||||
| Fiscal | |||||||
| Year | |||||||
| Including | |||||||
| Most | Most | US | |||||
| Recent | Recent | Financial | |||||
| Fiscal | Fiscal | Meltdown | |||||
| Most | Year | Year | Bottom | Annual | |||
| Recent | End | Bottom | Line | Bottom | |||
| Fiscal | Total | Line | Net | Line | |||
| City | Year | Operating | Net | Income | Profit | ||
| US Big Non-Profit Hospitals | HQs | State | End | Revenues | Income | (Loss) | Improvement |
| mil $s | mil $s | mil $s | mil $s | ||||
| Kaiser Permanente | Oakland | CA | Dec 14 | 56,433 | 3,070 | (794) | 3,864 |
| Ascension Health | Edmundson | MO | Jun 14 | 20,150 | 2,056 | (717) | 2,773 |
| Catholic Health Initiatives | Inverness | CO | Jun 14 | 13,889 | 634 | (467) | 1,101 |
| Trinity Health | Livonia | MI | Jun 14 | 13,586 | 951 | (489) | 1,440 |
| UPMC | Pittsburgh | PA | Jun 14 | 11,416 | 568 | 184 | 384 |
| Providence Health | Renton | WA | Dec 13 | 11,137 | 253 | (157) | 410 |
| Partners Healthcare System | Boston | MA | Sep 14 | 10,906 | 120 | 46 | 74 |
| Dignity Health | San Francisco | CA | Jun 14 | 10,677 | 913 | (126) | 1,039 |
| Mayo Clinic | Rochester | MN | Dec 14 | 9,761 | 1,128 | (1,235) | 2,363 |
| Sutter Health | Sacramento | CA | Dec 13 | 9,649 | 358 | 319 | 39 |
| Adventist Health System | Altamonte Springs | FL | Dec 14 | 8,383 | 612 | 233 | 379 |
| North Shore Long Island Jewish Health | Great Neck | NY | Dec 13 | 7,002 | 252 | (120) | 372 |
| Cleveland Clinic Health System | Cleveland | OH | Dec 14 | 6,706 | 704 | (416) | 1,120 |
| St Joseph Health System | Orange | CA | Jun 14 | 5,632 | 309 | (125) | 434 |
| Banner Health | Phoenix | AZ | Dec 14 | 5,398 | 258 | (767) | 1,025 |
| Indiana University Health | Indianapolis | IN | Dec 13 | 5,247 | 541 | (590) | 1,131 |
| Advocate HealthCare Network | Oak Brook | IL | Dec 14 | 5,231 | 370 | (472) | 842 |
| HealthPartners | Bloomington | MN | Dec 13 | 5,223 | 252 | 65 | 187 |
| Johns Hopkins Health System | Baltimore | MD | Jun 14 | 5,126 | 357 | 38 | 319 |
| Henry Ford Health System | Detroit | MI | Dec 14 | 4,691 | 39 | 8 | 31 |
| MedStar Health | Columbia | MD | Jun 14 | 4,628 | 305 | (55) | 360 |
| IHC Health Services | Salt Lake City | UT | Dec 14 | 4,620 | 628 | (236) | 864 |
| New York and Presbyterian Hospital | New York | NY | Dec 14 | 4,577 | 296 | 12 | 284 |
| Mercy Health | Chesterfield | MO | Jun 14 | 4,439 | 136 | (100) | 236 |
| Sentara HealthCare | Norfolk | VA | Dec 13 | 4,299 | 612 | (158) | 770 |
| Aurora Health Care | Milwaukee | WI | Dec 13 | 4,249 | 195 | 34 | 161 |
| Baylor Health System | Dallas | TX | Jun 13 | 4,124 | 489 | 86 | 403 |
| Spectrum Health System | Grand Rapids | MI | Jun 14 | 4,108 | 336 | (51) | 387 |
| BJC Healthcare | St Louis | MO | Dec 14 | 4,099 | 270 | (691) | 961 |
| Beaumont Health System | Royal Oak | MI | Dec 14 | 3,989 | 182 | (214) | 396 |
| Geisinger Health System | Danville | PA | Jun 14 | 3,978 | 429 | (51) | 480 |
| Mercy Health (Catholic Health Partners) | Cincinnati | OH | Dec 13 | 3,956 | 365 | (548) | 913 |
| University Penn Health System | Philadelphia | PA | Jun 14 | 3,939 | 439 | 57 | 382 |
| Memorial Hermann Healthcare System | Houston | TX | Jun 14 | 3,938 | 355 | (19) | 374 |
| Texas Health Resources | Arlington | TX | Dec 13 | 3,846 | 768 | (402) | 1,170 |
| SSM Health Care | St Louis | MO | Dec 13 | 3,815 | 127 | (429) | 556 |
| Novant Health | Winston-Salem | NC | Dec 14 | 3,788 | 202 | (270) | 472 |
| Allina Health System | Minneapolis | MN | Dec 14 | 3,604 | 147 | (120) | 267 |
| Christus Health | Irving | TX | Jun 14 | 3,552 | 143 | (266) | 409 |
| Bon Secours Health System | Baltimore | MD | Aug 14 | 3,462 | 174 | (125) | 299 |
| Carolinas Health Care System | Charlotte | NC | Dec 13 | 3,412 | 181 | (345) | 526 |
| Yale-New Haven Health Services | New Haven | CT | Sep 14 | 3,395 | 204 | 53 | 151 |
| Fairview Health Services | Minneapolis | MN | Dec 13 | 3,370 | 249 | (114) | 363 |
| Montefiore Medical Center | New York | NY | Dec 13 | 3,346 | 182 | (84) | 266 |
| Sanford Health | Sioux Falls | SD | Jun 14 | 3,291 | 118 | (30) | 148 |
| Catholic Health East | Newtown Square | PA | Dec 13 | 3,269 | 194 | (542) | 736 |
| Adventist Health West | Roseville | CA | Dec 13 | 3,052 | 55 | 31 | 24 |
| Jefferson Health System | Radnor | PA | Jun 13 | 3,047 | 304 | 59 | 245 |
| University Maryland Medical System | Baltimore | MD | Jun 14 | 3,027 | 226 | (55) | 281 |
| Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center | New York | NY | Dec 13 | 3,025 | 503 | (567) | 1,070 |
| Stanford Hospital & Clinics | Stanford | CA | Aug 14 | 2,998 | 432 | (96) | 528 |
| Barnabas Health | West Orange | NJ | Dec 14 | 2,967 | 330 | (315) | 645 |
| Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | West Hollywood | CA | Jun 14 | 2,932 | 439 | 75 | 364 |
| Sharp HealthCare | San Diego | CA | Sep 14 | 2,929 | 315 | 69 | 246 |
| McLaren Health Care | Flint | MI | Sep 14 | 2,903 | 234 | 69 | 165 |
| UnityPoint Health | Des Moines | IA | Dec 13 | 2,841 | 262 | (45) | 307 |
| St Vincent Health | Indianapolis | IN | Jun 14 | 2,788 | 582 | (45) | 627 |
| OhioHealth | Columbus | OH | Jun 14 | 2,768 | 675 | (165) | 840 |
| CareGroup Healthcare System | Boston | MA | Sep 14 | 2,740 | 161 | 49 | 112 |
| Inova Health System | Falls Church | VA | Dec 14 | 2,699 | 331 | (189) | 520 |
| The Methodist Hospital System | Houston | TX | Dec 13 | 2,616 | 684 | (232) | 916 |
| Franciscan Alliance | Mishawaka | IN | Dec 13 | 2,609 | 245 | (361) | 606 |
| Duke University Health System | Durham | NC | Jun 14 | 2,600 | 483 | 173 | 310 |
| BayCare Health System | Clearwater | FL | Dec 13 | 2,568 | 632 | (327) | 959 |
| Scripps Health | San Diego | CA | Sep 14 | 2,565 | 294 | 126 | 168 |
| Texas Children's Hospital | Houston | TX | Sep 14 | 2,559 | 219 | 166 | 53 |
| Presbyterian Healthcare Services | Albuquerque | NM | Dec 14 | 2,559 | 195 | (261) | 456 |
| Total all 67 | 386,128 | 29,072 | (12,031) | 41,103 |
