Hospitals remain in the red, giving the government leverage to again pay them for government-imposed forms of care

From Becker’s Hospital Review we see an unsurprising trend worsens: fewer people going to hospitals, although it seems there are more people with medical conditions folloowing cases of COVID and especially the COVID injections. Patients are wary. Hospitals took their twenty pieces of silver from the government for remdesivir mandates (aka “standing orders”) and the withholding of drugs that were effective and safe. Hospitals, run by bean-counters these days, forgot that they were biting the hand that fed them: patients.

Furthermore, a lot of people have had the curtain pulled back: they see that hospitals are simply financial empires that have jumped into lucrative gender reassignment surgeries and other fashionable folderol at the expense of meat and potatoes medicine. The patients are realizing that preventive medicine is not what makes money, which is why no one yet tells them to keep their vitamin D levels up.

We need to continue to see how this will play out, as government handouts with come with sticks as well as carrots for the healthcare system, whose goal may not be to extend our lives and promote better health.

Hospital margins see no relief to start the year

The year is off to an unfriendly start for hospital finances, with a median margin of -1 percent for January, worsening from the margin recorded a month prior, according to Kaufman Hall.

The finding comes from Kaufman Hall's latest "National Flash Hospital Report" — based on data from more than 900 hospitals. The -1 percent margin captured in January arrives on the heels of 2022 being the worst financial year for hospitals and health systems since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Hospitals recorded decreased patient volumes, emergency department visits, discharges and total revenues in January 2023 compared to the month prior while expenses ticked upward. Month-over-month, total net operating revenue decreased by 3 percent while total expenses rose by 1 percent, with total labor expenses increasing by 3 percent. 

 Another contributing factor to the negative median margin is the ordinary trend of hospitals making purchases for the year in January, Kaufman Hall analysts noted. 

 "While we have seen a stabilization in operating margins over the past several months, the trendline continues to show that hospitals will be in a tough spot financially for the foreseeable future," Erik Swanson, senior vice president of data and analytics with Kaufman Hall, said. "With future COVID surges possible and challenging financial months ahead for hospitals, managing cash on hand will be critical to weathering the storm."