Recent history suggests hospitals will continue to struggle to record a positive Medicare margin, especially as healthcare reform and pay-for-performance programs start to take shape.
According to a June report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (pdf), overall Medicare margins at hospitals have dropped from a positive 6.3 percent in 1999 to a negative 4.5 percent in 2010. MedPAC calculated the margin as revenue minus costs, divided by revenue, and excluded critical access hospitals.
The overall Medicare margins cover the costs and payments of acute-care inpatient, outpatient, inpatient psychiatric and rehabilitation, skill nursing, home health services, graduate medical education and bad debt.
In 2010, roughly 25 percent of hospitals actually posted a positive Medicare margin of 4.6 percent or higher, but another quarter had margins of negative 15.8 percent or lower. Here are 12 statistics on the overall average Medicare margin at U.S. hospitals from 1999 through 2010.
According to a June report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (pdf), overall Medicare margins at hospitals have dropped from a positive 6.3 percent in 1999 to a negative 4.5 percent in 2010. MedPAC calculated the margin as revenue minus costs, divided by revenue, and excluded critical access hospitals.
The overall Medicare margins cover the costs and payments of acute-care inpatient, outpatient, inpatient psychiatric and rehabilitation, skill nursing, home health services, graduate medical education and bad debt.
In 2010, roughly 25 percent of hospitals actually posted a positive Medicare margin of 4.6 percent or higher, but another quarter had margins of negative 15.8 percent or lower. Here are 12 statistics on the overall average Medicare margin at U.S. hospitals from 1999 through 2010.
|
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
|
6.3% |
5.3% |
5.2% |
2.2% |
-1.2% |
-3% |
-3.1% |
-4.6% |
-6% |
-7.1% |
-5.1% |
-4.5% |
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