Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems' net loss reached $1 million for the three months ended March 31, an improvement from the $64 million loss it had in the same period of 2021, according to financial results released April 27.
The health system said pandemic relief funds helped offset the net loss for the first quarter of 2022 by $35 million.
CHS, an 83-hospital system, had $3.1 billion in net operating revenue for the first quarter of 2022, a 3.3 percent increase from the $3 billion reported for the same period last year.
Operating costs and expenses also rose year over year, by 5.7 percent, to $2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022 from $2.7 billion last year. Salaries and benefits represented a large share of expenses, accounting for more than $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022, a 1.7 percent increase from the same period last year.
The system posted a 17.2 percent decrease in its operating income, to $270 million for the three months ended March 31, compared to $326 million for the same period last year.
The COVID-19 surge early in the year hurt revenue and expenses, but the system's financial performance improved toward the end of the quarter, as patient volume returned and pandemic expenses leveled, CHS CEO Tim Hingtgen said in the report.
"Moving through the second quarter and the remainder of the year, we anticipate contract labor rates to remain elevated. However, we expect our operational momentum to continue, as we anticipate capturing deferred healthcare demand, benefiting from recent strategic investments, and continuing the execution of the company’s margin improvement program," he added.