The 325 members of America's Essential Hospitals, which includes organizations serving a high proportion of vulnerable patients, are providing more uncompensated care and charity care than the nation's other hospitals, according to AEH's annual membership profile.
Here are four findings:
1. Essential hospitals in 2016 provided more than $5.5 billion in uncompensated care, or 14.4 percent of all uncompensated care in the U.S. Those hospitals also provided more than $3.5 billion in charity care, or 20 percent of all charity care in the U.S.
2. Three-quarters of essential hospitals' patient population in 2016 were uninsured or Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries.
3. Three-quarters of essential hospitals are teaching institutions that on average trained nearly three times as many physicians as the nation's other teaching hospitals.
4. Member hospitals reported an average aggregate operating margin of 4 percent, compared to the 7.8 percent margin for all U.S. hospitals.
The profile report, released June 19, primarily was based on data from the hospitals’ 2016 annual member characteristics survey, which represents 116 member hospitals. It also used data from the American Hospital Association's 2016 annual survey of hospitals, CMS' fiscal year 2016 Hospital Cost Report, and the American Community Survey.
Read more about the report findings here.
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