April marked the 12th consecutive month hospitals saw year over year gross revenue increases across both inpatient and outpatient metrics, according to a May 23 report from Strata Decision Technology.
Four things to know:
1. Hospital outpatient revenue rose 15.3% year over year in April as "demand for convenient outpatient services remains high," according to a May 23 Strata news release. Inpatient revenue was up 11.7%. Overall gross operating was up 14.1%.
2. The median, year-to-date hospital operating margin was 4.7% for the second consecutive month in April.
3. Total expenses rose 7.4% year over year in April. Non-labor expenses grew 10.5% year over year driven by increases in supply (16.7%) and drug (14.9%) expenses. Strata said the non-labor increases were a return to recent trends after supply expense was "essentially flat" and drug expenses decreased in March." Total labor expenses rose 4.1% year over year.
4. "Hospitals and health systems continue to see encouraging financial performance as we head into the second quarter of the year," Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer at Strata Decision Technology Chief Data and Intelligence Officer Steve Wasson said in the release. "The data indicate that many healthcare leaders are finding effective strategies to navigate persistent high expenses. They are successfully moving their organizations to more stable ground and away from narrower margins that plagued hospitals throughout 2023."
Read the full report here.