As the Massachusetts Senate prepares to vote on a proposal that would require hospitals to contribute $100 million to a small business health insurance fund, a study from the Department of Health Care Finance and Policy shows the state's hospitals amassed $17.2 billion in total net assets as of Sept. 2008, according to a Boston Globe report.
Another study from Governor Deval Patrick's office shows 80 percent of the state's hospitals made more money in 2009 than in 2008, according to the report.
Roughly one third of the $17.2 billion was from Partners HealthCare System, which has since lost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the report. Overall, the studies showed teaching hospitals had greater reserves than community hospitals.
Read the Boston Globe report on the Massachusetts hospitals' reserves.