Half of nation's hospitals running losses

Many plan to cut services and staff as investment returns worsen and paying admissions decline, research shows.

By Lisa Girion
LA Times
March 2, 2009

The economic decline is continuing to ravage the nation's hospitals, with half of them operating in the red and many planning service and staffing cuts, two new reports show.

Hospitals are ailing because of a number of problems hitting in close succession. First, hospitals' investment incomes plummeted -- like everybody's -- eliminating a cushion for operating budgets and curtailing capital spending.

Then, the mix of patients began to shift: Paying admissions declined as people put off elective procedures and insurers tightened their grip on the length of hospital stays they covered. And the number of patients without insurance or the means to pay their part of the bill began to rise.

These problems have been surfacing for several months. But new data show their breadth and depth. Indeed, an unprecedented 50% of the nation's hospitals appear to be losing money, according to an analysis of government and proprietary data that Thomson Reuters is set to release today.

(More here.)