Conn. hospitals register losses in FY 2008
The number of Connecticut hospitals operating in the red more than tripled from five to 16 in fiscal 2008, as $600 million in investments and other assets evaporated in the months leading up to the recession.
Combined, hospitals statewide lost $73 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending in September 2008, according to the Connecticut Office of Health Care Access, down from $292 million in positive returns in fiscal 2007.
The revenue Connecticut hospitals received for patient care climbed 7.8 percent, and total revenue was up 8.2 percent to $8.3 billion.
Total assets fell 12 percent to $4.5 billion, however, as charitable contributions dropped in addition to the performance of investment portfolios, and as hospitals made contributions to shore up their pension portfolios.
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The fiscal stability of hospitals is not important solely for reasons of care ”“ the state”™s hospitals generated more than $12 billion to the state”™s economy in 2006, according to a study last year by the Connecticut Hospital Association, and Fairfield County”™s six institutions have spent significant sums the past few years on facility and capital improvements.
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After leading the state in fiscal 2007 with a positive 14.5 percent margin, Saint Vincent”™s Medical Center was one of five hospitals in the state to suffer a loss of at least 5 percent in fiscal 2008. Stamford Hospital and Norwalk Hospital were the only two of Fairfield County”™s six acute-care hospitals to achieve a positive margin.
Despite layoffs at some hospitals in fiscal 2008, in the aggregate institutions reported adding the equivalent of nearly 1,700 full-time workers, a 3.4 percent increase.
In an annual assessment of the financial health of acute-care hospitals, OHCA stated it is reasonable to assume the same trend will hold true for the 2009 fiscal year that ends this month.
Patient discharges dropped last year by more than 1,000, a negligible number on a percentage basis but nonetheless remarkable given a decade of increases leading up to last year. Bed occupancy however rose from 81 percent in fiscal 2007 to 86 percent in fiscal 2008, and emergency department use rose a stunning 1.3 percent, or by an additional 20,000 visits, to 1.5 million total ”“ equating to an ER visit over those 12 months for every 2.3 residents in Connecticut.
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Connecticut hospitals are required to furnish care regardless of a patient”™s ability to pay, and in fiscal 2008 patients lacking insurance, ability or willingness to pay cost hospitals nearly $640 million, up 16 percent from the previous year. That amount was partially offset by a federal program that reimburses hospitals for the uncompensated care they provide.
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The Connecticut Hospital Association is still absorbing the impact of the new state budget on hospital funding and services. Among other measures, the budget:
- maintains hospital Medicaid rates;
- reduces the uncompensated care pool by $2 million;
- maintains funding for the Life Star helicopter program;
- maintains funding for the Connecticut Children”™s Medical Center; and
- increases occupational licensing fees, including various hospital and health care licensing fees save license renewal fees for registered nurses.
The bill also requires the Connecticut Department of Social Services to amend the definition of “medically necessary” services under the Medicaid program, and creates a medical necessity oversight committee within DSS to advise the department and the Connecticut General Assembly.