Dive Brief:
- Boston-based Tufts Medical Center reported improving its financial performance in the third quarter of its fiscal year due to higher outpatient volume (up nearly 4%) and tightly managed expenses.
- In an earnings statement released July 18, Tufts reported $16.9 million in surplus on revenue of $177.3 million for the quarter ended June 30. That is up from $1.8 million surplus on $164.1 million in revenue for the same period a year earlier. Higher operating income and investment income contributed to the latest results.
- Fitch Ratings noted that Tufts, a 415 licensed-bed hospital in downtown Boston next to Tufts University School of Medicine, still has a negative operating margin for the first nine months of its fiscal year ending Sept. 30. But most of Tufts' challenges, including weak patient volume and several one-time expenses, came in the first quarter, Fitch said.
Dive Insight:
In April, Tufts and Lowell (Mass.) General Hospital, another not-for-profit organization, announced a partnership to form a health system to encourage collaboration between academic teaching hospitals and community-based providers.
Fitch, in recently affirming the "BBB" rating" on Tufts bonds, said it anticipates that the Tufts/Lowell partnership would advance Tufts' strategy to grow complex surgical volumes, expand its catchment area, and strengthen its alignment with community-based physicians and providers. Fitch said it expects Tufts' operating performance to continue to improve in its fiscal fourth quarter and for operations to remain stable in fiscal year 2015 starting Oct. 1.