Dive Brief:
- The Cleveland Clinic's operating revenue jumped 18% last year to $10.6 billion due to a record number of patients for the Ohio-based nonprofit academic medical center: 2.4 million, a 20% increase over 2018, the system said Wednesday.
- Cleveland Clinic reported income of $390.2 million in 2019, according to its full-year financials. That's up nearly 50% year over year as nonprofit providers come under increased scrutiny for rising profits and whether they invest enough money into the community and uncompensated care to justify their tax-free status.
- The almost 100-year-old system said its bottom line was bolstered by a record $261 million gift from the Lord Foundation of Ohio, its largest gift to date, along with a strong economy and investments.
Dive Insight:
The Clinic's 2.4 million patients accounted for 9.8 million visits, a 16% jump over 2018, at its 18 hospitals and roughly 220 outpatient facilities. Hospitals, both for-profit and nonprofit alike, are seeing distinct volume growth as they close out the 2019 fiscal year, a promising shift for providers' topline following multiple quarters of a downtrend in admissions.
Last year, Cleveland Clinic reported 9.8 million outpatient visits, 309,000 hospital admissions and observations and 255,000 surgical cases throughout the system, which has locations in southeast Florida, Las Vegas, Toronto, Abu Dhabi and London.
CEO Tom Mihaljevic touted improvement efforts at the health system's annual address Wednesday. In 2019, the system said it cut serious safety events by 46%, and between January 2017 and August last year lowered central-line infections by 23%, sepsis mortality by 12% and injurious patient falls by 11%.
Cleveland Clinic spent much of 2019 building out its physical footprint. The health system added four hospitals in Florida through its acquisition of Indian River Medical Center and Martin Health early last year, and is constructing and expanding multiple facilities worldwide, including Cleveland Clinic London, which is on track to be completed in spring 2021.
Nonprofit operators are coming under fire from politicians and regulators for high income, raising questions about whether their community investment merits their exemption from federal income and local property taxes.
The system said its community benefit reached $1 billion in 2019, roughly in line with a year earlier.
Cleveland Clinic's bottom line is relatively slim compared to some of its nonprofit peers, especially California giant Kaiser Permanente ($7.4 billion in income in 2019) and Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic ($1.06 billion).