Dive Brief:
- Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System posted $4.52 billion in revenue in 2013, up from $4.48 billion in 2012, according to newly-released financial results.
- That came with a $12 million operating loss amid the cancelation of Henry Ford's planned merger with Beaumont Health System, installation of an expensive medical records system and decisions by more patients to cut back on hospital and doctor visits due to higher insurance deductibles and copays.
- Overall, Henry Ford's net income was a positive $500,000 for 2013, since the sale of a dialysis unit in Toledo offset its operating loss.
Dive Insight:
Henry Ford CEO Nancy Schlichting said the system's financial results reflect challenges affecting hospital systems across the U.S. The Detroit system confronted various new costs and $30 million in Medicare cuts in 2013 due to the Affordable Care Act, while still awaiting business from newly-insured patients whose coverage didn't begin until 2014. Overall, the system has a stable balance sheet, she said, but its earnings, while anticipated, "are not what we’d like."
Henry Ford expects a stronger 2014 because of its completed installation of the medical records system and anticipated new revenue from Michigan’s Medicaid expansion, she said. But the system only gets 60 cents on the dollar for Medicaid hospital stays, and its uncompensated care burden increased by $18 million last year to $314 million.
How is health reform affecting providers' bottom-lines? Henry Ford's experiences seem to boil down to this: It is doing OK, not great. But it expects things to get better.
