U.S. Hospital Profits Rise Again in 2005

by Patrick Lunsford, CollectionIndustry.com

Despite all of the reports claiming that hospitals are drowning under the weight of bad debt wrought by uninsured patients, profits at community hospitals are at an all-time high.

ModernHealthcare.com reported Friday that aggregate profits at community hospitals stood at $28.9 billion in 2005, up from $26.3 billion in 2004. This is according to data released by the American Hospital Association. The AHA defines community hospitals as all nonfederal, short-term, general and specialty hospitals, and counts 4,956 as registered community hospitals.

Diving deeper into the numbers, the aggregate profit margin at the hospitals came in at 5.3%, the highest mark in seven years. The AHA also reported that the total number of hospitals in the U.S. dropped by a net of 3 in 2005, following a declining trend in total hospital numbers that started in 1977.