Report outlines financial condition of Mass. hospitals

Grant Welker UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

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By State House News Service

Most acute care hospital systems in Massachusetts were profitable during the 2016 fiscal year, but the median financial margin fell from the previous fiscal year, according to a new state report.

The acute hospital statewide median total margin was 3.1 percent, down 0.7 percent from the 2015 fiscal year, according to a 34-page report released by the Center for Health Information and Analysis.

Two hospitals in the Steward Health Care group -- Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton and Saint Anne's in Fall River -- reported the highest total margins, at 10.9 percent each.

At the other end of the spectrum, the lowest hospital margins were at the Shriners hospitals in Boston and Springfield, specialty facilities that care for children with burns, cleft lip and palate, spinal cord injuries and orthopedic conditions. The Boston hospital's total margin was -694 percent, for a loss of $36.2 million, and the Springfield facility reported a $9.8 million loss and -111.2 percent margin.

The individual hospitals with the highest profit and the greatest financial loss were both part of the Partners HealthCare system. Massachusetts General Hospital reported a profit of $142.8 million, while the Salem-based North Shore Medical Center was $48 million in the red, according to CHIA.

Regionally, acute hospitals in Metro Boston and northeastern Massachusetts reported the lowest margins, at 2 percent and 2.4 percent respectively, while the Metrowest (10 percent) and South Coast (9.9 percent) regions had the highest margins.

Massachusetts had 30 hospital health systems in hospital fiscal year 2016 and 63 acute care hospitals, 47 of which reported a fiscal 2016 profit.

Among health care systems with multiple acute hospitals, the total margins ranged from Partners HealthCare's -2 percent to CapeCod Healthcare's 5.8 percent.

Steward Healthcare, a major health care system in Massachusetts, did not submit required financial data to the state, according to CHIA.

Most physician organizations reported financial losses in fiscal 2016, CHIA said. Southcoast Physicians Group had the largest loss by dollar amount among physician organizations, at $64.2 million, while Community Medical Associates reported the lowest total margin, at -219.7 percent.

Profitable physicians organizations included Massachusetts Eye and Ear Associates ($1.4 million), Partners Community Physicians Organization ($7.5 million), the Physicians Organization at Children's Hospital ($66 million), Massachusetts General Hospital Physicians Organization ($35.7 million) and Brigham and Women's Physician Group ($28.8 million.

The statewide median acute care hospital operating margin - as opposed to total margin - was 2.6 percent, a drop of 0.6 percentage points from fiscal 2015.