2014 Hospital Community Report Highlights Financial & Utilization Trends within Oregon’s Community Hospitals, July 29

Apprise Health Insights, a data subsidiary of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, has released its 2014 Oregon Hospital Community Report, detailing utilization and financial trends for the state’s acute care hospitals.  Now in its fifth year, the report provides a transparent look at the operations of one of our state’s most valuable assets, our community hospitals.  “This report from Apprise illustrates the unique challenges our hospitals face as health care transformation and the Affordable Care Act begin to take shape,” said Andy Van Pelt, chief operating officer of OAHHS. “As we continue to understand the impacts of health care transformation, our state’s hospitals are seeing increasing financial pressures and a dramatically shifting patient mix. Simultaneously, they are radically changing the way they do business. It is still too early to see what the long-term impacts of transformation will be on providers.”  The data show that in 2013, Medicare paid only 78 cents for each dollar hospitals spent caring for Medicare patients; and Medicaid paid, on average, only 67 cents for each dollar hospitals spent caring for Medicaid patients. More than 60% of services provided in our state’s hospitals are for Medicare and Medicaid patients. The overall operating margin for the Oregon’s hospitals was 3.6% in 2013. This is the lowest the state’s average operating margin has been since 2008.  Despite these financial challenges, hospitals provided inpatient care to approximately 336,000 patients. Additionally, the report shows:  * More than 9.9 million patients received outpatient care at acute care hospitals.  * Nearly 44,000 babies were delivered at Oregon’s hospitals.  * More than 1.2 million patients received care in hospital emergency departments.  * The top five reasons for hospital inpatient stays included births, knee joint replacements, septicemia (blood infection), mental health issues, and digestive disorders.  The report details Oregon’s 58 community hospitals, located in 36 counties. They represent a mix of general (also called acute care), pediatric, long-term acute care, and behavioral health. In 2013, Oregon had more than 6,500 staffed hospitals beds. The state has 44 designated trauma centers with two being designated as Level I.  More than half of all Oregon hospitals (52 percent) are in rural areas, with the remaining facilities located in urban parts of the state. Oregon has 25 critical access hospitals, which have a federal designation allowing them to receive 101 percent of Medicare cost reimbursement.  To read the entire report, visit www.apprisehealthinsights.com/2014-report.