In the Midst of Great Uncertainty, Hospital Margins Taper, March 3

After significant market changes following the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Oregon’s community hospitals saw a year-over-year decrease in operating margins and inpatient discharges, while charity care spending rose slightly and emergency room visits increased according to the newly-released quarterly report by Apprise Health Insights on acute care hospitals’ financial and utilization trends. With uncertainty around the future of the ACA any downward trend has the potential for amplification. Hospitals’ aggregate operating margin fell to 3.6 percent in the third quarter of 2016 lower by nearly two percentage points from the same quarter in 2015 when it was 5.2 percent; and inpatient discharges fell by 1.6 percent to 79,982 in Q3 2016 compared to the same quarter in 2015, when it was 80,258. Meanwhile, in dollars, charity care expenses in the third quarter of 2016 rose to $89.1 million, up 39 percent from the same time in 2015. Emergency department visits also increased 0.6 percent, with 337,608 total visits in the third quarter of 2016 as compared with the same quarter in 2015.