Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Hospital profits suffer fall

CARSON CITY -- Hospital profits in Clark County nosedived in 2004 with six of the 12 major hospitals reporting losses, the state reported Friday.

The state Division of Health Care Financing and Policy said Clark County hospitals registered $25.4 million in profits, down 53.7 percent from 2003. And when the newly opened Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center is included, there was a $6.1 million loss.

Statewide, Nevada's 30 hospitals posted $27.4 million in profits, down from $98.5 million. The more recent figure includes the opening of four new facilities, which experience losses due to the beginning expenses.

The average profit per patient per day statewide dropped from $70 in 2003 to $18 in 2004.

Bill Welch, president and chief executive of the Nevada Hospital Association, said Friday the "glory days of the 1980s and early '90s" when hospitals made 6 to 12 percent profit are gone. A hospital that makes 2 to 3 percent profit now is doing well and anything above that is "exceptionally well," he said.

Indigent patients are using the hospitals for their primary care, Welch said, instead of going to doctors' offices. And Medicaid recipients are doing the same thing.

He said only 10 percent to 20 percent of the patients transported to hospital emergency rooms by ambulance are emergency or urgent care cases. And hospitals are not reimbursed for their costs in many cases, he added.

The state report said the biggest profit maker in the state was Reno's Washoe Medical Center with $28.9 million last year, up from $17.4 million in 2003. But its sister hospital in the south part of the county incurred a $4.8 million loss in 2004.

In Southern Nevada, Catholic Healthcare West's St. Rose Dominican Hospitals -- Siena Campus posted the biggest profit at $21.2 million, up from $17.9 million a year ago. But its sister hospital, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals -- Rose de Lima Campus recorded a $3.4 million loss, compared with $3 million in the red in 2003.

HCA Inc.'s Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas, the state's largest hospital, reported losses of $3.4 million compared with a $14.7 million profit in 2003.

Vernon Manke, a spokesman for the state division, said the hospital auditors recommended adjustments to bad debts and contract adjustments causing the big swing from profits to a loss.

Boulder City Hospital, owned by the city, turned a profit of $20,537 after reporting a loss of $592,281 in 2003; Universal Health Services Inc.'s Desert Springs Hospital went from a $1.1 million profit in 2003 to a $1.5 million loss in 2004 and HCA's MountainView realized an $8.4 million profit, down from $9.4 million in 2003.

IASIS Healthcare LLC's North Vista Hospital had a big turnaround, registering a $2.1 million profit in 2004 compared with a $5.5 million loss in 2003. HCA's Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center that opened in early 2004 in Clark County incurred a $31.5 million loss, the biggest in the state.

Welch said it is expected that a new hospital will experience a loss in the first year or two of operation. A new hospital must be viewed as a "long-term" investment, he said.

Universal Health's Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center in Clark County posed a $9.3 million loss in 2004, up from the $2.1 million in the red in 2003. Sister hospital Summerlin Hospital Medical Center enjoyed a $9.4 million profit in 2004, down from the $10.9 million in 2003; University Medical Center, operated by Clark County, posted an $8.5 million loss, up from the $2.9 million loss in 2003 and Universal's Valley Hospital Medical Center realized a $10.3 million profit, down from the $15.1 million in the black in 2003.

The report said there are 13 rehabilitation and specialty hospitals that reported profits of $40.7 million in 2004, up from the $17.3 million in 2003. Four psychiatric hospitals in the state registered profits of $2.2 million, down from $2.9 million in 2003.

Welch said the construction of the new state mental hospital in Las Vegas will help hospitals in Southern Nevada. He said 25 percent to 30 percent of the beds in the emergency rooms at hospitals are taken by the mental patients waiting to be accepted by the state.

And the hospital in these cases receives less reimbursement than their costs.

"This will help relieve the pressure," said Welch.

In addition, he said a program approved by the 2005 Legislature will help in the future. It will provide medical coverage to more single pregnant women and help small-business workers pay for health insurance and cover more catastrophic cases.

Welch said this expansion of benefits would not solve the problem but it is a step in the right direction.

Hospitals in Washoe County and Carson City recorded a $29.8 million profit. While Washoe Medical Center was $28.9 million in the black, St. Mary's Regional Medical Center reported losses of $10.3 million, up from the $2 million in the red in 2003. Northern Nevada Medical Center in Sparks had a $9.7 million profit and Carson Tahoe Hospital in Carson City posted a $6.2 million profit.

The state division said the seven county-owned hospitals in rural Nevada reported losses of $5.3 million in 2004, up from the loss of $3.2 million in 2003. But those hospitals received government subsidies of $6.6 million, so they were $1.3 million to the good in 2004.

Profits at the four privately owned rural hospitals decreased to $9 million in 2004 from $10.3 million in 2003.

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