The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) has released its annual report on the financial performance of the state’s acute-care hospitals.
Among the highlights (changes in performance are from 2013 to 2014):

• The total margin of hospitals state-wide declined 0.36 percentage points, from 6.06 percent to 5.7 percent.
• The operating income of acute-care hospitals fell from $1.8 billion to $1.7 billion.
• Thirty-four percent of hospitals lose money on operations and 28 percent lost money overall.
• Uncompensated care rose 2.2 percent, or $22 million, to $1.07 billion.
• The number of hospital discharges and patient days declined.
• The number of outpatient visits fell 3.2 percent.
• Outpatient services accounted for 44.8 percent of net patient revenue.

To learn more about what PHC4 learned, see its new report Financial Analysis 2014:  Volume One:  General Acute Care Hospitals.