- According to a recent analysis from KFF, most nonprofit hospitals and health systems had enough cash on hand to cover operating expenses for an extended period of time in 2022. On average, hospitals and systems reported having 218 days of cash on hand in 2022 — S&P Global Ratings generally considers 218 days to be a “very strong” level of cash, according to the report. Nearly three-quarters of nonprofit hospitals had “strong” levels of cash on hand, while about one in 10 had “vulnerable” or “highly vulnerable” levels of cash on hand. The metric estimates the number of days an entity could cover their cash expenses using available reserves and offers nuance to reports showing struggling nonprofit hospitals. Though hospitals broadly reported negative operating margins in 2022, the KFF study said many had a “large financial cushion” as of 2022 to help weather challenges. (Article here)
- Americans are nearly unanimously in favor of legally requiring health care entities like hospitals, insurance providers, and doctors to disclose their prices in an easily accessible place, according to a new survey. New polling conducted by Marist for the nonprofit Patient Rights Advocate (PRA) found that 94 percent of adults agreed that hospitals, insurance companies, and doctors should “be legally required to disclose all of their prices, including discounted prices, cash prices, and insurance negotiated rates across hospitals and across plans in an easily accessible place online.” Since 2021, hospitals in the U.S. have been required to post the prices of all their services, drugs, and items provided to patients in a “comprehensive machine-readable file” or through a “display of shoppable services in a consumer-friendly format,” but hospitals have been slow to comply with the rule, with a little more than a third of hospitals abiding by the rule. (Article here)
March 11, 2024
Providers | Tea Leaves