May 17, 2022
Providers
  • Johns Hopkins researchers found that government relief funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic played a substantial role in keeping hospitals afloat. The researchers found that even though hospitals’ mean operating margin declined from –1.0 percent in 2019 to –7.4 percent in 2020, their mean overall profit margin during the first year of the pandemic was 6.7 percent, which was stable in light of the preceding four years and across all ownership types, geographic locations, and hospital sizes. Additionally, government and rural hospitals saw significant profit margin improvements in 2020. Government hospitals’ margins increased from 3.7 percent to 7.2 percent and rural hospitals’ margins increased 1.9 percent to 7.5 percent. (Study here)