July 30th, 2009

Reports the Central Penn Business Journal:

Pennsylvania’s general acute-care hospitals continue to be pummeled by the economic downturn, according to data released today by the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP).

Hospitals’ average total margins were negative 3.6 percent for July 2008 to March 2009, compared with average total margins of 4.2 percent for July 2007 through March 2008, the statewide membership and advocacy organization said.

Roughly 55 percent of state general acute-care hospitals posted negative total margins from July 2008 to March 2009, compared with 31 percent in the year-ago period, HAP said.

“With more than half of Pennsylvania’s hospitals experiencing ongoing negative total margins – up from one-third just a year ago – we are seeing an erosion of hospitals’ ability to retain staff, invest in health care technology, and make capital improvements-severely affecting hospitals’ core mission to provide care for patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Carolyn F. Scanlan, HAP’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

Calling the margin slide “unprecedented,” Scanlan urged the state Legislature to reject the up to $280 million of proposed cuts to health care funding.