CommonSpirit Health Posts $1.04B Operating Loss

The health system has been hammered by rising costs and declining reimbursements.

CommonSpirit Health—a Chicago-based non-profit Catholic health system—recently released its full-year 2022 financial results, reporting an operating loss of $1.04 billion when compared to the $1 billion operating income from the 2021 full-year.

CommonSpirit also reported a 10% rise in expenses, a slight increase in revenue by 3.5%, and a 2.6% margin. The decline in government and payer reimbursements didn’t keep up with the rising cost of providing care.

"This continues to be a very challenging time for health systems, especially nonprofit health systems like CommonSpirit where a majority of patients are Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries," CommonSpirit Chief Financial Officer Dan Morissette, said in a release announcing the results. "As an integrated organization with a broad footprint, we’ve been able to take many steps to reduce costs and grow revenue."

Hospitals are struggling to retain talent as healthcare workers—particularly nurses—exit the field. CommonSpirit says it has implemented different strategies to help grow and support its workforce including established internal programs focused on staff retraining, wellness, and resilience, and developing new graduate medical education relationships.

"It’s clear we need to do more to improve performance," Morissette continued. "We will remain focused on growth in the new healthcare landscape, finding additional cost savings, and lowering contract labor costs while reducing turnover and improving retention by doing even more to support our teams."