Safety-nets, which represent about 5% of all hospitals, provided 17% of uncompensated care in 2019 and operated with an average margin of 2.9%, compared with 8.8% for other hospitals.
New data show that the nation's safety-net hospitals were already seeing tight margins before the COVID-19 pandemic began early last year.
An analysis by America's Essential Hospitals of its more than 300 member hospitals – which represent about 5% of all hospitals – finds that they provided 17% of uncompensated care in 2019 and operated with an average margin of 2.9%, compared with margins averaging 8.8% for other hospitals.
"These numbers speak to the remarkable commitment and resiliency of essential hospitals in the fight against COVID-19," AEH President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, said in a media release.
"They began with almost no cushion against the pandemic’s high costs yet still met the needs of communities most affected by COVID-19—and continue to do so today," he said.
AEH's annual snapshot, Essential Data: Our Hospitals, Our Patients, also found that the average safety-net hospital provided seven times as much uncompensated care, more than twice as many emergency department visits, and nearly three times as many nonemergency outpatient visits as other U.S. hospitals in 2019.
About half (51%) of essential hospital discharges in 2019 were people from racial and ethnic minority groups and three-quarters were uninsured or covered by Medicaid or Medicare, the data found. In addition, the communities served by safety-nets reported nearly 10 million people with limited access to healthful food, 370,000 who at some point were homeless, 14.4 million uninsured, and more than 22 million living below the poverty line.
The data also show that safety-net hospitals in 2019:
- Operated one-third of the nation’s level I trauma centers and about 40% of all burn care beds;
- Trained 240 physicians per hospital on average, versus 84 at other teaching hospitals;
- Employed about 3,200 people per hospital and had total expenditures of about $125 billion nationally.
“These numbers speak to the remarkable commitment and resiliency of essential hospitals in the fight against COVID-19.”
Bruce Siegel, MD, president / CEO, America's Essential Hospitals.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The average safety-net hospital provided seven times as much uncompensated care, more than twice as many emergency department visits, and nearly three times as many nonemergency outpatient visits as other U.S. hospitals in 2019.
About half (51%) of essential hospital discharges in 2019 were people from racial and ethnic minority groups and three-quarters were uninsured or covered by Medicaid or Medicare.
Communities served by safety-nets reported nearly 10 million people with limited access to healthful food, 370,000 who at some point were homeless, 14.4 million uninsured, and more than 22 million living below the poverty line.