Washington Healthcare News banner

Washington Healthcare News Survey Results



      April 2010 Survey: Are Washington hospitals making making too much money?


        Results:  No = 1 responses,  Yes = 17 responses   (responses updated every 24 hours)
Response Response Date Why?
Yes April 6, 2010 The report you show on your web site shows the top 20 hospitals in WA made over $700 million (in total) through 09/30/09. I thought they were "non-profit" companies!
Yes April 7, 2010 My wife's bill for an ER stay, elongated by request of the staff was $14,000-- The tests were all routine. There were no negative findings..(name provided but not published)
Yes April 7, 2010 No additional comments.
Yes April 7, 2010 Many do, generally yes. Swedish's YTD net of $115,825,492 through 9/09 translates into a profit of $1,134.42 per hospital day. This is astounding, but Good Sam's is $1,870!
Yes April 7, 2010 They are getting money from everyone and everywhere and still not working with health plans that serve the underinsured.
Yes April 7, 2010 No additional comments.
Yes April 7, 2010 If they weren't making too much they couldn't afford to pay the CEO salaries that they do! It is amazing that people complain about the high cost of health care but never seem to realize that their local hospital that they love is guilty of helping drive up those costs.
Yes April 7, 2010 No additional comments.
No April 7, 2010 No additional comments.
Yes April 7, 2010 Your calculations understate the profitability of these hospitals. Instead of working with billed charges you should use net revenue. This figure represents the actual dollars received by the hospitals - more in line with the health plan calculations. Using this methodology for Swedish, their 2009 Year End op margin is 7.8% and their total margin (including non-op gains) is 16.5%. Total profit 09 ye $145,592,000 (from DOH website). Is that too much? The story is similar for most on the list.
Yes April 8, 2010 Too profitable and much too inefficient. New research shows that hospitals that don’t have the market leverage to charge high prices from private insurers have been able to survive on, and even profit from, Medicare payments. This suggests that the ability to make up for low government payments by charging extra to private insurers may make hospitals less efficient.
Yes April 8, 2010 No additional comments.
Yes April 8, 2010 No additional comments.
Yes April 8, 2010 This is single biggest driver of increases in health care costs that drive increase in insurance premium.
Yes April 8, 2010 No additional comments.
Yes April 9, 2010 The answer is really yes AND no. Some hospitals make a lot of money others do not. Small hospitals struggle to survive while others pay exhorbitant CEO salaries to people who are leading non-profit hospital organizations.
Yes April 16, 2010 They are incredibly wasteful institutions, functioning as local monopolies. Health plans have no clout over them.
Yes April 21, 2010 On one hand they complain about declining revenue and on the other they move to build new facilities. The inefficiencies and lack of knowledge regarding best practices is one challenge. Another problem is the tendency for top management to be self aggrandizing and who thinks an individual well under 30 with less then 5 years experience has the maturity and depth to be a VP?