The Mayo Clinic, which diligently cut expenses over the past year, started to see those costs creep up again in the first quarter of 2015.
The Rochester, Minn.-based system reported increases in salaries and benefits as well as supply costs that offset a 5.7% gain in revenue for the period ended March 31. Salaries and benefits rose 7%, while supply costs jumped 16.2% at the 24-hospital group.
Mayo did not break out operating statistics, such as patient volume, in its financial filing.
Over the past year, Mayo has made a number of moves to curb expenses. It eliminated nearly 200 medical transcriptionist positions, instead opting to outsource the department. It also began offering scaled-down health benefits with more cost-sharing for employees.
Still, the system reported a decrease in its operating surplus in the first quarter, which fell to $88 million from $155 million in the same period last year. Revenue rose to $2.5 billion from $2.4 billion in the year-ago period.
