New York-Presbyterian Hospital ended the first half of the year with a solid margin as insurers paid more and demand for outpatient care increased.
The hospital, which includes six campuses, operates in New York's competitive market and recently invested $1.1 billion to build an ambulatory center scheduled to open in 2017.
Greater demand for care outside the hospital helped boost revenue and increase New York-Presbyterian's operating surplus by 6.9% for the first six months of the year compared with the same period the year before. Outpatient clinic visits declined by 2.2% between January and the end of June compared with the same six months the prior year, but emergency department visits, ambulatory surgery and mental health clinic visits all increased.
The hospital reported a surplus of $107.1 million for the six months on revenue of $2.3 billion, for a margin of 4.6%. That's compared to the 4.5% margin for the same period a year ago.
The hospital's revenue also benefited from higher rates from insurers and a growing number of commercially insured patients. Patients with commercial insurance accounted for 55% of the hospital's business in the first half of the year compared with 53% in the same period the year before.
The system added more than 300 full-time employees to its payroll during the six months compared with the first half of the prior year. That growth contributed to a 6.2% increase in operating expenses, which the hospital has worked to hold down in recent years. The hospital ended a three-year effort to slash operating expenses by $150 million in 2014 and told investors in February that officials would identify and adopt new financial improvement strategies this year.
A drop in investment income dragged down New York-Presbyterian's net surplus by 19% to $141.6 million.
For the quarter that ended in June, New York-Presbyterian Hospital reported an operating surplus of $74.6 million on revenue of $1.2 billion.
