Even as UPMC saw its admissions slide at the outset of 2019, the academic health system managed to draw more revenue per day on the outpatient side.
Pittsburgh-based UPMC Thursday reported a 3.6% drop in hospital medical-surgical admissions in the first quarter of 2019, which ended March 31. UPMC saw about 89,600 such cases in the first quarter of 2019, down from about 91,700 in the prior-year period.
Even as admissions declined, hospital outpatient revenue per workday increased 8% compared with the prior year. Physician service revenue per weekday grew 9% year-over-year. UPMC did not provide overall outpatient revenue figures.
Observation cases rose 1.5% in the quarter year-over-year, to about 24,000. Home health visits grew by 8.3% year-over-year, and hospice care days by 25%.
UPMC's operating margin rounded out the first quarter of the year at 1%, down from 2% in the first quarter of 2018. Including income tax and interest expenses, UPMC's operating margin was just 0.1% in the first quarter of 2019, compared with 1% in the prior-year period.
UPMC's operating margin stood at 0.9% at the end of 2018. The health system's operating income declined 44.6% in the first quarter to $51 million, compared with $92 million in the first quarter of 2018.
UPMC's revenue jumped 10.4% year over year to $5 billion in the first quarter of 2019, compared with $4.6 billion in the prior-year period. Expenses rose 11.5% during the same period, rounding out the first quarter of 2019 at $5 billion.
UPMC's net income served as a bright spot on its financial report, jumping nearly threefold in the quarter to $289 million, compared with $97 million in the prior-year period.
The 40-hospital health system reported operating earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization of $206 million in the first quarter of 2019, down from $245 million in the first quarter of 2018.
Enrollment in UPMC's health plan grew 3% to 3.5 million members as of March 31.
UPMC is divided into health services, insurance services and enterprise divisions. Its health services division drew $3 billion of its revenue in the first quarter, and its operating income declined year-over-year due to higher pension costs, expense inflation and increased physician investment. On the insurance side, the $2.6 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2019 represented a 17.4% increase, which the health system said was due to membership growth of more than 100,000 year-over-year.
UPMC Pinnacle closed its Lancaster, Pa., hospital on March 1, moving inpatient services to UPMC Pinnacle Lititz, which the system described as a more modern acute-care hospital seven miles away. It's part of a comprehensive plan to ensure continued availability of services in the Lancaster area.
A federal judge last month dismissed UPMC's lawsuit that sought to block the Pennsylvania attorney general's attempt to force UPMC to keep its provider network open to Highmark Health enrollees even after the consent decree between the two systems expires June 30.
