Skip to content
Business
Link copied to clipboard

Outpatient centers unaffected by recession

Pennsylvania's outpatient-surgery centers have been holding their own during tough economic times that have cut profit at competing hospitals, according to an annual financial report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.

Pennsylvania's outpatient-surgery centers have been holding their own during tough economic times that have cut profit at competing hospitals, according to an annual financial report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.

Nineteen ambulatory-surgery centers opened in the state last year, bringing the total to 262. There were only 72 of the specialized facilities in 2000.

Total margins at the outpatient centers held steady at about 26 percent for fiscal 2008 and 2009, up from 24 percent in fiscal 2007. Between fiscal 2007 and 2009, total margins at general acute hospitals fell from 6.6 percent to 2.1 percent.

The margins cannot be compared directly because the totals at outpatient centers generally do not reflect physician income and income tax. Surgical-center margins would be lower if those expenses were included, said Stephanie Suran, communications manager.

Hospitals often argue that the outpatient centers weaken their bottom line by attracting well-insured patients and focusing on relatively profitable surgical procedures. Hospitals, which must treat all comers and offer a much broader array of services, say they then find it harder to subsidize care for poor patients.

The centers contend that they are more convenient and efficient.

According to the report, the independently licensed surgery centers do serve a smaller percentage of poor patients. The surgery centers said that 4.1 percent of patients having procedures were covered by Medicaid, compared with 11 percent of similar patients at hospital outpatient units.