South Florida's 63 hospitals grew their combined net income by 39 percent from 2017 to 2018, largely due to heightened investment in outpatient facilities and practices, South Florida Business Journal reports.
Hospitals in the region posted a combined $1.2 billion in net income in 2018, up from $858 million in 2017. Combined net revenue increased just 0.5 percent, and combined profit margin increased from 5.5 percent to 7.68 percent.
In line with national trends, South Florida hospitals are strategically buying outpatient facilities to obtain higher reimbursement and improve profit margins as inpatient admissions decline.
The hospitals are seeing admissions drop because procedures such as joint replacement surgery are increasingly migrating to ASCs, according to Shutts & Bowen attorney James Farrell, who was interviewed by the Business Journal.
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