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You can search for more reports, because they do vary based on methodology. But the median hospital in the US makes between -1% (yes, negative, they lose money,
by HEmanZ 2mo ago
You can search for more reports, because they do vary based on methodology. But the median hospital in the US makes between -1% (yes, negative, they lose money, because a huge percentage are non profits) and 4% depending on the source.
When the hospital charges you $37 for an aspirin, that singular pill might have a crazy profit margin in isolation. But your entire treatment could very well be losing the hospital money.
In my own anecdotal experience, the one hospital I know enough details about to comment on specifically, had something like 85% of patients costing the hospital more money than the hospital made. It was entirely funded by the relatively small number of people who had the “right” insurance and had the “right” procedures done.
Eg Kaufman: https://www.vizient.com/insights/reports/national-hospital-flash-report/may-2026-data https://www.vizient.com/insights/reports/national-hospital-f...
- jasonlotito 2mo agofyi: Your link returns a 404 for me. Oops! We can't find the page you're looking for
- joquarky 2mo agoNot buying any of this when the world is now full of dark patterns¹ and the ultimate result is that people in charge keep getting richer, faster. ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
- 93po 2mo agoThis is immediately what came to mind to me. You can be extremely profitable but paying out tens of billions in dividends, or a million other things.
- loeg 2mo agoDividends aren't a Loss.
- s1artibartfast 2mo agomany hospitals are run by non-profits or the government (e.g. universities)
- mitchdoogle 2mo agoHow do the salaries of administrators at such hospitals compare to for profit hospitals? How do they compare to non-medical institutions of similar size? Without a lot more information, your statement doesn't mean anything.
- s1artibartfast 2mo agoMy point was that if it is all Hollywood accounting to scam consumers, then the nonprofits and government hospitals are doing the same thing. Administrator pay scale is completely irrelevant to the point
- jjav 2mo agoIt is a system where all prices and costs are so far detached from reality for multiple reasons, that looking at any current profit margins is not going to be very realistic either. Really need to step back and start from first principles. When I go to urgent care I get 15 minutes with a doctor who on average makes about $300K and maybe another 15 minutes with a nurse assistant who might be making $100K (or less). So that is less than $50 in doctor+nurse salary. Of course there are then all the overhead of rent, utilities, etc, etc but those are not so different from any other business in the same strip mall. So let's say total cost for my visit is maybe $100. But I'm charged $500-$600 for the visit. Someone is pocketing a lot of money and it is not the doctor nor the nurse. We could do the same exercise for surgery, the costs for surgeons and anestethicians is much higher, but you'll be hard pressed to find any realistic scenario where the cost of a two hour surgery is more than $100K.
- shibapuppie 2mo agoHow much does insurance, legal representation, a department to argue with insurers, etc cost the hospital?
- tptacek 2mo agoAbout 8.5% of revenue. This is not a poorly-studied number.
- jjav 1mo ago> a department to argue with insurers, etc cost the hospital? My surgeon friends routinely complain about the inordinate amount of time they personally need to spend fighting with insurance, in the form of filling endless forms that insurance insists must be filled and signed by the doctor. This is in addition to whatever time/cost the hospital staff wastes fighting with insurance paperwork. The surgeon time is not cheap, but the insurance companies expect these doctors to do all this paper pushing for free on top of their day job.
- threethirtytwo 2mo agoIt's the salaries. That's where all the money is going. So that 37$ asperin, the profits... most of it is going to pay salaries. Not just of the doctors but administrators and all that.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2mo agoThe old saw about the engineer who says that the $100,000 bill was $1 for the bolt, and $99,999 for knowing which bolt it was... that's just funny AND true! But if it's a team of nurses, doctors, and other healthcare specialists rushing around doing checklist work to make sure you get that aspirin, that's just evil. The principle is only applicable to our industry and closely adjacent industries.