The Obama Diary

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Bruce Japsen: Hospital Profits Soar As Obamacare Prescribes More Paying Patients

Hospital operators continue to see profits and revenue not seen in a decade thanks to the Affordable Care Act and related efforts to sign up uninsured patients to coverage so facilities can reduce unpaid medical bills. Large hospital operators HCA Holdings HCA +2.78% (HCA), Tenet Healthcare THC +2.5% (THC) and Community Health Systems (CYH) in the last month issued robust 2014 earnings, revenues and large declines in uncompensated care costs, a key measure of expenses.

“We reported Tenet’s strongest quarterly EBITDA in more than 10 years,” Tenet chief executive officer Trevor Fetter boasted last week of a key earnings acronym in the hospital chain’s 2014 fourth quarter. Hospital operators are reporting more paying patients and fewer uninsured, which means far fewer unpaid medical bills. “For the last four quarters, the decline in self-pay admits and adjusted admits and the increase in Medicaid in expansion states have grown quarter over quarter,” Community Health CFO Larry Cash said.

More here

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Obamacare passed five years ago this month. Here’s what happened to the private sector since: onforb.es/1aP6xY4 http://t.co/xUBQhZ2hLV

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Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 06, 2025

Hospital operators continue to see profits & revenue not seen in a decade, thanks to the Affordable Care Act: onforb.es/1GEKMo0

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  (@Forbes) March 02, 2025

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CBO lowers the 10-year cost of ACA marketplace subsidies by $209 billion from what it projected in January. cbo.gov/sites/default/…

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Larry Levitt (@larry_levitt) March 09, 2025

BOOM: Latest quarterly Gallup poll shows uninsured rate down to 12.3% (or lower!) acasignups.net/15/03/04/boom-… http://t.co/LMMQ37AlHE

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  (@LOLGOP) March 08, 2025

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87% of people signing up on healthcare.gov qualify for premium subsidies & 60% qualify for cost-sharing help. aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports…

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Larry Levitt (@larry_levitt) March 10, 2025

CBO: Net +12M people had health insurance last year bc of Obamacare. Sees +7M more this year and +5M more in 2016. http://t.co/zXxdvhYoEw

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Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) January 26, 2025