This morning’s Quarterly Services Survey (QSS), published by the Census Bureau, showed a decline in revenues for most health services. Overall, revenue shrank 1.5 percent in the third quarter. However, growth versus Q3 2015 was a strong 5.4 percent and YTD growth is up 5.7 percent.Only outpatient care centers, home health services, other ambulatory services, and specialty hospitals reported growth. Revenue at psychiatric hospitals has grown 16.3 percent, Q3 2016 versus Q3 2015, a remarkable growth which I cannot explain. General hospitals’ revenues have finally begun to shrunk, suggesting they have maximized their Obamacare business opportunities.
See Table I below the fold: Continue reading QSS: Health Services Revenue Slides; Hospital Profits Drop →
This morning’s Quarterly Services Survey showed strong revenue growth in health services. Overall, revenues grew 3.6 percent in Q2 versus Q1 and 6.7 percent versus Q2 2015. For the first half, revenues grew 5.9 percent versus H1 2015. Growth was positive in all sectors except specialty hospitals. Physicians’ offices led the growth, at 4.5 percent. This is a turnaround from Q1. Perhaps most surprising was medical and diagnostic labs, for which revenue grew 4.0 percent. Labs have shed jobs, so increasing revenue suggests productivity improvements.
See Table I below the fold: Continue reading QSS: Strong Health Services Revenue Growth in 2nd Quarter →
This morning’s Quarterly Services Survey from the Census Department showed good growth in revenues for health services, but it was inconsistent within the industry. Overall, first quarter revenue grew 0.7 percent from the fourth quarter and 5.2 percent from the first quarter of 2015 (Table I).
Continue reading QSS: Strong But Inconsistent Health Services Revenue Growth →
This morning’s Quarterly Services Survey (QSS) from the Census Bureau showed 2015 was a good year for revenue growth in health services. Overall, fourth quarter revenue grew 1.8 percent on the quarter, 3.7 percent from Q4 2014, and 5.5 percent year on year (Table I).
Revenue growth in psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals really blew the doors off in Q4, increasing 8.2 percent. However, this looks idiosyncratic. Q4 2014 to Q4 2015 growth was only 1.6 percent, and year on year growth was 4.0 percent. Continue reading QSS: Revenue Growth Strong in Health Services, Hospital Profitability Recovered →
The latest Quarterly Services Survey (QSS) showed a dramatic turnaround in hospitals’ fortunes. Quarterly revenues dropped two percent from the 2nd quarter, while offices of physicians and home health services grew over three percent (see Table I). Hospital revenue grew only 5.3 percent from 2014 Q3 to 2015 Q3, but that was still significantly lower than growth for most other health services.
In the previous QSS, I discussed the healthy rise in hospital margins. That has changed dramatically. The Q3 data is subject to revision. Nevertheless, it indicates a dramatic change in hospitals’ fortunes (see Table 2). Continue reading QSS: Dramatic Drop In Hospital Profitability in 3rd Quarter →
This morning’s Quarterly Services Survey (QSS), published by the Census Bureau, reported that:
The estimate of U.S. health care and social assistance revenue for the second quarter of 2015, not adjusted for seasonal variation, or price changes, was $591.3 billion, an increase of 2.2 percent (± 0.8%) from the first quarter of 2015 and up 6.4 percent (± 1.3%) from the second quarter of 2014. The fourth quarter of 2014 to first quarter of 2015 percent change was revised from -0.4 percent (± 1.1%) to -0.5 percent (± 1.1%).
The QSS adds important information to the more widely reported quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Employment Situation Summary (ESS) releases that I frequently discuss on the blog. Continue reading Hospital Margins Up 9 Percent →
The Quarterly Services Survey (QSS) is Census Bureau report that we should be watching to see how health costs are climbing. This blog last looked at it in September 2014. Fortunately, Dr. Drew Altman, CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation has been keeping a close eye on it. His conclusion:
New Evidence Health Spending Growing Faster Again
Analysis of the survey data shows that health spending was 7.3% higher in the first quarter of 2015 than in the first quarter of last year. Hospital spending increased 9.2%. Greater use of health services as well as more people covered by the ACA appear to be responsible for most of the increase. People are beginning to use more physician and outpatient services again as the economy improves. The number of days people spent in hospitals also rose. (Drew Altman, “New Evidence Health Spending Growing Faster Again,” Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2015)
The growth in number of days spent in hospital is very disconcerting. It had been on a downward trend for years. (See page 300 of this CDC report.)
This morning’s Quarterly Services Survey (QSS) released by the Census Bureau reported that hospitals’ revenue rose 4.9 percent from the end of the second quarter in 2013 to the end of the second quarter in 2014. From the first quarter to the second quarter of 2014, it jumped 2.8 percent, overcoming a first quarter drop of minus 0.8 percent. Revenue for ambulatory services rose only 2.4 percent in the same twelve months. It jumped 3.0 percent from the first quarter of 2014, but had dropped 2 percent in the first quarter from the end of 2013.
The QSS surveys a sample of service businesses, and is assuming increasing importance in economic research. It is important because it reveals complementary — and in this case contradictory — data about health spending. As I’ve discussed frequently at this blog, healthcare employment is growing steadily, but not in hospitals. Growth is in the outpatient setting. I had hoped that this indicated that health services were moving out of the high fixed-cost hospital setting and into lower fixed-cost outpatient settings, especially convenient retail clinics.
Continue reading Boom! Hospital Revenue Up 5 Percent in Twelve Months →
Health Care Policy and Reform Insights | NCPA
