Nashville General Hospital recorded an operating loss of $41.1 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017, and required $50.2 million from the Metro Nashville/Davidson County Government to stay afloat, according to its audited financial statements.
A review of the income statement summary suggests that $29.8 million of that loss was due to “allowances and discounts,” or writeoffs of bad debts.
Here’s a summary of what that income statement looks like:
Year ended June 30, 2017
Total Patient Revenue: $ 72,250,432
Allowance & discounts (writeoffs): 29,859,449
Net Patient Revenue: 42,390,983Operating Loss: 41,187,886
Amount Received from Metro Government: 50, 296,226
A more thorough examination of the financial statements reveals another stunning fact.
Nashville General Hospital provides care without charge to those who meet certain requirements. These amounts are not reported as revenue. For the year ended June 30, 2017 the amount of “charity care” revenue not reported in revenue was $40,318,922.
“The Hospital provides care to patients who meet certain criteria under its charity care policy without charges or at amounts less than its established customary rates,” page 16 of Nashville General Hospital’s FY 2017 Financial Statements says.
“Since the Hospital does not pursue collection of accounts determined to qualify as charity care, they are not reported as revenue,” the report continues.
The cost associated with delivering that free “charity care” was in excess of $15 million in FY 2017.
The financial statements provide no information as to what those “certain requirements” were for patients who received free “charity care.”
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017 the Metro Nashville/Davidson County Government had allocated “approximately $35 million” to the General Hospital. However, the Hospital was still suffering losses and required an additional infusion of $16 million, for a total of $50.2 million.
For the year ended June 30, 2017 the Hospital provided $70,178,371 in free Hospital/medical care (adding the $29.8 million in writeoffs and the $40.3 million in “charity care.”
This raises the obvious question, which neither Metro Nashville officials nor Nashville General Hospital officials have directly addressed: Who received this $70.1 million of free hospital care?
The total amount of financial support provided to Nashville General Hospital by Metro Nashville for the fiscal year that ends later this month on June 30, 2018 is not yet known.
Mayor David Briley’s FY 2019 budget currently allocates $46.1 million to support Nashville General Hospital, but that number may end up being higher.
Prior to her resignation in March of this year, former Mayor Megan Barry proposed shutting down Nashville General Hospital, but subsequently changed her mind.
You can read a summary of the key elements of the FY 2017 Financial Statements for Nashville General Hospital here:
hospital.docs.02
