SACRAMENTO: Sutter Health’s Central Area Posts 1999 Loss
Sutter Health System's Sacramento-based Central Area suffered a $15 million-loss in patient care last year, the Sacramento Business Journal reports. Improved finances for the system as a whole and an investment income of $10 million "softened the blow," but the poor performance in Sacramento -- "long the powerhouse of the Sutter system" -- still hit hard, with Sutter Central reporting a final net loss last year of $5 million on $708 million in revenue. Overall, the health system ended the year with a net income of $51 million on $2.9 billion in revenue and a net operating profit of $4 million generated from its 27-hospital network in Northern California. In 1998, Sutter Central's six hospitals netted $5.7 million in income on revenue of $713.7 million, while the entire system was in the red by $7.8 million. Sarah Krevans, executive vice president for Sutter's Eastern Division, said, "It's quite a drop for Sutter locally -- but hospitals are struggling all over and this is not a one-year trend." Krevans attributed the loss, which stemmed largely from the system's hospital business, to poor health plan rates, reduced federal reimbursements and managed care's dominance in the Sacramento area. She added that the officials currently have no plans for drastic cost-cutting measures in the Sacramento area, but instead will "try other things first." Among the changes on tap: standardizing supply purchases and improving collection of monies owed (Robertson, 5/8).
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