You think your budget is tight?  Try being a New York state-based non-profit hospital. The state's 218 non-profit facilities lost a collective $95.4 million in 2005, putting them at 49th in the country for operating margins, according to the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS). HANYS [1] said that 56 percent of the state's non-profits are losing money, breaking even or running margins of less than 1 percent, a dismal situation given that non-profits typically need margins of 4 percent or more to fulfill their charitable missions. I'm sure such stats will help get hospitals fired up to join the HANYS political action committee, which helped to block a planned $770 million in 2006 state Medicare cuts. A pessimist might say, though, that a mere PAC can do little to repair the larger structural problems that impact hospitals today.

For more information:
- read the HANYS press release [2]
- read this article [3] in Business First of Buffalo

Related Articles:
- IRS to investigate non-profit hospitals. Article [4]
- At MA hospitals, non-profit CEO pay draws fire. Article [5]
- Non-profits face community benefit scrutiny. Article [6]