New York non-profit hospitals in the red

Hospitals throughout this country are operating in the red. Most of them make up the difference through local taxes or local philanthropy. The total financial results from all sources of funding are what is critical. Hospitals, though generally charitable in mission, must have a positive bottom line in order to survive. Philanthropy and taxes are generally what make community hospitals viable over the long term for their communities. The added burden that hospitals have of payments from Medicare and Medicaid that do not cover costs and from unfunded patients increases the challenge. The local, state, and Federal governments continue to mandate new services to these underfunded groups as well as the costs of the solutions of the very real problems identified by the Institutes of Medicine in their studies make it nearly impossible to survive on what hospitals are paid. There continue to be demands for increased services, improved technologies, and reduced costs. Since medicine and hospitals in particular are very dependent on people to provide services, and new medical technologies tend to increase the demand for higher trained personnel without reducing the previous demand, they are unable to obtain the same economies from new technology that other industries claim. The only way to repair the situation is to bring all health care under one payment system across the nation with adjustments for the costs of real estate and personnel by region.