Margins Slipping? Tools For Managing Costs

These are challenging times for health and human service provider organizations—and the margins show it. The median hospital operating margin in February 2022 was -3.45 percent, up from -4.52 percent in January. "Still well below sustainable levels," according to Kaufman Hall's "National Hospital Flash Report: March 2022." Not surprisingly, more than half of rural hospitals in 15 states are at high risk of closure (see In 15 States More Than 50% Of Rural Hospitals Are At Risk Of Closure).

And it's not just hospitals. Between 2016 and 2019, the operating margins for both rural and . . .