By Mary Holloway Richard, Of Counsel

In a recent article in Modern Healthcare, Beth Kutscher identifies a rosier outlook for propriety hospitals than for not-for-profit facilities.

Some of those proprietaries are investor-owned chains, and an important part of their secret of financial health is their access to and reliance upon greater options for marketing services, economies of scale, and other cost saving programs.

Financially positive trends have come on the wings of the Affordable Care Act’s elevated patient volumes, better payor mix and declining expenses associated with bad debts. The proprietaries are concerned with stock prices and earnings and, like a family preparing for continued hard times, they actively pursue all possible ways to decrease expenses, including refinancing higher interest debt.

In largely rural states like Oklahoma, efforts to keep community hospitals alive include shopping for buyers and affiliating with stable hospital systems. However, rural hospitals owned by proprietaries, and even hospitals owned by not-for profit systems, are being taken off the block awaiting a more attractive market.

It is true that we witnessed the acquisition by Community Health Systems, one of the largest publicly-traded companies in the country, of Health Management Associates last year. But even so, CHS may now be eschewing large acquisitions and mergers in favor of other alternatives for financial stabilization.

In healthcare as in other industries, the proprietary sector offers important motivation for the not-for-profits.