According to a report from Thomson Reuters, U.S. hospitals maintained their operating margins through the third quarter of 2008. But steep investment losses pushed 50 percent of them into the red for 2008, resulting in a “near-zero” median margin for the industry. The bottom quartile of hospitals posted average losses of 7 percent or more for the year.

Meanwhile, the recession-fueled increase in the numbers of uninsured and Medicaid patients is making hospitals’ financial position worse this year. The rout has been compounded by a drop in the number of surgeries, which have affected 44 percent of the hospitals in the survey.

What are you seeing with hospitals in your marketplace? How will this impact home health care?

One trend we observe is that when hospital census is down, home health referrals drop off as well. Are you seeing a decline in your hospital referrals?

Another trend we have seen in the past is that when financial performance lags, hospital executives decide to exit the home health business. With many hospital based home health agencies losing money anyway, look for some executives to cut their losses and get out of the business. If so, this will be a great time to pick up some market share. It will also be a time for strategic buyers to move into your marketplace, acquire the hospital based agency, and become your new competitor.

What are you seeing? Give us your comments below.