Hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid have benefited from declining uncompensated care costs and increased Medicaid revenue during the years from 2013 to 2017, a cushion that could put them in a better position to financially recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Medicaid revenue remained mostly unchanged. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid while 12 states have not.
- For hospitals in non-expansion states, uncompensated care costs rose during the same period.
- Mean operating margins declined in both expansion and non-expansion states in 2016 and 2017. But, those in expansion states faced slightly higher decreases.
- Research from June found rural hospitals, in particular, performed better in expansion states. The financial benefits of the hospitals have been seen from Medicaid expansion.
- From 2013 to 2017, mean annual uncompensated care costs as a share of total expenses declined by 1.8 percentage points for hospitals in expansion states. For hospitals in non-expansion states, those costs rose 0.5 percentage points.