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Happy Thursday, Hospitalogists!

I'm back from SF and the Rock Health Summit where we learned about obesity treatment & GLP-1s, food as medicine, what healthcare might look like in 2040, along with connecting with brilliant thinkers and builders across the ecosystem. It's a great time to be in healthcare.

Thanks to Rock Health for having me out!

As I'm getting back into the swing of things, I'm using some nonprofit health system data I have off the shelf, and we're diving into how some of the large regional players are performing as of Q2.

We'll stop being SO hospital focused next week - back to regularly scheduled programming starting Tuesday (i.e., Tuesday = news; Thursday = essay/analysis)

Nonprofit Trend Analysis

After finishing the series on for-profit hospital operators, I'm turning Hospitalogist attention today to nonprofit performance. I shared this graphic before for operating margin in Q1, and now the results below include margin change for the first half of 2024 (so, 6 months).

As you can see, there's a lot of green:

The next 3 tables and graphics present the following while comparing 1H 2024 vs. 1H 2023 periods:

• Total Net Revenue (at some point I will break this down into patient revenue vs. other revenue I promise)
• Revenue year over year growth
• Net income, net income margin
• Operating Cash flow generation and cash flows as a % of revenue

For those large regional nonprofits that have disclosed Q2 financials, median revenue growth hit 9.5% over the first half of 2023 with Sutter Health and AdventHealth leading the way:

Moving over to net income, nonprofit endowments clearly are seeing an outsized benefit as the market has seen strong returns in 2024 to date.

Since net income incorporates these investment returns marked-to-market, we've seen a decent amount of margin appreciation.

Median net income margin expanded to 7.7%, 0.2% higher than that of a year ago. 

Finally, I got some feedback from some of you that you'd be interested in seeing operating cash flow generation. So I grabbed those numbers this time and compared health systems on operating cash flow as a % of overall revenue.

There are probably some timing things involved with an analysis like this, but it's still directionally correct and seems to tell the story that operating cash flows on an aggregate basis are stronger at this point in the year than they were one year ago:

That's it for Hospitalogy this week! Now a quick but important community update from me. I would really appreciate it if you gave it a read and considered joining! 

A Community Update for Hospitalogists

TL;DR - I'm introducing new pricing tiers (including a free tier) for Hospitalogist readers to join my community! For those in strategy, operations, and finance roles at & around hospitals & provider organizations, Apply here.

I wanted to share an exciting community update for Hospitalogy newsletter subscribers that has been a long time coming!

For those of you who don't know, I run a community of healthcare strategy, finance, and operations professionals working in health systems and provider organizations. It's been around for about a year and a half and we've grown into a thoughtful, collaborative group of Hospitalogists. 

Every month, we get together to talk about the latest happenings in healthcare (innovation at the intersection of digital health and health systems / provider organizations, GLP-1s, AI scribes, utilization trends, health system economic dynamics, legitimacy of value-based care, ICHRA, private equity, healthcare in an election year, etc).

I also share exclusive original content and research reports, and of course, there are networking opportunities and other typical community perks. 

But the truth is I want more of you guys around.

And what we've found is that price has been a major deterrent for a lot of you, which doesn't align with the spirit of fostering and growing a high-quality community long-term.

So I've been advocating for about 12 months now hard at work discussing with the Workweek team on how we can provide the most possible value for my community while making it viable from a business perspective, and I think we've ended up in an awesome spot.

We're introducing new lower pricing options - including a free tier so that you can check things out and think about whether you want to get all of the full Hospitalogist membership perks. And the new middle tier is the best value in healthcare, if you ask me. I'm biased, though!

So, who should apply?

You still need to submit an application to join the community! We are currently limiting the community to those with 5+ years of experience - namely, VPs and Directors in strategy, operations, and finance-related roles at provider organizations.

Still - if you're interested at all you should apply, because we will be taking applications on a case-by-case basis!

If you want to join the paid tier but can't swing the cost, please reach out and let me know.

This is the next phase of growth for Hospitalogy, and I'm thankful to be in a position where I can help others advance their careers and move the conversation forward in healthcare.

Join me on this membership journey!!

Join my Virtual Event with Lumeris on 9/24!

What are YOU doing on Tuesday, 9/24?

How about diving into value-based strategies for health systems with me?

Join a great panel of guests who live and breath health system strategy. We'll dive into the deep end on all things health systems and how they're actively being impacted by vertical integration, revenue diversification, the future of VBC, and more.

Come for actionable insights and strategies, along with our takes for what’s next in 2025.

Bring your questions because there's a live Q&A! Register below.

Thanks for the read! Let me know what you thought by replying back to this email.

— Blake