SAN FRANCISCO — If you learned anything about nonprofit hospitals on the first day of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, it’s that they’ve all but abandoned the prospect of making significant profit on patient care. Instead, they’re fully throwing their weight into other ways of making money — things like developing drugs or selling insurance.
Making money outside of patient care — or “revenue diversification,” if you prefer industry jargon — has always made appearances on hospital slides at the annual investor conference in San Francisco. This year, though, hospital executives are projecting a sense of urgency around growing profit in other areas to make up for losing money on their bread and butter: taking care of patients in hospitals.
“It used to be nice to have, but now it’s a must-have, especially for not-for-profit health systems,” Niyum Gandhi, the chief financial officer of Boston’s Mass General Brigham said in an interview with STAT after his presentation.