Hospital margins in the black in December after 11 months of losses: Report

Hospitals managed to snap an 11-month streak of negative operating margins in December, though the turnaround is little consolation to a sector that weathered “the worst financial year since the start of the pandemic,” according to a report by consultant Kaufman, Hall & Associates L.L.C., reports Fierce Healthcare. Returning patient volumes and gradual easing of the “competitive” labor market helped hospitals recover over the course of the year, Kaufman Hall wrote, culminating in December, when hospitals finally posted  a 0.2% operating margin index.