Medicaid expansion, federal cuts make health-care a top state issue

Health care remains a major issue in Virginia. A proposed expansion of health coverage to uninsured Virginians through the use of Medicaid dollars last year resulted in a months-long budget standoff.  The impasse was resolved (with no expansion) when the resignation of a Democratic state senator tipped the balance of power in that body.

The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association has supported Medicaid expansion. The group says cuts in federal payments to Virginia health-care providers are expected to hit $448 million this year. Seventeen of 38 rural Virginia hospitals had negative operating margins in 2013, according to data collected by Richmond-based Virginia Health Information.

Virginia’s top hospitals in terms of net patient revenue continue to be VCU Health System, Inova Fairfax Hospital and the University of Virginia Medical Center, according to 2013 data from Virginia Health Information. Each of the three hospitals had more than $1 billion in net patient revenue, with VCU edging ahead of Inova, the previous leader, in 2013. 

New to the list is Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center in Chesterfield County, which opened in 2005. The median net patient revenue for the 25 hospitals on the list is roughly $400 million. 

Anthem remains by far the leading health insurer in Virginia in terms of premiums collected in the commonwealth.  The company insures about 3 million people in Virginia.

Anthem announced in February that it had suffered a massive security breach involving the records of 80 million people throughout the country, including past and present customers, and employees.

Woodbine Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Alexandria, a 307-bed facility, remains the top nursing facility in Virginia in net patient revenue, with nearly $31 million in 2013.

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