Portland-based Oregon Health & Science University has narrowed its projected operating loss after performing better than expected in the first two months of the fiscal year beginning July 1. 

Chicago-based CommonSpirit saw its total operating revenue grow by 10% year over year to $37.5 billion in fiscal 2024. Net patient revenues were $34 billion, up from $30.4 billion, and premium revenues were $1.5 billion, up from $1.4 billion. 

Here are 10 revenue cycle management updates that Becker's reported in September: 

Median health systems margins decreased to 1.9% in August, a fourth straight month of declines, according to Strata Decision Technology's Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks report released in September.

Chicago-based CommonSpirit reported a $581 million operating loss (-1.5% margin) in the fiscal year ending June 30, improving on the $1.3 billion loss (-3.6% margin) the previous fiscal year.

Springfield, Ill.-based Hospital Sisters Health System reported an operating loss of $385.7 million (-13.8% margin) in fiscal year 2024, compared to an operating loss of $93.5 million (-3.2% margin)  in 2023, according to its Sept. 28 financial report. 

Beth Israel Lahey Health is eliminating jobs as it navigates rising costs, a spokesperson for the Cambridge, Mass.-based system confirmed to Becker's Sept. 28. 

Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Health is cutting about 200 positions, with a majority of the cuts coming from its health plan division. 

Flint, Mich.-based Insight Health System launched as a small physician office in 2006 and has evolved into a multistate hospital system with more than 5,000 employees and $450 million in revenue. 

Gov. Maura Healey has seized control of Dallas-based Steward Health Care's St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, Mass., through eminent domain to ensure the hospital remains open and transfers operations to Boston Medical Center. 

Improving a health system's margins goes beyond cost-cutting in today's challenging healthcare landscape; it requires mastering the fundamentals and creating alignment throughout the organization. 

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente will lay off 43 employees across several of its California locations Nov. 22, according to multiple WARN notices obtained by Becker's. 

Here are 20 health systems' net patient service revenues for the three months ended June 30 along with the year-over-year percentage increase: 

Two studies released days apart explore nonprofit hospitals' tax-exempt status; one study focuses on the benefits hospitals receive, the other on the benefits hospitals provide.

Chicago-based CommonSpirit posted a $581 million operating loss (-1.5% margin) in fiscal year 2024, up from an operating loss of $1.3 billion (-3.6% margin) posted in 2023, according to its Sept. 26 financial report. 

WoodBridge Healthcare, a nonprofit organization led by healthcare veteran Joshua Nemzoff, plans to acquire Commonwealth Health, a three-hospital system part of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. 

In a reversal, Maryland will contract with Kaiser Permanente as a Medicaid managed care organization in 2025.

Claims denials continue to torment providers, and the challenge is growing, according to a Sept. 24 report from Experian Health. 

Exeter (N.H.) Hospital, a 100-bed hospital part of Cambridge, Mass.-based Beth Israel Lahey Health, has agreed to delay multiple planned service cuts, according to a Sept. 25 announcement from New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella.

Moody's has lowered St. Louis-based Ascension's outlook to negative from stable.