Brazil’s private sector hospitals witness drop in net revenue for the first time in last decade

 

According to information provided by Valor Econômico, ANAHP (National Association of Private Hospitals) recorded a drop in revenue in 2015 for the first instance in last ten years. The net revenue of the 22 largest private hospitals fell by 1.8% in 2015 to BRL 8.3 billion as compared to 2014. However, the expenses were up by 8.3%, which sharply reduced margins. The reduction in margins is visible after comparing the change in net income and expenditure per patient-day in 2015 over 2014. Net revenue per patient day rose 3.5%, while the expenditure per patient day increased 9.4% over the same period. Even the hiring of employees in 2015 also witnessed the impact of the slowdown. ANAHP suggests that private hospitals probably ended the year with a growth of just 4.1% in hiring as against 11.6% in 2014, totaling 54,000 employees. The healthcare sector registered strong growth over the past few years encouraged by the good performance of the labor market and the economy; the change of scenario is a reflection of the interruption of expanding the number of beneficiaries in the health insurance, which had grown at an average rate of 3.1% over 2010–2014. 2015 witnessed a loss of 0.9% of health plan beneficiaries representing the loss of 449,000 beneficiaries. As a consequence of reducing the number of beneficiaries, the use of emergency rescue services fell 7.2% in 2015. The number of growth surgeries also declined in private sector hospitals in 2015 as compared to previous years. The number of surgeries grew by only 0.4% in 2015, whereas 2014 represented an increase of 5.5%.