Profitable Hospitals are Not More Expensive
r = 0.05 correlation between operating margin and price (n=262)
Operating margin is not associated with price: profitable and unprofitable hospitals charge about the same. High prices are not explained by financial need. Each point below is one hospital; the fit line is nearly flat.
Method: Pearson correlation across 262 hospitals with both an HCRIS FY2023 operating margin and a commercial price score. Margins beyond +/-60% excluded as accounting artifacts. Specialty facilities excluded.
Verification: Cross-validated statistic
Data: recomputed on data refresh. Source: each hospital's CMS-mandated machine-readable file (45 CFR 180).