$91.6M surplus for hospital; UMass system ahead for year.

• Position: NEWS

Byline: Lisa Eckelbecker

WORCESTER - UMass Memorial Health Care Inc. recorded a $91.6 million surplus in its 2009 fiscal year, up 65 percent over the previous year as the health system cut costs, deferred big-ticket purchases, added patients and reversed investment losses.

Even without investments, the health system recorded an operating surplus of $82.8 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, up about 39 percent over the previous year, UMass Memorial is reporting today.

John G. O'Brien, president and chief executive of UMass Memorial, said the system was able to generate a surplus even though funding and spending issues in the early months of the fiscal year caused concern.

"It really was a very, very good comeback," he said.

With about 60 percent of the hospital market share in the region and 12,800 employees, including a doctors' group with 900 physicians, UMass Memorial is the region's dominant health care provider. The system's current fiscal year budget totals $2.3 billion.

The system posted $1.9 billion in net patient revenue in 2009, up 5.9 percent from the previous year. Mr. O'Brien said the system recorded about 56,000 hospital admissions in 2009, up by about 2,000 from the previous year as UMass Memorial sought to capture patients and procedures that otherwise likely would have gone to Boston hospitals.

UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, which includes 781 hospital beds, posted $1.26 billion in patient revenue, a $68 million operating surplus and a $70.6 million total surplus. The system's other hospitals, with a combined total of 344 beds - HealthAlliance hospitals in Fitchburg and Leominster, Clinton Hospital, Marlboro Hospital and Wing Memorial Hospital in Palmer - posted $331 million in patient revenue, a $6.9 million operating surplus and a $7.9 million total surplus, according to UMass Memorial's audited financial statements. Revenue and surpluses at all the hospitals were up from the previous...