Top 50 hospitals in the U.S. by net patient revenue

What hospitals have the highest net patient revenue?

The top U.S. hospital by net patient revenue is New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center with a total net patient revenue of $9.3 billion. Located in the largest city in the U.S., this hospital’s high patient volume is a key source of its higher net patient revenue. In fact, the short-term acute care hospital also ranks highly on our list of hospitals with the highest number of patient discharges.

In second place is St. Luke’s University Hospital – Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with an NPR of $8.9 billion. As the headquarters of the nonprofit St. Luke’s University Health Network, the University Hospital in Bethlehem is one of 15 campuses and over 300 outpatient sites in the network.

The third top hospital on our list is Tisch Hospital, also located in New York City, with $7.2 billion in net patient revenue. Like New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, Tisch Hospital also sees a high volume of patients.

What types of hospitals have the highest net patient revenue?

Definitive Healthcare tracks nine different hospital types in the HospitalView product:

• Children’s hospitals
• Critical access hospitals
• Department of Defense (DoD) hospitals
• Long-term acute care hospitals
• Psychiatric hospitals
• Rehabilitation hospitals
• Religious non-medical health care institutions
• Short-term acute care hospitals
• VA hospitals

Of the top 50 hospitals listed above, 47 of them are short-term acute care hospitals and three are children’s hospitals. Short-term acute care hospitals are the most prevalent hospital type in the U.S., accounting for more than half of all hospitals. Children’s hospitals also tend to report higher net patient revenue than other types of hospitals due to a greater reliance on commercial insurance over Medicare.

What is the average net patient revenue of hospitals?

In the United States, the average hospital net patient revenue is about $237 million. The average NPR for the top 50 hospitals listed above is $3.9 billion.

The combined net patient revenue of the top 50 hospitals accounts for 14% of the total net patient revenue among hospitals in the U.S.

What makes a hospital profitable?

Many factors play into the profitability of a hospital or health system. Some of the richest hospitals in the U.S. likely benefit from factors such as location, health system affiliations, process improvement, and multiple revenue streams.

Hospitals in urban areas, specifically, those that are part of a large health system, are more likely to have higher profit margins and excess revenue.

Additionally, activities beyond patient care, such as investments, retail pharmacy sales, managed care premiums, and reimbursement from quality programs can potentially increase total hospital revenue.

How many of the top hospitals by NPR are part of a health system?

Of the factors that influence the profitability of a hospital, being part of a larger health system is very prevalent in this list of top 50 hospitals by NPR. Among the top hospitals listed above, 48 are part of a health system.

While many of them do not belong to the top health systems by net patient revenue, having health system affiliation alone can increase the likelihood of having more affiliated facilities, potentially driving access to more patients and higher net patient revenue.

Interestingly, Methodist Hospital in San Antonio—the 50th and final hospital on our list— belongs to HCA Healthcare, the highest-earning and largest IDN in the U.S.

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