NYU Langone’s hospitals recorded a 5.2% margin last quarter, continuing to operate in the black as medical centers across the country brace for funding cuts spearheaded by the Trump administration.
The Midtown East-based hospital system earned a $113 million surplus in the second quarter of its fiscal year, which spans from December to February, according to a financial statement released Wednesday. NYU Langone, which includes six hospitals and more than 300 outpatient clinics, brought in $2.5 billion in revenue during that time, up 10% from the previous year. The health system recently acquired Long Island Community Hospital in East Patchogue, now NYU Langone –Suffolk, adding a seventh inpatient facility to its cohort, but because the hospital officially became a part of NYU in March, its financials were not included in the most recent combined statement for the system’s hospitals.
Although NYU hospitals earned a large margin last quarter, the extra cash helps offset losses from the system’s two medical schools. NYU Langone Health, which includes the Grossman Schools of Medicine in Manhattan and Long Island, earned a 2.3% margin last quarter, lower than the margin recorded by hospitals alone but a reversal of system-wide losses last year, the financial statement shows.
“The hospitals are really their cash cow,” said Dr. Ge Bai, a professor of health policy and accounting at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who reviewed the financial statement.
NYU Langone is one of the city’s wealthiest hospital systems, and continues to record high margins year after year because of volume growth and high quality, said Joseph Lhota, chief financial officer of NYU Langone. The hospital system has remained in the black as it prepares for potential funding cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration, some of which have already gone through.
Lhota said that the impact from losses in federal funding so far is “negligible.”
“I can count on my hands the number of grants that have been suspended,” Lhota told Crain’s. Despite the minimal impact so far, Lhota said that NYU continues to monitor its expenses to prepare for potential cuts to research dollars in the future, including by implementing an across-the-board 2% cost-cutting program after Trump won the presidential election in November. He said that the system has looked to pare back expenses on travel or medical conferences to ensure that the health system can cover necessary expenditures.
“There are a lot of things going on in Washington,” Lhota said. “We have to be prepared for whatever decisions come.”
