Revenue at Atrium Health’s Charlotte and Georgia operations increased 15% last year to $12.59 billion, while net income gained 19% to $1.41 billion.
That revenue mostly comes from the Charlotte area, but includes Atrium’s Georgia operations. The Atrium Health business makes up more than a third of Advocate Health, which had about $32 billion in revenue last year, including its operations in the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas, plus Winston-Salem-based Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health.
Advocate is the third-largest U.S. not-for-profit hospital operator, while Atrium Health is North Carolina’s biggest healthcare system.
During the first nine months of 2024, Advocate reported a surplus of $2.66 billion with revenue of $25.77 billion. (It hasn’t published its full-year results.) The system provides community benefits, such as subsidizing care for low-income patients, that exceed the tax benefits from its nonprofit status, officials say.
Advocate’s net assets total $29.2 billion as of Sept. 30, while long-term debt was $6.67 billion.
Atrium’s net income included operating income of $705 million and $708 million of nonoperating income, mainly reflecting increased values of its stock and bond investments. Both sources were more than double the amount that Atrium had budgeted.
Officials say the gains stemmed from strong patient volumes, the state’s Medicaid supplemental insurance program and pandemic-related grants. That was partly offset by higher costs for labor and drugs.
During the past year, physician visits, outpatient surgeries, newborn deliveries and patient days at Atrium increased by more than 5%. Emergency room visits gained 3.5%, while inpatient surgeries had a 1.9% increase.
Atrium expects to spend about $1.07 billion on capital spending this year, or about 8% of revenue. Operating income is budgeted at $528 million, a 25% decline from the 2024 results. A 3.8% average rate increase was approved by Atrium’s board. U.S. healthcare inflation was 2.8% last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.