As of the July, 2022, release via CMS

WATAUGA MEDICAL CENTER

CMS id: 340051
336 DEERFIELD ROAD, BOONE NC 28607. County: WATAUGA
System: APPALACHIAN REGIONAL HEALTH CARE
CBSA: Boone, NC

The 95-bed, acute-care hospital had $16,398,099 in net service to patients*, with a total profit margin of 15.44682% in fiscal year 2021, the latest year available.
It spent 5.11% of its operating expenses on uncompensated care and reported $0 in Medicaid shortfall.

* For more about Net Service to Patients and operating revenue, please the finance section below.

Note: Medians are from acute-care hospitals with "complete" fiscal years. For more about how we calculated medians and cost reports in general, please click here.

Details

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
# of days in fyear	365	365	365	366	365
Ownership	gov	gov	gov	gov	gov
Acute beds Median	80 118	81 118	81 119.5	81 118	81 119
Total beds Median	94 162	95 162	95 162	95 162	95 163.5
FTEs Median	581.00 788.06	577.00 793.42	602.00 806.03	609.00 787.61	634.00 804.34

Finances As they appear in worksheet G3 of the cost reports.

Note: Net Patient Revenue is considered operating revenue, which means Net Service to Patients is considered operating profit. Click here for more about cost report financials

Hospital cost reports are an enormously complicated dataset. There are whole organizations and an offical CMS vendor dedicated to helping researchers work with the data.
It's important to understand that hospital financials in cost reports are not organized in the same as other sources such as annual financial reports to bond holders.

The biggest difference is the concept of operating revenue and profit. Net Service to patients (NS2P), which is the sum of net patient revenue minus operating expenses, is considered the equivalent of operating profit according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). See the last paragraph of "Primary Data Sources" on page 55 of Annual Analysis of Disproportionate Share Hospital Allotments to States (PDF).

That would make Net Patient Revenue = operating revenue.

All this makes things challenging when comparing what's reported in cost reports to other sources. It becomes clearer when you consider that, beyond the purpose of reimbursement, cost reports are a tool for policymakers trying to understand the financial situation of a hospital doing the tasks specific to hospitals.

In other words, while a facility with a division that formulates drugs might include earnings from that as operating revenue in their corporate annual result, this is not central to the operations of a hospital caring for patients and so it is counted as "other income." (See below the financials section for more on "other income")

The healthcare consulting firm HMP, in a former partnership with Modern Healthcare, did develop a formula for estimating operating revenue closer to what one might find in other sources. We no longer use this for the following reasons:

The measure was not widely used beyond HMP and Modern Healthcare. Many hospitals had their own internal estimates of operating revenue and profit.
Because of this, there was confusion when reporting operating results for individual hospitals. There was often pushback when a facility's internal numbers did not match what Modern Healthcare was reporting.
The formula includes revenue from portions of the "other income" section, which may also include non-operating revenue. HMP themselves point out in a caveat on their site that they cannot exclude all non-operating revenue from their measure.

HMP's operating measure has proven problematic in the past for our reporting and the partnership with them ended years ago. It's best to not use a measure that we alone cannot defend.

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Net patient revenue ? Median	135,158,014 150,932,746	137,488,282 158,950,878	148,533,791 168,696,998	150,809,280 163,454,693	180,524,875 186,589,412
Operating expenses Median	119,123,587 149,311,209	122,358,665 156,110,414	131,748,866 164,890,568	139,132,291 166,516,854	164,126,776 180,120,888
Net income from service 2 patients (NS2P) ? Median	16,034,427 -964,173	15,129,617 -643,601.5	16,784,925 -116,254	11,676,989 -5,025,862	16,398,099 -1,284,564
NS2P margin ? Median	11.86% -0.62	11.00% -0.29	11.30% 0.18	7.74% -5.07	9.08% -0.88

Range* of Net Service to Patient (NS2P) margins

= NS2P margin for WATAUGA MEDICAL CENTER compared to all** acute-care hospitals, from CMS cost reports.
Note: NS2P is considered operating margin by MACPAC. The chart below is interactive: click or touch to see more.

* Data range does not show outliers, which fall beyond the minimum and maximum of the range.
** From cost reports with complete fiscal years. Number of acute-care hospitals available to calculate medians:

2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
3,157	3,092	3,050	3,052	2,566

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Other income* Median Click here to show/hide details	9,647,097 5,089,215	8,128,339 4,572,541	9,316,751 5,268,134	9,980,348 13,092,619	13,585,835 12,369,236
⊳ Line 6: Contributions ? ⊳ Median	0 224,999	0 199,009	0 206,870.5	0 194,343	0 249,496
⊳ Line 7: Investments ? ⊳ Median	0 299,524	0 188,688.5	0 370,813	0 309,361.5	0 375,329
⊳ Line 8: Revenue from telephone service	NULL	NULL	NULL	NULL	NULL
⊳ Line 9: Revenue from tv and radio	--	--	--	--	--
⊳ Line 10: Purchase discounts	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 11: Rebates and refunds of expenses	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 12: Parking lot receipts	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 13: Revenue from laundry and linen service	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 14: Revenue from meals sold to emplyees and guests	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 15: Revenue from rental of living quarters	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 16: Revenue from sale of medical and surgical supplies	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 17: Revenue from sale of drugs to other than patients	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 18: Revenue from sale of medical records and abstracts	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 19: Tuition (fees, sale of textbooks, uniforms, etc.)	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 20: Revenue from gifts, flowers, coffee shops, canteen	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 21: Rental of vending machines	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 22: Rental of hospital space	0	0	0	0	0
⊳ Line 23: Gov appropriations ? ⊳ Median	0 1,017,693	0 983,261.5	0 1,173,286	0 1,987,202	0 1,597,664
⊳ Sum Line 24	9,647,097	8,128,339	9,316,751	9,980,348	13,585,835
Total income ? Median	25,681,524 6,586,430	23,257,956 6,767,106	26,101,676 8,419,950	21,657,337 8,094,175	29,983,934 15,162,888
Non-operating expenses Median	11,404,464 146,289.5	15,965,222 164,857	21,022,255 89,880.5	11,100,270 106,761	0 31,473.5
Net income Median	14,277,060 6,043,842	7,292,734 5,845,112	5,079,421 7,606,259	10,557,067 7,283,041	29,983,934 14,957,241
Net margin Median	9.85950% 4.62%	5.00817% 4.42%	3.21787% 5.16%	6.56576% 5.2%	15.44682% 9.25%

* About "Other income": Other income, or line 25 in worksheet G3, is the sum of lines 6 through 24. It includes three lines that are considered non-operating revenue - contributions, investments and government appropriations. Medians are included for these three lines. It also contains items that are not central to providing healthcare, such as revenue from parking or gift shops.
"Sum Line 24" is a special case. Called "Other (specify)" in the cost reports, CMS allows for this line to be "subscripted," or divided into sublines like 002400, 002401, 002402. And hospitals do that, up to 100 lines, to detail income (and sometimes negative returns) that are otherwise not covered in the previous "other" lines. Therefore, "Sum Line 24" is the sum of all the lines 24.

Range* of total profit (loss) margins

= Total margin for WATAUGA MEDICAL CENTER compared to all** acute-care hospitals, from CMS cost reports.
The chart below is interactive: click or touch to see more.

2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
3,157	3,092	3,050	3,052	2,566

Medicare revenue

Inpatient and outpatient revenue

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
All inpatient revenue Median Click here to show/hide details	21,099,074 23,241,334	21,390,680 23,709,545	22,896,166 24,248,380	22,250,849 22,858,541	21,599,570 23,620,613
"All inpatient revenue" is made up of any Medicare payments for routine inpatient, swingbed SNFs, TEFRA, IPF, IRF, inpatient long-term care, CAH and inpatient SNF facilities. Medians are only calculated when there are sufficient facilities reporting revenue.
⊳ Routine inpatient revenue ⊳ Median	21,099,074 21,577,146	21,390,680 22,041,594	22,896,166 22,722,063	22,250,849 21,570,441	21,599,570 22,140,684
⊳ Swingbeds ⊳ Median	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --
⊳ Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act payments (TEFRA) ⊳ Median	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --
⊳ Inpatient psychiatric facility (IPF) ⊳ Median	0 1,845,420	0 1,757,392	0 1,738,842	0 1,510,463	0 1,393,140
⊳ Inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) ⊳ Median	0 3,535,627	0 3,746,588	0 3,782,288	0 3,865,578	0 3,983,889
⊳ Long-term care hospital (LTCH) ⊳ Median	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --
⊳ Critical-access hospitals ⊳ Median	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --
⊳ Skilled-nursing facilities (SNF) ⊳ Median	0 1,203,033	0 1,215,295	0 1,313,657	0 1,365,298	0 1,179,746
All outpatient revenue Median Click here to show/hide details	18,190,623 11,160,864	19,717,772 11,987,345	21,924,266 12,926,866	21,897,697 11,884,480	24,279,122 13,145,163
"All outpatient revenue" is made up of any payments for routine outpatient, HHA, CMHC, rural health and other federally-qualified health clinics. Medians are only calculated when there are sufficient facilities reporting revenue.
⊳ Routine outpatient revenue ⊳ Median	18,190,623 10,918,923	19,717,772 11,706,976	21,924,266 12,615,917	21,897,697 11,458,116	24,279,122 12,776,716
⊳ Home Health agencies (HHA) ⊳ Median	0 1,282,808	0 1,407,728	0 1,341,512	0 1,407,046	0 1,476,867
⊳ Community mental health clinics (CMHC) ⊳ Median	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --
⊳ Rural health clinics ⊳ Median	0 618,038	0 697,279	0 690,232	0 684,010	0 670,558
⊳ Other federally qualified health clinics ⊳ Median	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --	0 --

Other payments

Item	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Graduate Medical Education (GME) Median	0 3,284,314	0 3,250,551	0 3,386,837	80,147 3,360,806	380,975 3,508,953
Disproportionate-share hospital (DSH) Median	307,246 594,888	274,413 595,761	292,375 577,894	185,438 542,168	0 549,667
Outlier Median	119,516 582,572	99,599 538,116	21,537 212,434	17,475 126,559	30,327 139,139

Uncompensated care

Item	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Medicaid shortfall Median	132,480 3,662,910	0 3,730,911	154,146 4,081,319	0 4,643,908	0 4,389,147
Charity care Median	924,868 2,654,636	2,229,166 2,940,659	2,859,733 3,380,215	3,845,611 3,488,738	4,058,816 3,233,405
Uncompensated care (UCC) Median	5,021,714 5,147,790	6,060,340 5,337,617	7,366,300 5,711,082	8,927,675 5,923,418	8,394,307 5,508,107
UCC as a % of operating expenses Median	4.22% 3.24	4.95% 3.12	5.59% 3.21	6.42% 3.3	5.11% 2.86
Total shortfall/UCC Median	5,154,194 9,489,989	6,060,340 9,424,297	7,520,446 10,120,158	8,927,675 11,171,337	8,394,307 10,133,851

Labor costs

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Total salaries Median	37,941,453 52,142,039	39,422,979 54,485,252	42,918,392 57,395,589	44,214,471 58,830,919	49,338,466 61,722,907
Salaries as a % of operating expenses Median	31.85 36.68	32.22 36.56	32.58 36.37	31.78 35.93	30.06 35.24
Intern, resident salaries* Median	0 2,598,592	0 2,686,824	0 2,753,773	377,513 2,937,156	351,227 2,909,848
Contract intern, resident salaries* Median	0 1,251,927	0 1,186,494	0 1,204,885	0 1,279,653	0 1,469,317
Contract adjusted salaries, direct-care Median	570,912 1,449,244	874,428 1,475,986	876,889 1,563,078	618,440 1,721,954	4,620,885 2,991,828
Contract hours, direct-care Median	8,543.00 22,725	13,015.00 23,018.5	10,857.60 24,503.48	7,622.44 25,026.5	45,167.67 33,786
Contract wages, direct-care Median	66.83 64.67	67.19 64.53	80.76 65.06	81.13 68.97	102.31 88.94

* in an approved program

Return to top

Cost reports are self-reported by the facility, are subject to revision and should be considered preliminary.

* Net Service to patients (NS2P) equals net patient revenue minus operating expenses. NS2P is considered the equivalent of operating profit according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). See the last paragraph of "Primary Data Sources" on page 55 of Annual Analysis of Disproportionate Share Hospital Allotments to States (PDF).

About medians

Medians are calculated from reports with "complete" fiscal years, or reports with fiscal years of at least 300 days and no more than 420 days.

In cases where there are fewer than 50 values reported, medians are not calculated. For childrens' hospitals, it's when fewer than 20 are reported.

Web app by Tim Broderick | email.