As of the July, 2022, release via CMS

CHEROKEE MEDICAL CENTER

CMS id: 420043
1530 NORTH LIMESTONE STREET, GAFFNEY SC 29340. County: CHEROKEE
System: SPARTANBURG REGIONAL HEALTHCARE DIST
CBSA: Gaffney, SC

The 31-bed, acute-care hospital had $2,241,525 in net service to patients*, with a total profit margin of 4.83375% in fiscal year 2021, the latest year available.
It spent 9.59% of its operating expenses on uncompensated care and reported $706,630 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	273	366	365
Ownership	forprofit	forprofit	forprofit	forprofit	forprofit
Acute beds Median	113 118	32 118	32 119.5	20 118	20 119
Total beds Median	125 162	44 162	44 162	31 162	31 163.5
FTEs Median	249.71 788.06	219.92 793.42	201.20 806.03	307.85 787.61	304.07 804.34

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	34,101,470 150,932,746	34,908,346 158,950,878	25,564,000 168,696,998	61,925,462 163,454,693	72,623,590 186,589,412
Operating expenses Median	40,917,182 149,311,209	36,669,873 156,110,414	24,411,402 164,890,568	67,998,067 166,516,854	70,382,065 180,120,888
Net income from service 2 patients (NS2P) ? Median	-6,815,712 -964,173	-1,761,527 -643,601.5	1,152,598 -116,254	-6,072,605 -5,025,862	2,241,525 -1,284,564
NS2P margin ? Median	-19.99% -0.62	-5.05% -0.29	4.51% 0.18	-9.81% -5.07	3.09% -0.88

Range* of Net Service to Patient (NS2P) margins

= NS2P margin for CHEROKEE 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	-33,236 5,089,215	64,671 4,572,541	51,403 5,268,134	1,691,491 13,092,619	1,333,372 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	1,552 375,329
⊳ 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	7,665	664
⊳ 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	28	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	8	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	342	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	10,637	0	0	1,758	638
⊳ Line 22: Rental of hospital space	2,841	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	-47,092	64,671	51,403	1,682,068	1,330,518
Total income ? Median	-6,848,948 6,586,430	-1,696,856 6,767,106	1,204,001 8,419,950	-4,381,114 8,094,175	3,574,897 15,162,888
Non-operating expenses Median	0 146,289.5	0 164,857	0 89,880.5	1,549 106,761	0 31,473.5
Net income Median	-6,848,948 6,043,842	-1,696,856 5,845,112	1,204,001 7,606,259	-4,382,663 7,283,041	3,574,897 14,957,241
Net margin Median	-20.10362% 4.62%	-4.85190% 4.42%	4.70030% 5.16%	-6.88914% 5.2%	4.83375% 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 CHEROKEE 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	5,652,671 23,241,334	5,158,465 23,709,545	3,260,266 24,248,380	4,691,459 22,858,541	5,437,394 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	5,652,671 21,577,146	5,158,465 22,041,594	3,260,266 22,722,063	4,691,459 21,570,441	5,437,394 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	3,050,953 11,160,864	2,854,581 11,987,345	2,084,193 12,926,866	3,814,126 11,884,480	4,926,393 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	3,050,953 10,918,923	2,854,581 11,706,976	2,084,193 12,615,917	3,097,540 11,458,116	3,095,573 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	716,586 684,010	1,830,820 670,558
⊳ 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	0 3,360,806	0 3,508,953
Disproportionate-share hospital (DSH) Median	75,128 594,888	73,865 595,761	38,576 577,894	21,620 542,168	36,144 549,667
Outlier Median	32,927 582,572	61,127 538,116	0 212,434	852 126,559	292 139,139

Uncompensated care

Item	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Medicaid shortfall Median	0 3,662,910	0 3,730,911	112,714 4,081,319	239,346 4,643,908	706,630 4,389,147
Charity care Median	2,895,095 2,654,636	3,027,076 2,940,659	1,408,432 3,380,215	1,983,279 3,488,738	2,333,114 3,233,405
Uncompensated care (UCC) Median	5,368,504 5,147,790	6,002,703 5,337,617	2,996,443 5,711,082	6,993,852 5,923,418	6,748,463 5,508,107
UCC as a % of operating expenses Median	13.12% 3.24	16.37% 3.12	12.27% 3.21	10.29% 3.3	9.59% 2.86
Total shortfall/UCC Median	5,368,504 9,489,989	6,002,703 9,424,297	3,109,157 10,120,158	7,233,198 11,171,337	7,455,093 10,133,851

Labor costs

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Total salaries Median	13,585,447 52,142,039	12,109,431 54,485,252	9,230,974 57,395,589	20,759,870 58,830,919	22,751,876 61,722,907
Salaries as a % of operating expenses Median	33.20 36.68	33.02 36.56	37.81 36.37	44.07 35.93	42.90 35.24
Intern, resident salaries* Median	0 2,598,592	0 2,686,824	0 2,753,773	0 2,937,156	0 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	485,697 1,449,244	332,411 1,475,986	494,192 1,563,078	1,249,822 1,721,954	687,905 2,991,828
Contract hours, direct-care Median	9,154.00 22,725	6,246.50 23,018.5	7,655.00 24,503.48	42,993.54 25,026.5	7,099.87 33,786
Contract wages, direct-care Median	53.06 64.67	53.22 64.53	64.56 65.06	29.07 68.97	96.89 88.94

* in an approved program

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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.