UPMC posts $313 million loss for first half of 2024

UPMC lost $313 million in the first six months of the year, the Pittsburgh-based health care giant said.

The company announced the financial picture at a time when it is cutting about 1,000 jobs.

UPMC said Thursday its expenses topped $14.7 billion, but had $14.47 billion in revenue from its health care services, insurance enrollment plans and other sources.

Despite the loss, UPMC generated more revenue in the first half of this year than the $13.81 billion it posted for the same period in 2023. But for that six-month period last year, its expenses were $13.8 billion, resulting in a net gain of $15 million.

UPMC, with more than 40 hospitals and 800 clinical locations, gained more in net patient revenue in the first six months of 2024, $5.9 billion, compared to $5.5 billion for the first half of 2023.

Offsetting some of the gain would have been the increase in salaries, benefits and professional fees this year. UPMC paid $4.9 billion for those costs in the first half of the year, compared to $4.77 billion the same period a year ago.

UPMC said it derived 40% of its net patient revenue from Medicare in the first six months of the year, with medical assistance accounting for 17% and commercial insurance 37%. That was about the same mix as in 2023.

The losses that hit UPMC come on the heels of UPMC announcing in April that it would be cutting 1,000 jobs because of post-pandemic challenges.

The reductions are expected to impact slightly more than 1% of UPMC’s workforce of more than 100,000 employees worldwide.

Layoffs primarily are occurring among nonclinical, administrative staff who don’t deal directly with patients. The staff also will be reduced through attrition, closing off open positions and eliminating redundancies, UPMC vice president Paul Wood said at the time of the announcement.