Net Patient Revenue
Gross patient charges minus contractual allowances and discounts — what a hospital actually expects to collect from patient services.
Net patient revenue is gross patient service charges (the "list price" of all services) minus contractual allowances (the discount negotiated with each payer) and other adjustments (charity care, bad debt write-offs, courtesy discounts).
For most hospitals, net revenue is roughly 25-40% of gross charges — meaning the hospital actually receives 25-40 cents for every dollar of "list price" services. The gap (60-75%) is contractual write-down: insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid all pay fixed schedules that are far below list prices.
On HCRIS Worksheet G-3, net patient revenue is Line 1. It's the most commonly cited "hospital revenue" figure in analyst reports — when you see "Cleveland Clinic had $14B in revenue last year," that's net patient revenue plus other operating revenue.
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