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Americans, especially Medicare beneficiaries, are getting more medical care these days. Demand from aging Baby Boomers is keeping people in doctor’s offices, and health care providers are continuing to build capacity post-Covid.

Those trends — the same ones that tanked health insurance stocks a few weeks ago — made a strong mark on nonprofit health systems’ first quarter financial reports. STAT took a look at 20 large nonprofit health systems and found that all but four reported higher operating and net margins in the first three months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Hospitals are seeing more patients and cutting down on the expensive contract labor they relied on during the Covid-19 pandemic. And they’re seeing strong investment gains on the non-operating side.

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Volumes are just part of hospitals’ broader strategy to improve margins over the past few years, said Rick Kes, a health care partner with tax and consulting firm RSM. That includes things like fighting insurance denials and getting better deals from vendors for key supplies like drugs and medical devices.

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