In 2014, Athens Regional Medical Center generated more than $1.12 billion in revenue for the local and state economy, according to a recent report by the Georgia Hospital Association, the state’s largest hospital trade association. The report also found that, during the same time period, Athens Regional Medical Center provided approximately $42 million in uncompensated care while sustaining more than 11,000 full-time jobs throughout Athens and the rest of the state.
 
The report revealed that Athens Regional, the second largest employer in Athens-Clarke County, had direct expenditures of over $491 million in 2014. When combined with an economic multiplier developed by the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total economic impact of those expenditures was more than $1.12 billion. This output multiplier considers the “ripple” effect of direct hospital expenditures on other sectors of the economy, such as medical supplies, durable medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. Economic multipliers are used to model the resulting impact of a change in one industry on the “circular flow” of spending within an economy as a whole.
 
“While Athens Regional is well known for its role in meeting the health care needs of the residents of our 17-county service area, it also plays an integral role in protecting our area’s economic health,” said Dr. Chuck Peck, President and CEO of Athens Regional Health System. “We are so appreciative of the area’s unwavering support of their hospital and will continue to work hard to ensure that the residents of this area have access to the best and safest health care services available.”
 
While Athens Regional remains a major component of the area’s economic engine, the hospital’s leadership, like the rest of the Georgia hospital community, is concerned about a wide array of economic challenges that have made it increasingly difficult to meet the community’s health care needs, including a fast-growing uninsured population and inadequate payments from government insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid. Presently, 41 percent of all hospitals in Georgia are operating with negative margins.
 
“We’re extremely concerned about the current operating environment for hospitals,” said Dr. Peck. “We’ve made a commitment to every citizen of this community to be there for them 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, our ability to do so is being compromised when so many of our patients are either uninsured or severely underinsured.”
 
According to Dr. Peck, state lawmakers must work to protect the state’s health care system with the same fervor that they do other initiatives like education and public utilities.
 
“Our local health care system is indispensable,” said Dr. Peck. “It is not only the primary guardian of health in our community, but it is also a major economic engine in this area that is responsible for almost 5,000 jobs. It is our hope that our elected lawmakers will join us in our efforts to protect our local health care system and preserve access to health care for every resident in our region.”