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Steve Filton of UHS reports that nearly all patients who lost Affordable Care Act coverage have become uninsured

Steve Filton, CFO of UHS, reported that nearly all patients who lost their Affordable Care Act coverage this year have transitioned to becoming uninsured. This trend is driven by a spike in premiums for ACA plans after Congress declined to extend more generous premium tax credits. Consequently, hospital operators are bracing for higher uncompensated care costs. For-profit operators like HCA Healthcare expect to lose approximately $1 billion this year, while Tenet Healthcare projects losses in the hundreds of millions. UHS, which has less exposure to the ACA than its peers, initially expected to lose $75 million from this trend, but has now revised its projections to $85 million. Additionally, Filton noted that the Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is facing a slower-than-expected timeline to profitability. The facility is expected to break even by the fourth quarter of this year, but will lose UHS approximately $30 million in 2026 until that point. UHS also faces ongoing losses from a behavioral health center in Texas that lost its Medicare certification. These factors, combined with an increase in research and legal liability insurance, led UHS to downgrade its financial expectations for 2026.

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