Mayo Clinic revenue was up for 2020 with the help of $182 million in CARES funds

Jeff Kiger, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·3 min read

Feb. 26—Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Mayo Clinic increased total revenue in 2020 to $13.9 billion, up by $200 million from 2019, with the help of $182 million in CARES Act funds.

"We ended up in a very enviable spot... terrific results from a lot of staff sacrifices and a lot of medical innovation of dealing with something we had never seen before. We feel very good about where we ended up, including giving back some of the federal funding," said Chief Financial Officer Dennis Dahlen of the results in an annual audited report released today.

Mayo Clinic reported returning $156 million of federal CARES Act funding in December, though it did keep $182 million in CARE money it received in early 2020.

"From our viewpoint, we didn't want to take a dollar more than we thought we deserved or was helpful or appropriate," said Dahlen. "We ended up keeping the dollars that were provided to us early. At that point, we were facing something we didn't know. We were keeping staff safe. We were preserving salaries and benefits... And we were working on the testing front — to develop tests that could help us help the economy and help the nation to navigate the COVD crisis."

He said those early CARES dollars were put to very good use, but the later funds were not needed.

"Once we had restored practice volumes close to business as usual, we really didn't see the need to have those funds and thought returning them to the Treasury for other uses that might be more appropriate," said Dahlen.

The financial report shows that Mayo Clinic's total revenue of $13.9 billion was up 1.5 percent from 2019. The 2019 revenue number of $13.70 billion is less than the $13.82 billion that Mayo Clinic previously reported for 2019. Mayo Clinic officials explained the difference it is due to a modification of the calculation to tally the investment earnings. The revenue was re-calculated to be consistent with the 2020 amount.

The net operating income was $727 million, which was down from the record $1 billion reported in 2019. The operating margin for 2020 was 5.2 percent.

Mayo Clinic reported treating than 1.3 million patients in 2020, which is an increase from 1.2 million patients in 2019.

Net medical service revenue declined to $11.5 billion from $11.6 billion in 2019, but revenue from Mayo Clinic Laboratories and Mayo Clinic Ventures more than made up the difference with a combined revenue of $1.53 billion, up by 19 percent from 2019.

"Mayo Clinic Labs' increased testing volumes were through the roof... And it was a terrific year on the business development front," said Dahlen.

Despite the challenges, Mayo Clinic reported growing its overall workforce to more than 71,000 people, which includes more than 7,000 physicians and scientists. That's up from 70,000 in 2019.

Dahlen clarified that while the number of consulting staff members increased by about 2 percent, the number of allied support dropped by about 2 percent.

The pandemic did not keep donors from increasing donations to Mayo Clinic to $587 million in 2020, up 6.9 percent from 2019.