Northern Light Health lost $156M in 2024

By Marie Weidmayer, Bangor Daily News Staff

Northern Light Health lost $156 million in 2024, according to its annual report released April 15.  

The health care system’s operating loss surged in the last fiscal year, increasing from $36 million in 2023.

Of that increase, $100 million is from an advance payment from Optum after a cyber attack at Change Healthcare interrupted Northern Light’s ability to send bills, James Rohrbaugh, the system’s chief financial officer, said.

The system is also carrying nearly $617 million in debt at the end of 2024, compared with $445 million of debt at the end of 2023, the report said. 

This is the latest in a series of financial hardships for the struggling health care system that have led to the closure of a hospital in Waterville, the termination of various services and the outsourcing of jobs in recent years.

Northern Light outsourced administration jobs to Optum in 2023 and has reduced administrative costs by $29 million for the 2025 fiscal year, Rohrbaugh said.

Sixty-seven leadership positions were eliminated, he said. The system also outsourced jobs in housekeeping and the cafeteria. 

The system needs to improve its operating margins, which decreased 5.5 percentage points from 2023 to 2024, Rohrbaugh said. 

The hospital did see improvements in the first quarter of 2025, he said.

Northern Light is focused on improving operating performance, but that does not impact patient care, he said.

About 65 percent of Northern Light’s revenue comes from MaineCare, Medicare and Medicaid. 

“It has never been a more challenging time in healthcare with both pressure in receiving payments from MaineCare and in the threats to government reimbursement on the federal level,” Rohrbaugh said.