PHILADELPHIA -- The financial picture is looking brighter for most of the state's general hospitals, but many facilities in smaller communities and rural areas continue to struggle, according to a state report being released today.

Net patient revenue, which is the amount hospitals receive for care, grew to $29.7 billion in fiscal year 2006 that ended June 30, up 7.2 percent from the $27.6 billion for the same period in fiscal 2005.

The overall profit margin of 5.5 percent in 2006 compares with 4.6 percent in 2005 and 3.2 percent in 2004. The hospitals' worst year in the past decade was 1999, when margins bottomed out at 1.6 percent after a four-year slide.

The improved finances are helping to spur economic growth and ensure continued access to health care, said Carolyn Scanlan, president of the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.

However, not all of the news was good at the 170 hospitals included in the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council's tally.

Fifty-five hospitals -- nearly a third of the state's total and mainly in rural areas, where they were the main source of care in their communities -- reported negative operating margins for 2006.

Still, the overall percentage of hospitals posting negative margins has been falling, as nearly half the state's hospitals posted losses just three years ago.

The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council is an independent agency that produces several reports annually on the quality and finances of the state's hospitals.

The preliminary report is based on audited financial statements and data provided to the council by the hospitals, and does not identify individual hospitals or individual sources of income. That data will be part of a longer report and analysis to be released later this year.