A negative 13.4 percent return on investment is hardly something to crow about. But when your peers are faring much worse, you can breathe a little easier.
At the Mayo Clinic, the largest health care services provider on our list, revenue dropped 10.6 percent to $6.55 billion in 2008. The revenue drop follows jumps of 9.1 percent in 2007 and 9.7 in 2006. Mayo, which has a sizable endowment, also suffered negative returns. Harry Hoffman, Mayo’s treasurer and chief investment officer, said its long-term fund had about $2.7 billion at the beginning of 2008 and finished the year around $2.2 billion, a negative return of nearly 18 percent.