Hospitals in the United States could lose more than $500 billion in 100 days during the coronavirus pandemic, according to former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. While Congress has appropriated $175 billion in total stimulus funding to hospitals, he said even that amount will not be enough to close the fiscal gap hospitals are facing.
Without proper funding to offset major financial losses during the pandemic, the consequences to major hospitals could be dire. Large hospitals could begin to see their capabilities and care resources fade, warned Shulkin and others who have served at the helm of major hospitals.
It could also require hospitals to prioritize some departments and teams, such as oncology and critical care teams, over others considered less essential. Large clinics, known for developing cutting-edge care could see reduction in the scope of their research, particularly for research unrelated to the coronavirus.
Some major institutions have already begun pay cuts, furloughs, and layoffs of hospital staff, deepening a growing unemployment crisis, and leaving some former hospital workers without health insurance.
“There is no hospital in the country, I don’t think, that could survive a year of what’s happened in March and April,” said Jefferson Health CEO Dr. Stephen Klasko, who also serves as president of Thomas Jefferson University.
Within the health care industry, there is also concern that many local community hospitals, with far fewer resources than their much-larger counterparts could collapse altogether.
Hospitals run on very thin margins and do not have huge cash reserves normally, especially rural and small market hospitals. This is a very serious problem and a good reason to open them back up to treatment.
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