Hospitals posted higher profits in second half of 2020 even as COVID cases soared
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As COVID-19 cases reached unprecedented levels in the final months of 2020, some of the country's biggest health systems made more money than they did in the comparable 2019 period—even without counting their federal grants.
Company executives pointed to two big contributors: sicker than usual patients and a higher-than-expected ratio of privately insured patients, both on the COVID and non-COVID sides. The pandemic narrowed the subset of people willing to visit hospitals. Those that did tended to have very serious illnesses or injuries and they also were more likely to have commercial insurance, which pays hospitals much more than Medicare and Medicaid.