“The pandemic has now left a majority of California s hospitals financially challenged, unstable and in some cases broken,” Coyle says.
Coyle cited recent findings from Kaufman Hall, who found that hospitals have sustained $8.4 billion in losses and that’s with the government stepping in to provide assistance in 2020. They project hospital losses to be around $600 million to $2 billion for 2021.
During Wednesday’s conference, many hospitals voiced their concerns, detailing how their facilities lacked the necessary infrastructure and resources to handle a pandemic.
UC San Diego Health s CEO Patty Maysent says smaller operations aren’t the only ones who have been hit. Big ones are also struggling to make up for lost time and money.
Dive Brief:
Community Health Systems posted a $64 million loss in the first quarter, compared to an $18 million profit during the same quarter last year.
But the chain beat Wall Street expectations on revenue of $3.01 billion, exceeding consensus estimates by 2%.
Volumes are still notably weak same store surgery volumes were essentially flat and same store emergency room volumes were down 17% in the first quarter though higher patient acuity and improved payer mix helped offset that.
Dive Insight:
With vaccines rolling out and COVID-19 cases stabilizing, hospitals are beginning to see signs of a return to normal operations, which analysts expect to ramp up in the second half of the year.
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New cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. fell 16% last week and deaths were at their lowest since October, a
Reuters analysis showed.
(NBC News)
Meanwhile, 15 Oregon counties, including parts of Portland, will move to extreme risk COVID-19 restrictions starting Friday, the governor s office said. (KATU-TV)
(9News-TV)
As of Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. EDT, the unofficial U.S. COVID-19 toll reached 32,176,908 cases and 573,383 deaths, increases of 51,359 and 687, respectively, since this time a day ago.
Updated CDC data show 54% of all adults have had at least their first COVID-19 shot and 37% are fully vaccinated. For people 65 and older, those numbers are 82% and 68%.
Narrow Margins, Low Patient Volumes Fuel Ongoing Financial Instability for Hospitals
What You Should Know:
– Narrow margins, low patient volumes, and high costs fuel ongoing financial instability for U.S. hospitals, health systems, and physician groups, according to two new reports from Kaufman Hall.
– U.S. hospitals and health systems saw mixed performance in March, as national COVID-19 metrics plateaued early in the month before climbing steadily again with increased spread of COVID-19 variants, as shown in the latest issue of the
– Physician groups experienced volatility throughout 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Physician productivity, compensation, and revenues for the year all fell below 2019 results. Meanwhile, the average investment required to supplement physician revenues rose, according to year-end analyses featured in the new quarterly issue of Kaufman Hall’s
Dive Brief:
U.S. hospitals continue to struggle under the ongoing weight of the pandemic and its financial pressure, reporting a mixed performance in March, according to a new report from Kaufman Hall.
Volumes continued to decline, while revenues and expenses generally rose compared to the same time last year. Margins increased on both a year-to-date and year-over-year basis, but that s largely due to measuring performance this year with last March, when hospitals were hit hard by the effects of state lockdowns and a pause in non-essential procedures, the consultancy said.
Researchers expect continued margin and revenue gains in the next few months, especially in comparison to record-poor performance in the first few months last year. Some gains are due to returning patient volumes, but the report warns the impacts of COVID-19 on providers are far from over.