U.S. hospitals face up to $122 billion in lost revenue this year as the pandemic continues its rampage, threatening to push more critical-care centers into bankruptcy or out of business entirely, Bloomberg News reported. Even a best-case scenario would cost hospitals $53 billion of revenue, according to a new Kaufman, Hall & Associates report for the American Hospital Association. That’s on top of more than $323 billion in reduced revenue and higher expenses last year. U.S. hospitals were already hard-pressed before the COVID-19 outbreak, especially in poor and rural regions, with more than 30 going bankrupt in the year preceding the pandemic. “We need additional funding to both participate in the vaccination efforts as well as care for large numbers of critically ill patients, maintain sufficient staffing and continue to acquire enough personal protective equipment and other resources necessary to do this critical work,” according to a Thursday letter from the group to Senate leaders. How quickly hospitals recover depends on the vaccine rollout, the spread of more infectious strains, and how potential patients behave — both in terms of how cautious they remain and how willing they are to return for not only profitable elective procedures but even for emergencies. “Even as restrictions lifted, our data found that many patients continued to hold off on rescheduling elective procedures in certain categories, like plastic surgery and orthopedic procedures,” said Matt Hawkins, chief executive officer of Waystar, a company that works with hospitals on billing. Falling revenue squeezed hospitals as safety and treatment costs soared, with a 14% rise in labor and 17% for drugs last year, the report said. Even before the pandemic, hospitals operated on thin margins, with a median of 2.5% in 2019, according to the report. Read more.
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