Canary in a coal mine?: a look at initial data on COVID-19's impact on U.S. hospitals
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue brief (Commonwealth Fund)
- Author(s):
- Jiang, John Xuefeng, author Bai, Ge, author Gustafsson, Lovisa, author Anderson, Gerard F., author
- Contributor(s):
- Commonwealth Fund, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [New York, N.Y.] : The Commonwealth Fund, June 2020
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Coronavirus Infections Economics, Hospital -- statistics & numerical data Hospitals, Proprietary -- economics Pandemics Facilities and Services Utilization -- statistics & numerical data United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- ISSUE. During the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals faced significant financial and operating pressure due to their necessary response to the public health crisis. In addition to incurring increased expenses to prepare for and treat COVID-19 patients, hospitals lost revenue for care that was canceled, postponed, or forgone. The federal government has responded with emergency financial relief, but state and federal policymakers still struggle to understand the magnitude of the impact on hospitals because of limited data on hospital financial metrics during the pandemic. GOAL. To understand the impact of COVID-19 on hospital utilization, revenue, and profitability. METHODS. Study of quarterly financial disclosures, earnings calls, and stock performance of the four largest publicly traded for-profit hospital systems. KEY FINDINGS. Admissions, surgeries, and emergency department visits of the four for-profit hospital systems dropped 20 percent to 40 percent during the last two weeks of March 2020 and 30 percent to 70 percent in April 2020. Their first quarter operating profits dropped 13.5 percent (though remained positive), and their market value dropped 52 percent from February 3 to March 18, 2020. CONCLUSION. COVID-19 affected hospital systems' revenue and profitability. The necessity of providing congressional relief to hospitals remains ambiguous and varies with individual systems.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (9 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101769564 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101769564