New US hospitals face fiscal disaster over COVID aid cash

A complete city celebrated in 2020 when, early within the coronavirus pandemic, Thomasville Regional Medical Heart opened, providing state-of-the-art medication that was beforehand unavailable in a poor, remoted a part of Alabama. The timing for the ribbon-cutting appeared excellent: New therapy choices could be out there in an underserved space simply as a world well being disaster was unfolding.

Ultimately, that very same timing will be the motive for the hospital‘s undoing.

Now deep within the crimson two years into the pandemic, the 29-bed, $40 million hospital with a hovering, sun-drenched foyer and 110 staff is amongst three medical facilities in america that say they’re lacking out on thousands and thousands in federal pandemic aid cash as a result of the amenities are so new they lack full monetary statements from earlier than the disaster to show how a lot it value them.

In Thomasville, situated in timber nation about 95 miles (153 kilometers) north of the Gulf Coast port of Cell, hospital officers have labored greater than a yr to persuade federal officers they need to have gotten $8.2 million by way of the CARES Act, not simply the $1 million they obtained. With a complete debt of $35 million, the search will get extra pressing every day, stated Curtis James, the chief govt officer.

“No hospital can maintain itself with out getting the CARES Act cash that everyone else acquired,” James stated.

Staff are attempting to save cash by reducing again on provides however residents together with Judy Hutto are apprehensive in regards to the hospital’s future. Hutto drove there just lately for exams from her house 15 miles (24 kilometers) out within the nation.

“The areas wants it,” she stated. “It is a good hospital.”

CEO Barry Beus is also attempting to plug a niche at Rock Regional Hospital, situated south of Wichita in Derby, Kansas. The hospital is due as a lot as $15.8 million, officers stated, however as a result of it solely opened in April 2019 and lacks full pre-pandemic monetary statements, it has obtained just a bit greater than $985,000.

The one factor that is saved the power from monetary break to this point is the cooperation of docs, contractors and distributors who have not pushed for funds, he stated. “If we lose them, we lose the hospital,” stated Beus.

Three Crosses Regional Hospital opened in 2020 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and piled up a staggering $16.8 million in losses in simply three quarters whereas receiving solely $28,000 in support, stated Landon Fulmer, a Washington lobbyist working with all three hospitals to acquire extra funding. Every facility is being penalized for being new although they supplied the identical expensive COVID-19 care as different medical facilities and misplaced income from different procedures together with elective surgical procedures, he stated.

“It actually is kind of an odd state of affairs in a approach, one which should not have occurred,” Fulmer stated.

With about 420,000 well being care suppliers nationwide already receiving help from a $178 billion pot, the federal government is not overlaying 100% of losses for anybody, stated Chris Lundquist, a spokesman for the U.S. Well being Sources and Providers Administration, which is overseeing this system.

“HRSA has strived to supply as a lot assist as attainable to as many hospitals as attainable inside the limits of the legislation and funding,” he stated. The company stated it used proxy monetary data for hospitals that opened in 2019 or 2020 to create an equitable cost system.

“They’ve all obtained funding,” stated Lundquist.

Whereas nearly all the help cash is spoken for, Lundquist stated hospitals looking for extra support can undergo an appeals course of. Hospitals can also search a supplemental appropriation or funding within the upcoming fiscal years, he stated. All three of the hospitals say they deserve extra.

Officers in Thomasville are attempting to leverage congressional affect. Mayor Sheldon Day has made a number of journeys to Washington, D.C., to talk with members of the state’s congressional delegation and well being officers, and the president of the Alabama Hospital Affiliation, Dr. Don Williamson, has contacted the White Home looking for assist.

“They have been assured they will be taken care of. However the truth is, while you’re coping with authorities entities, you do not have the cash till you’ve the cash,” stated Williamson.

Positioned in southwest Alabama, Thomasville lies inside an impoverished space known as the Black Belt. About 70% of Black Belt residents qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, and well being care has been restricted for generations.

The final hospital shut down in Thomasville greater than a decade in the past, leaving solely hospitals that provide fewer providers within the surrounding area. Officers labored for years to safe a brand new hospital so residents would not must drive 90 minutes for high-tech providers reminiscent of digital imaging, full surgical choices, echocardiograms, 3D mammography and extra.

Utilizing a partnership between the town and a municipal well being care authority, Thomasville Regional secured federal funding from the Division of Agriculture and opened on March 3, 2020, earlier than circumstances of COVID-19 caught hearth within the rural South.

“We thought we had been off to a great begin,” stated James, the chief govt. “After which all the pieces shut down.”

Sufferers stopped displaying up for scans, elective surgical procedures, mammographies and different moneymaking providers due to pandemic shutdowns, and monetary experiences that seemed promising turned perilous inside weeks.

Recognizing that new hospitals could not calculate COVID-19 losses as a result of they could not examine 2020 numbers with previous years, Well being and Human Providers allowed hospitals to make use of finances numbers for calculations somewhat than prior monetary statements. That is how the hospital decided that it was lacking out on greater than $7 million in support, James stated.

Whereas the hospital remains to be ready on that support, he stated, the federal government did agree to supply $1 million in help that went to all different hospitals.

“That was OK, however different hospitals which can be in our area acquired $8 million, $9 million,” he stated.

The Birmingham-based Medical Properties Belief just lately gave the hospital $2 million and James stated leaders are assured Thomasville Regional will ultimately get the additional federal support. “However it’ll take time,” he stated.

Like Thomasville Regional, Rock Regional in Kansas noticed revenues dry up quickly after opening, stated Beus, the CEO. It is nonetheless experiencing employees shortages due to the pandemic and having to pay a premium to journey nurses to work shifts on the wards, he stated, all whereas working with consultants and members of Congress simply attempting to remain afloat.

“It has been slightly irritating,” he stated.

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