Last week, President Joseph Biden extended the declaration of a national emergency that was first declared on March 1, 2020. The extended order allows a number of regulatory flexibilities to continue to assist in fighting the pandemic. It also serves as a reminder of the stresses hospitals continue to face as they lead the effort against the public health crisis.
A new study from the consulting group Kaufman Hall notes that even under the best of circumstances in 2021 – a return of patient volumes to hospitals, good vaccine progress, and sustained ramp-down of COVID cases – hospitals can expect to lose $53 billion in revenue during the year. A worst-case scenario involving patients staying away from facilities for a variety of reasons, vaccines stalling, and COVID surges continuing as people let down their social distancing guard results in hospital revenue losses totaling $122 billion in 2021.
Throughout the pandemic, hospitals have faced double-digit increased expenses for, among other items, drugs, purchased services (environmental and sterilization services), labor increases, and supplies (such as PPE). They have also invested heavily in digital healthcare. The expenses are expected to continue but revenue from outpatient, inpatient, and emergency department visits is not expected to recover, according to the Kaufman Hall study.
MHA is supporting efforts of the American Hospital Association, which commissioned the study, to have the U.S. Congress insert more funding for the Provider Relief Fund into the COVID relief package now being debated in D.C. The version of the administration's $1.9 trillion relief bill that the U.S. House passed on Saturday, while containing funding for many positive health related initiatives, does not contain new monies for the Provider Relief Fund. The Senate will take up the legislation this week.