Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Even Before Pandemic, A Third Of Hospitals Were Losing Money On Patient Care
The Washington Post: Covid-19 Is Causing Hospital Layoffs And Furloughs
One hospital is in a hot spot, battling a widespread virus that has resulted in thousands of patients. The other hospital has seen just a few covid-19 patients and there’s no surge in sight. Yet the disease threatens the financial health of both institutions as their most profitable customers — non-emergency patients — have stayed home. Both hospitals saw the number of their inpatients drop by half in April. (Mellnik, Karklis and Ba Tran, 6/1)
Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Expansion Boosts Rural Hospitals' Margins
Medicaid expansion has played a significant role in the viability of rural hospitals, according to a new study. While rural hospitals' profitability varied significantly based on ownership, those in Medicaid expansion states generally fared better, according to an analysis of more than 1,000 non-government rural hospitals from 2011 to 2017. The median overall profit margin among not-for-profit critical access hospitals in Medicaid expansion states increased from 1.8% to 3.7%, compared to a decrease from 3.5% to 2.8% among their peers in non-expansion states. (Kacik, 6/1)
Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Could Lead More Hospitals To Breach Debt Covenants
With the coronavirus pandemic slashing hospitals' revenue and cash flow, the number of organizations that breach their debt covenants is likely to tick up in 2020. Federal stimulus grants under the CARES Act may mitigate some of those risks, but nevertheless, a new report from Moody's Investors Service predicted that hospitals will have a difficult time staying in compliance. (Bannow, 5/29)
CNN: Parents And Child Care Providers Are Falling Apart. It Could Get Much Worse
Child care is so scarce in Kate Littlefield's Vermont community that she joined a wait-list when she was six weeks pregnant. It wasn't soon enough to find a placement for her infant twins after they were born. "We couldn't get in until they were 8 months old," she said. "That was the earliest spot we could get, and we called every child care center in my area." With local child care centers now closed due to the pandemic, Littlefield's 17-month-old babies have been back at home, where she and her husband are working remotely. (Smith, 6/1)
Kaiser Health News: California AG Seeks More Power To Battle Merger-Hungry Health Care Chains
California’s health care industry has a consolidation problem. Independent physician practices, outpatient clinics and hospitals are merging or getting gobbled up by private equity firms or large health care systems. A single company can dominate an entire community, and in some cases, vast swaths of the state.Such dominance can inflate prices, and consumers end up facing higher insurance premiums, more expensive outpatient services and bigger out-of-pocket costs to see specialists. (Bluth, 6/2)
KQED: Laguna Honda's New CEO Hopes To Focus On COVID-19 Care, Not Past Scandal
A new chief executive officer begins at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center this week, almost a year after the last one resigned. Michael Phillips says he wants to focus on the facility’s stabilization of an early outbreak of the coronavirus, rather than its recent rocky past. “My vision is to ensure the safety and well-being of all of our residents,” Phillips says.For the last few years, he ran Silver Lake Medical Center, a small acute-care hospital with campuses in downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. (Peterson, 6/1)
