In fiscal 2021, hospitals got $405 million in federal and state Covid relief funds to offset lost revenues and increased expenses. Total operating revenue for Massachusetts hospitals increased by $2.8 billion in fiscal 2021, a 9% jump from the prior year, according to a new state report.
Faced with skyrocketing contract labor, equipment and supply costs — and flat revenue — St. Charles Health System leadership announced Wednesday it "has made the difficult decision to reduce its workforce" by more than 180 people. The reduction will impact 105 caregivers through layoffs.
Ohio Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran won’t discuss them, but state ethics filings she submitted on Sunday showed that she continued to own stock in three huge health care companies last year — the same year she negotiated and signed billion-dollar contracts with their subsidiaries.
Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and Schoellkopf Health Center announced Richard Braun Jr. has come on board as executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective May 18.
While federal pandemic relief money helped slow the pace of rural hospital closures and enabled these facilities to care for critically ill patients during COVID-19 surges, it did little to address the financial crises facing them before the pandemic.
The first three months of the year have left St. Charles Health System with a $17.2 million operating loss, the hospital reported in an email to its employees. The cause is a confluence of events that have taken two years to brew, said Matt Swafford, St. Charles Health System chief financial officer. Since the start of the pandemic, St. Charles has operated at, or above, full capacity, at times paying wages that were three times higher than pre-pandemic rates and, until recently, delayed the return of the profitable private-pay surgeries that were put on hold to keep hospital beds and staff free for COVID-19 patients.
