Philadelphia-area hospitals may soon be forced to furlough hundreds of staff and drastically cut services due to the financial blow from COVID-19. “Hospitals across the country have been hammered by COVID-19,” said Michael Abrams, a Philadelphia native who is a managing partner of Numerof & Associates in St. Louis, Missouri. “In particular, the loss of revenue that is attributable to canceled and deferred services. And that’s all of a sudden missing.”
Like most hospitals, Ed Fraser Memorial in Macclenny took an economic hit from the shutdown on elective procedures and people staying away during the first months of the coronavirus. Then it took another hit when it left out rural hospital funding from the CARES Act because of its proximity to Jacksonville hospitals. On Thursday, a congressman toured the hospital and offered hope that some federal relief might still come.
Butler Health System is laying off and furloughing 67 people, closing a skilled nursing facility, plus eliminating 60 vacant positions to try to close a $19.3 million budget hole — joining a host of hospitals in the state hit hard financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tower Health announced Tuesday that it is cutting 1,000 jobs, or about 8% of its workforce, citing the loss of $212 million in revenue through May because of coronavirus restrictions on non-urgent care.
U.S. health insurers may balk at covering tests that look for coronavirus antibodies in some cases, arguing that employers or the government should foot a bill expected to run into billions of dollars.