U.S. hospitals which are intensely fighting COVID-19, are facing great increases in labor costs, just as emergency federal funding for hospitals is about to run out. Last year, the U.S. hospital system lost, at minimum, $53 billion, according to the American Hospital Association.
Meantime, many patients are facing big bills, as insurance companies are restoring deductibles and co-pays.
A study found that at hospitals where nursing staffs have diminished, due to burn-out and/or attrition, extra labor costs grew by $24 billion per year, leaving hospitals in great financial danger, the Oct. 5 Washington Post reported. The Ballad Health system, which runs 21 hospitals in Tennessee and Virginia, is a case in point. The hospital system began the pandemic using fewer than 75 temporary contract nurses to fill holes in its roster of 3,500 acute care nurses. That rose to 450 by August 2021, 13% of all nurses. Contract nurses, who typically work for 13-week stretches, previously made double or triple what permanent staff nurses make. But now, Lisa Smithgall, senior vice president and chief nursing executive at Ballad, said that the hospital is forced to pay up to seven times as much, as hospitals compete to fill shifts.
During the pandemic, Congress appropriated $178 billion in taxpayer support for hospitals. Moody’s Investor Service said, in an analysis in September, that these provider relief funds accounted for 43 percent of cash flow at U.S. nonprofit and government-run hospitals. Those funds are dwindling, and of the $17 billion that President Biden released on Sept. 10, the stipulation is that expenditures must be based on expenses incurred before March 31, 2021, while many of the hospitals’ expenses were incurred after that date. Hospitals with high COVID load of patienst, who occupy ICU beds, cannot, for safety and bed availability reasons, perform elective surgeries, which bring in revenue.
