Cash-starved hospitals and doctor groups cut staff amid pandemic but will they give them any money back from a bailout?
We are in tough times in the healthcare world. On one hand, there is the pandemic and on the other hand, we doctors can’t see many non-covid patients due to the pandemic. Doctors are losing money. Hospitals are losing money.
Last week, Bon Secours Mercy Health, which runs 51 hospitals in seven states, announced it would furlough 700 workers. On Wednesday, Ballad Health, which operates 21 hospitals across Tennessee and southwest Virginia, delivered the same bad news to 1,300 employees and said executives would take pay cuts. Employees at Children’s National Hospital in the District were informed this week that they must take off one week, using either vacation time or, if they have none, unpaid leave.
I understand the mentality behind doing this. The hospitals need to survive. My only question is whether they will get bailed out and will they pay some of the workers back?
Thoughts?
Um…no.
Not only “no”, but they will find some way to give bonuses to their brave admin staff who kept the hospital running during difficult times.