Some Hospitals Have a Lot of Money
I found this article, Amid coronavirus distress, wealthy hospitals hoard millions, interesting. Many hospitals cry poor mouth when they ask for better rates via Medicare or Medicaid from the government. They say they never have enough money to pay doctors so they replace them with noctors. Physicians hear this all the time at meetings yet somehow executive pay always increases and there are more cranes outside the hospital expanding the facility.
Here are a couple of bits from the piece:
- At that time, Inova told its bondholders it had $3.1 billion in investments it could liquidate within three days.
- As of December, Trinity had $9.6 billion in cash and investments, enough to operate for six months. It also reported credit lines totaling $1.2 billion.
I know some hospitals are going to be hurting financially from this pandemic. That is not a lie. The true test will be what they do when the bailout money and regular income comes back to them. It will speak volumes about trust, integrity and honesty.
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I’ve been seeing claims, but just Internet chatter. Is there a a bump in pay from the payouts, or the government, if a COVID19 diagnosis is added? In other words, patient admitted with respiratory distress, gets treatment, ICU and ventilator support. Same services, hospital gets paid “X” if the diagnosis is respiratory failure secondary to community-acquired pneumonia or influenza, but paid “2X” if diagnosis is respiratory failure secondary to COVID19.
I don’t do hospital work anymore, I have no idea.
Is this just more Internet rumor mongering, or is there anything to this claim?