More than $1.2 billion in federal bailout funds have been disclosed by hospitals and health systems thus far, including $150 million that was sent to Mayo Clinic, according to a review of financial documents by Axios’ Bob Herman.
Why it matters: Hospitals do not have to repay these taxpayer funds, which are supposed to offset the lost revenue and higher costs associated with handling the coronavirus outbreak. But there is no central location to track where the money is flowing.
The big picture: Hospitals and other health care providers can receive coronavirus funds through two primary sources:
- A $175 billion bailout fund that does not have to be repaid.
- Advance payments from Medicare that function as loans and must be repaid.
Where it stands: Axios has found 11 hospital organizations — ranging from small community hospitals to large, multistate systems — that have disclosed bailout funding and Medicare loans through municipal bondholder documents or public filings, and compiled them into a database.
- Some of the largest bailout payments disclosed so far have gone to HCA Healthcare ($700 million), Mayo Clinic ($150 million), Mercy ($101.7 million) and NYU Langone Health ($73.1 million).
- $50 billion of the first $100 billion in bailout funds is “allocated proportional to providers’ share of 2018 net patient revenue,” according to HHS, and therefore likely favors systems that are bigger and/or charge higher prices.
- Medicare has sent $100 billion as loans as of April 24, $7 billion of which has been disclosed to these 11 hospital systems.
Go deeper: The hospital bailout funding database
HENRY KOTULA 