Despite turbulence in H1, no avalanche of health systems downgrades

https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/despite-turbulence-in-h1-no-avalanche-of-health-systems-downgrades/584353/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202020-09-02%20Healthcare%20Dive%20%5Bissue:29437%5D&utm_term=Healthcare%20Dive

“It’s new territory, which is why we’re taking that measured approach on rating actions,” Suzie Desai, senior director at S&P, said.

The healthcare sector has been bruised from the novel coronavirus and the effects are likely to linger for years, but the first half of 2020 has not resulted in an avalanche of hospital and health system downgrades.

At the outset of the pandemic, some hospitals warned of dire financial pressures as they burned through cash while revenue plunged. In response, the federal government unleashed $175 billion in bailout funds to help prop up the sector as providers battled the effects of the virus.

Still, across all of public finance — which includes hospitals — the second quarter saw downgrades outpacing upgrades for the first time since the second quarter of 2017.

S&P characterized the second quarter as a “historic low” for upgrades across its entire portfolio of public finance credits.

“While only partially driven by the coronavirus, the second quarter was the first since Q2 2017 with the number of downgrades surpassing upgrades and by the largest margin since Q3 2014,” according to a recent Moody’s Investors Service report.

Through the first six months of this year, Moody’s has recorded 164 downgrades throughout public finance and, more specifically, 27 downgrades among the nonprofit healthcare entities it rates.

By comparison, Fitch Ratings has recorded 14 nonprofit hospital and health system downgrades through July and just two upgrades, both of which occurred before COVID-19 hit.

“Is this a massive amount of rating changes? By no means,” Kevin Holloran, senior director of U.S. Public Finance for Fitch, said of the first half of 2020 for healthcare.

Also through July, S&P Global recorded 22 downgrades among nonprofit acute care hospitals and health systems, significantly outpacing the six healthcare upgrades recorded over the same period.

“It’s new territory, which is why we’re taking that measured approach on rating actions,” Suzie Desai, senior director at S&P, said.

Still, other parts of the economy lead healthcare in terms of downgrades. State and local governments and the housing sector are outpacing the healthcare sector in terms of downgrades, according to S&P.

Virus has not ‘wiped out the healthcare sector’

Earlier this year when the pandemic hit the U.S., some made dire predictions about the novel coronavirus and its potential effect on the healthcare sector.

Reports from the ratings agencies warned of the potential for rising covenant violations and an outlook for the second quarter that would result in the “worst on record, one Fitch analyst said during a webinar in May.

That was likely “too broad of a brushstroke,” Holloran said. “It has not come in and wiped out the healthcare sector,” he said. He attributes that in part to the billions in financial aid that the federal government earmarked for providers.

Though, what it has revealed is the gaps between the strongest and weakest systems, and that the disparities are only likely to widen, S&P analysts said during a recent webinar.

The nonprofit hospitals and health systems pegged with a downgrade have tended to be smaller in size in terms of scale, lower-rated already and light on cash, Holloran said.

Still, some of the larger health systems were downgraded in the first half of the year by either one of the three rating agencies, including Sutter Health, Bon Secours Mercy Health, Geisinger, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Care New England.

“This is something that individual management of a hospital couldn’t control,” said Rick Gundling, senior vice president of Healthcare Financial Management Association, which has members from small and large organizations. “It wasn’t a bad strategy — that goes into a downgrade. This happened to everybody.”

Deteriorating payer mix

Looking forward, some analysts say they’re more concerned about the long-term effects for hospitals and health systems that were brought on by the downturn in the economy and the virus.

One major concern is the potential shift in payer mix for providers.

As millions of people lose their job they risk losing their employer-sponsored health insurance. They may transition to another private insurer, Medicaid or go uninsured.

For providers, commercial coverage typically reimburses at higher rates than government-sponsored coverage such as Medicare and Medicaid. Treating a greater share of privately insured patients is highly prized.

If providers experience a decline in the share of their privately insured patients and see a growth in patients covered with government-sponsored plans, it’s likely to put a squeeze on margins.

The shift also poses a serious strain for states, and ultimately providers. States are facing a potential influx of Medicaid members at the same time state budgets are under tremendous financial pressure. It raises concerns about whether states will cut rates to their Medicaid programs, which ultimately affects providers.

Some states have already started to re-examine and slash rates, including Ohio.

 

 

 

 

Unemployment Claims Are ‘Stubbornly High’ as Layoffs Persist

Rise in Unemployment Claims Signals an Economic Reversal - The New York  Times

Just over one million Americans filed new claims for state jobless benefits last week, the latest sign that the economy is losing momentum just as federal aid to the unemployed has been pulled away.

Weekly claims briefly dipped below the one million mark early this month, offering a glimmer of hope in an otherwise gloomy job market. But filings jumped to 1.1 million the next week, and stayed above one million last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

“It’s devastating how stubbornly high initial claims are,” said Julia Pollak, a labor economist at the employment site ZipRecruiter. “There are still huge numbers of layoffs taking place.”

Another 608,000 people filed for benefits under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which offers aid to independent contractors, self-employed workers and others not covered by regular state programs. That number, unlike the figures for state claims, is not seasonally adjusted.

Other recent indicators also suggest that the recovery is faltering. Job growth slowed in July, and real-time data from private-sector sources suggests that hiring has slumped further in August. On Tuesday, American Airlines said it will furlough 19,000 workers on Oct. 1, the latest in a string of such announcements from major corporations.

“It is worrying because it does signal that these large companies are pessimistic about the state of the recovery and don’t think that we are going to be returning to normal anytime soon,” said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at the career site Glassdoor.

Unemployment filings have fallen sharply since early April, when 6.6 million applied for benefits in a single week. But even after that decline, weekly filings far exceed any previous period. Close to 30 million Americans are receiving benefits under various state and federal programs.

The rate of job losses remains high as government support for the unemployed is waning. A $600-a-week federal supplement to state unemployment benefits expired at the end of July, and efforts to replace it have stalled in Congress. President Trump announced this month that he was using his executive authority to give jobless workers an additional $300 or $400 a week, but few states have begun paying out the new benefit.

Economists warn that the loss of federal support could act as a brake on the recovery. Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist for the forecasting firm Oxford Economics, estimated that the lapse in extra unemployment benefits would reduce household income by $45 billion in August. That could lead to a drop in consumer spending and further layoffs, she said.

The benefit initiated by Mr. Trump would use federal emergency funds to provide $300 a week in extra payments to most unemployed workers. (States can choose to chip in an additional $100 a week, but few are doing so.) As of Wednesday, 34 states had been approved for grants under the program, known as Lost Wages Assistance.

Arizona, the first state to turn the grants into payments, sent $252.6 million to about 400,000 recipients last week, a sum that included retroactive payments for the first two weeks of August. Texas this week has paid out $424 million and expects to deliver nearly $1 billion more to cover the first three weeks of benefits. A handful of other states are paying benefits or expect to begin doing so within days.

Most, however, said it could take until mid-September or later.

Once the money starts flowing, it may not last long. Mr. Trump’s order authorized spending up to $44 billion, which federal officials said last week would cover four or five weeks of payments. That means jobless workers in many states may receive a lump sum covering several weeks of retroactive benefits, but nothing more without congressional action.

A crowd thronged a temporary unemployment office in Kentucky in June. Adapting computer systems to new benefits has been a crucial factor in processing claims.

On the surface, the new lost wages program looks like the earlier $600-a-week federal supplement, just cut in half. But there are subtle differences: The program has a different funding source (the Federal Emergency Management Agency instead of the Labor Department) and new restrictions (people receiving less than $100 a week in regular benefits don’t qualify).

Those kinds of adjustments would be trivial on a modern computer system. But many state unemployment systems are running on computers that are anything but modern.

In Oklahoma, for example, the unemployment system uses a 40-year-old mainframe computer that turns even minor adjustments into a major programming task. As a result, even though the state was among the first to apply for the $300 benefit this month, it doesn’t expect to begin paying the new benefit until late September.

“The fact that I’m working with a mainframe from 1978 to process claims is just crippling to the agency,” said Shelley Zumwalt, interim executive director of the agency that oversees Oklahoma’s unemployment system. “We are just holding that system together with masking tape and chewing gum.”

When the pandemic hit, Arizona, too, was stuck with archaic computer systems. It built a new system virtually from scratch to begin paying out federally funded emergency benefits, and it was among the last states to do so.

But the approach left Arizona better able to handle curveballs like the new $300 benefit.

“Through that chaos, we created a pandemic unemployment system,” said Michael Wisehart, director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security.

Christy Miller says there are three things that shape her identity: making people laugh, making people strong and lifting heavy objects. She can’t do any of those right now, and she isn’t sure when she will be able to again.

Ms. Miller, 49, is a standup comedian in New York, where comedy clubs have been closed since March. She is also a personal trainer and an amateur power lifter — activities she has had to give up because gyms, too, remain closed in the city.

The $600-a-week supplement to her unemployment pay didn’t just allow her to pay rent and buy food. It also freed up the time and mental energy for her to learn video production, podcasting and other skills to help her survive the pandemic-driven shutdown of her industry.

“I would give up the $600 a week any day for this coronavirus to go away and get back to work,” she said. “But the $600 has allowed me not to be homeless, to learn more computer stuff that I never would have learned or had the time to learn.”

None of those ventures are producing much income yet, though. She saved as much of her unemployment benefits as she could, and has enough to cover rent through the end of the year. But other bills are another matter. And there is little guarantee that her business will bounce back before her savings run out.

“If they don’t fix this pandemic thing, I may have to leave New York because I can’t afford to stay here,” she said.

Kris Fusco is finally back at work. That doesn’t mean her coronavirus worries are behind her.

When Ms. Fusco’s employer — a small, family-owned business in Massachusetts that rents musical instruments to students — laid her off in March, she expected to be out of work for a couple of weeks. That got extended to April, then to June. Eventually one of the owners called her to tell her they didn’t know when they could reopen.

“I said, ‘You do what you need to do to keep your business afloat, and I’m just going to hold on as long as I can,’” she said. Fortunately, her employer called her back shortly after the $600 supplement expired. She returned to work last week, and, despite some nervousness about going into the office with the virus still spreading, she said she was grateful for the paycheck.

But Ms. Fusco, 50, doesn’t know how long her good fortune will last. With many schools still teaching remotely or canceling activities like band, she worries that her company’s business will suffer. Already, she has noticed a large number of instruments being returned.

“It’s very worrisome for me because I can see the snowball effect from Covid-19 all around me,” she said. “It’s always lurking right behind my eyeballs that in six months I might be out of a job again.”

 

 

 

Unemployed struggle to cover basic expenses following CARES expiration: poll

Unemployed struggle to cover basic expenses following CARES expiration: poll

The number of jobless people saying that unemployment insurance does not cover basic expenses including food, clothing, housing and transportation nearly doubled after key benefits expired in July.

new survey from Morning Consult found that 50 percent of unemployed people said their benefits fell short of covering basic expenses, up from 27 percent in July.

The $600 in extra weekly benefits that Congress passed in March expired at the end of July, leaving many with significantly lower payments.

Republicans argued the $600 increase was too high and discouraged people from returning to work. Democrats countered that at a time of record high unemployment and limited job openings, the extra pay was unlikely to prevent jobs from getting filled.

A month later, negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats remain stalled. Senate Republicans are setting a goal of voting on a more limited package of COVID-19 relief measures next week, though Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has dismissed the idea of approving a limited bill.

An executive order by President Trump to provide $300 in additional benefits to a more limited pool of recipients has lagged in implementation, with only a handful of states able to start making new payments.

In the meantime, the pandemic continues to stifle the economy.

CNBC poll found that 14 percent of those surveyed had completely wiped out their emergency savings during the pandemic, and 39 percent were forced to take some sort of emergency measures to shore up their finances.

Among those who took emergency measures, 17 percent tapped into savings, 11 percent borrowed money, 6 percent stopped retirement contributions and 4 percent moved in with a family member.

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. says it won’t join WHO-linked effort to develop, distribute coronavirus vaccine

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/coronavirus-vaccine-trump/2020/09/01/b44b42be-e965-11ea-bf44-0d31c85838a5_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR31G0QRSO-t6-OnkJxpPFGyIv5d9EW7Zmq4nLVs63OzYf2yR5v1RJ5MtNA

The Trump administration said it will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine, in part because the World Health Organization is involved, a decision that could shape the course of the pandemic and the country’s role in health diplomacy.

More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility, which aims to speed vaccine development and secure doses for all countries and distribute them to the most high-risk segment of each population.

The plan, which is co-led by the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the vaccine alliance, was of interest to some members of the Trump administration and is backed by traditional U.S. allies, including Japan, Germany and the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union.

But the United States will not participate, in part because the White House does not want to work with the WHO, which President Trump has criticized over what he characterized as its “China-centric” response to the pandemic.

“The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China,” said Judd Deere, a spokesman for the White House.

The Covax decision, which has not been previously reported, is effectively a doubling down by the administration on its bet that the United States will win the vaccine race. It eliminates the chance to secure doses from a pool of promising vaccine candidates — a potentially risky strategy.

“America is taking a huge gamble by taking a go-it-alone strategy,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University.

Kendall Hoyt, an assistant professor at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, said it was akin to opting out of an insurance policy.

The United States could be pursuing bilateral deals with drug companies and simultaneously participating in Covax, she said, increasing its odds of getting some doses of the first safe vaccine. “Just from a simple risk management perspective, this [Covax decision] is shortsighted, she said.

The U.S. move will also shape what happens elsewhere. The idea behind Covax is to discourage hoarding and focus on vaccinating high-risk people in every country first, a strategy that could lead to better health outcomes and lower costs, experts said.

U.S. nonparticipation makes that harder. “When the U.S. says it is not going to participate in any sort of multilateral effort to secure vaccines, it’s a real blow,” said Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Center at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

“The behavior of countries when it comes to vaccines in this pandemic will have political repercussions beyond public health,” she added. “It’s about, are you a reliable partner, or, at the end of the day, are you going to keep all your toys for yourself?”

Some members of the Trump administration were interested in a more cooperative approach but were ultimately overruled.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun had interest in exploring some type of role in Covax, a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the decision-making.

But there was resistance in some corners of the government and a belief that the United States has enough coronavirus vaccine candidates in advanced clinical trials that it can go it alone, according to the official and a former senior administration official who learned about it in private discussions.

The question of who wins the race for a safe vaccine will largely influence how the administration’s “America first” approach to the issue plays out.

An unlikely worst-case scenario, experts said, is that none of the U.S. vaccine candidates are viable, leaving the United States with no option since it has shunned the Covax effort.

Another possibility is that a U.S. vaccine does pan out, but the country hoards doses, vaccinating a large number of Americans, including those at low risk, while leaving other countries without.

Experts in health security see at least two problems with this strategy: The first is that a new vaccine is unlikely to offer complete protection to all people, meaning that a portion of the U.S. population will still be vulnerable to imported cases — especially as tourism and trade resume.

The second, related problem is that a U.S. recovery depends on economic recovery elsewhere. If large parts of the world are still in lockdown, the global economy is smarting and supply chains are disrupted, the United States will not be able to bounce back.

“We will continue to suffer the economic consequences — lost U.S. jobs — if the pandemic rages unabated in allies and trading partners,” said Thomas J. Bollyky, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the director of its global health program.

Proponents of a multilateral approach to global public health would like to see all countries coordinate through Covax. Perhaps unsurprisingly, interest is strongest from poor countries, while some larger economies are cutting deals directly with drugmakers.

WHO officials have argued that countries need not choose — they can pursue both strategies by signing bilateral deals and also joining Covax.

“By joining the facility at the same time that you do bilateral deals, you’re actually betting on a larger number of vaccine candidates,” Mariângela Simao, a WHO assistant director for drug and vaccine access, said at an Aug. 17 briefing.

If nothing else, the United States could pledge surplus vaccine doses to Covax to ensure they are distributed in a rational and equitable way, experts said.

Some cautioned against a focus on “winning” the race. Given the complexity of supply chains, vaccine development will necessarily be a global effort, regardless of whether countries want to cooperate.

The decision to steer clear of Covax comes at a time of tremendous change for health diplomacy.

The United States has long been the biggest donor to the WHO and a major funder of vaccine initiatives.

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump praised both China and the WHO for their handling of the outbreak. But as the crisis intensified in the United States, he turned on the U.N. health agency.

In April, he announced a freeze on new U.S. funding. Not long after, the State Department started stripping references to the WHO from fact sheets and rerouting funds to other programs.

By July, the administration had sent a letter signaling its intent to withdraw from the WHO.

But untangling the United States from the agency it helped found and shape is not simple — and the terms of the separation are still being assessed.

It is not yet clear, for instance, whether a U.S. withdrawal means the United States will just stop its contributions to the WHO or whether it will stop funding any initiative linked to the agency in any way.

For instance, the White House no longer wants to work with the WHO, but the United States is a major supporter of Gavi, which co-leads the Covax project.

Asked to comment on the Covax decision, a State Department spokeswoman pointed to U.S. funding for Gavi, as well as money for such programs as UNICEF and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the White House could still reverse course and join Covax, or at least let the Senate fund through Gavi — a political workaround.

“This just shows how awkward, contradictory and self-defeating all of this,” he said. “For the U.S. to terminate its relationship with the WHO in the middle of a pandemic is going to create an endless stream of self-defeating moments.”

 

 

 

 

Employers face liability under payroll tax deferral guidance

https://www.cfodive.com/news/employers-liability-payroll-tax-deferral-guidance-IRS/584434/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202020-09-01%20CFO%20Dive%20%5Bissue:29408%5D&utm_term=CFO%20Dive

The onus to collect and pay back deferred payroll taxes, under guidance the IRS has released on President Trump’s executive order, falls on employers.

Trump signed the order last month after Congress failed to agree on extending COVD-19-related stimulus benefits. It directs participating employers not to withhold the 6.2% payroll tax that employees owe each pay period to cover their portion of Social Security taxes.

The absence of withholding gives employees a bigger paycheck, although they still must repay the deferred withholdings next year, unless Congress waives the liability. 

The benefit applies to employees earning less than $4,000 every two weeks, or about $104,000 a year. It’s in effect for paychecks issued between September 1 and the end of the year.

Effectiveness in doubt

Under the IRS guidance, liability for paying back the uncollected taxes could ultimately fall on employers; there’s no language explaining how deferred taxes will be returned to the Treasury if an employee quits between now and the end of the year or otherwise can’t pay the deferred taxes.

“You could give [the tax deferral] to the employee, but then a year from now you might be on the hook for the money,” University of Chicago law professor Daniel Hemel told CNBC.

“Liability is going to stick to the employer like flies to flypaper,” Marianna Dyson, a lawyer at Washington firm Covington & Burling, told The Wall Street Journal.

Low participation

Many employers may choose not to participate, which would dampen the stimulus impact.

“Many [employers could] decline putting the extra money in workers’ paychecks — blunting any potential economic or political boost Trump had hoped to reap,” an Accounting Today/Bloomberg News analysis said.

The last-minute revamping of systems to administer the change could also deter participation.

“The programming changes are substantial in scope,” the National Payroll Reporting Consortium said in an August 20 statement

The deferral is also not a clear win for employees, who could face double withholdings when taxes must be repaid early next year.

“It’s not clear employees will want to take it, even if they qualify.” Pete Isberg, vice president of payroll processing company ADP, told the Washington Post.

 

 

 

 

US surpasses 6 million coronavirus cases nationwide

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/514364-us-passes-6-million-coronavirus-cases-nationwide

US surpasses 6 million coronavirus cases nationwide | TheHill

The United States has passed six million confirmed cases of the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The country has also passed 183,000 deaths nationwide.

President Trump and his 2020 Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, have battled for months over the U.S.’s coronavirus response, with allies of the Democratic nominee hammering the administration over the U.S.’s status as the country with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world.

In July, Biden accused Trump of giving up on the U.S.’s efforts to control the disease’s spread, claiming that the president “raised the white flag.”

“He has no idea what to do. It’s zero. It’s only one thing he has in mind — how does he win reelection? And it doesn’t matter how many people get COVID and or die from COVID because he fears that if the economy is strapped as badly as it is today that, in fact, he is going to be in trouble,” the former vice president told MSNBC.

Trump, meanwhile, has struck an optimistic tone on the virus when addressing it in recent months and claimed that he believes a vaccine could be available before the election. He also claimed in a recent Axios interview that the virus is “under control as much as you can control it” in the U.S.

“They are dying, that’s true. And you have — it is what it is,” Trump said earlier in August. “But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can. It’s under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague.”

 

 

 

 

Massachusetts health system lays off 118 furloughed workers, extends exec pay cuts

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/massachusetts-health-system-lays-off-118-furloughed-workers-extends-exec-pay-cuts.html?utm_medium=email

Cape Cod Hospital - Office of Student Affairs at UMass Medical School

Citing financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnstable, Mass.-based Cape Cod Healthcare will lay off 118 employees and extend salary reductions for executives, according to The Cape Cod Times.

In May, Cape Cod Healthcare furloughed 595 employees due to low patient volume and revenue declines amid the pandemic. Of the workers furloughed, 477 have returned to work, and 118 will be laid off. 

Employees affected by the layoffs include eight vice presidents, a nurse, lab workers, environmental service workers and dietary employees.

In addition to the personnel reduction, Cape Cod Healthcare is extending a 10 percent salary cut for its senior executives, according to the report. 

Cape Cod Healthcare CEO Michael Lauf told the Times that the layoffs were “an extremely difficult decision to make, as Cape Cod Healthcare values each and every one of our employees.”

Read the full report here. 

 

 

Northwell records $329M loss in first half of 2020

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/northwell-records-329m-loss-in-first-half-of-2020.html?utm_medium=email

Northwell Health pairs with Israel Innovation Authority to develop new  medical innovations | MobiHealthNews

Northwell Health, a 19-hospital system based in New Hyde Park, N.Y., ended the first half of 2020 with an operating loss despite a revenue increase year-over-year, according to recently released financial documents. 

In the six months ended June 30, the health system recorded revenue of $6.3 billion, up from $6.1 billion reported in the same period in 2019.

The health system saw its patient revenue drop 9.7 percent in the first half of the year to $5.1 billion, compared to the same period in 2019. The patient revenue drop was attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Northwell’s expenses climbed in the first six months of this year to $6.6 billion, an increase of about 9.5 percent from the same period in 2019.

The health system recorded an operating loss of $249.6 million.

After accounting for nonoperating gains and losses, the system ended the first half of 2020 with a $329 million net loss. This compares to a net income of $393 million in the first half of 2019.

Northwell Health estimated that the negative financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic in the six months ended June 30 was about $1.2 billion and attributed most of the financial impact to lower patient volume.

Through Aug. 28, Northwell has received $1.2 billion in grants from the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act. In the six months ended June 30, the health system recorded $754 million of this relief aid as “other operating revenue.”

“While the financial impact estimates noted above have been made using the best available information at the time, the ultimate net impact of the pandemic to Northwell and its financial condition is uncertain,” Northwell Health stated.

 

 

 

 

Cleveland Clinic posts $201.8M operating loss in Q2

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/cleveland-clinic-posts-201-8m-operating-loss-in-q2.html?utm_medium=email

Find a Doctor | Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic ended the second quarter of this year with an operating loss, which the system attributed to financial damage tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 18-hospital system’s revenue declined to $2.3 billion in the second quarter of this year, down from $2.7 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to unaudited financial documents. In the first six months of this year, the health system experienced net patient service revenue shortfalls of more than $830 million, compared to plan, and incurred more than $165 million in COVID-19 preparedness costs. 

Cleveland Clinic reported operating expenses of $2.36 billion in the second quarter of this year, up from $2.34 billion in the same period last year.

The hospital system ended the most recent quarter with an operating loss of $201.8 million, compared to operating income of $116.2 million in the second quarter of 2019. Looking at the first six months of this year, Cleveland Clinic reported an operating loss of $241.7 million, compared to operating income of $152.4 million a year earlier. 

To help offset financial damage tied to the pandemic in the first six months of this year, Cleveland Clinic recognized $324 million in federal grants made available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. The health system also applied for and received $849 million in Medicare advance payments, which must be repaid. 

After factoring in investment gains of $477.5 million and other nonoperating items, Cleveland Clinic closed out the second quarter of this year with net income of $276.1 million. In the same period a year earlier, the health system posted net income of $256.4 million.

 

 

COVID-related controversy and hope amid a week of politics

https://mailchi.mp/95e826d2e3bc/the-weekly-gist-august-28-2020?e=d1e747d2d8

Democracy vs. disease: the role of freedom in facing pandemics | University  of Nevada, Reno

Week two of the 2020 Pre-Recorded Virtual Presidential Convention-thon wrapped up Thursday night, albeit with a decidedly less Zoom-Webex-FaceTimey feel for this week’s Republicans compared to last week’s Democrats. As delegates and VIPs sat cheek-by-jowl at several in-person events, with scarce masking and plenty of loud cheering, the viewer was left hoping that a rigorous attendee COVID testing protocol was being used.

That hope may have been dashed by a significant change to testing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which reversed course on Monday by recommending asymptomatic people who have been exposed to the coronavirus should no longer be tested.

The altered guidance drew sharp rebukes from doctors and infectious disease experts, who worried that it would undermine the ability to track the spread of the virus, which has now claimed more than 181,000 American lives. The flap over testing guidelines came at the same time as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Stephen Hahn was forced to apologize for misleading claims he made over the weekend about the efficacy of convalescent plasma in treating COVID patients. In announcing an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the treatment, Hahn dramatically overstated evidence supporting the lifesaving ability of the therapy. The missteps by CDC and FDA officials were undoubtedly an unwelcome distraction for the Trump administration, overshadowing the president’s bold promise in his acceptance speech that a COVID vaccine would be available before the end of the year.

There was hopeful news on the COVID front this week as well. In what was quickly hailed as a “game changer” in solving the nation’s faltering ability to deliver timely test results, Abbott Laboratories was granted its own EUA for a 15-minute, $5 rapid antigen test, which does not require laboratory analysis. The company plans to produce tens of millions of the new BinaxNOW test kits in the next month, and the US government has agreed to acquire nearly all of the 150M tests the company will produce by the end of the year, at a $760M purchase price. Although some antigen tests have been cited for accuracy problems, the FDA said that the new Abbott test delivers correct positive tests 97.1 percent of the time, and correct negative tests 98.5 percent of the time.

Rapid, reliable point-of-care testing could allow for safer return to schools, workplaces, and public gatherings, and if successfully deployed will be an essential tool in managing the impact of the virus until effective vaccines are fully developed, launched, and administered. A genuine ray of hope as the nation looks ahead to the fall and winter.

US coronavirus update: 5.9M cases; 181K deaths; 81.8M tests conducted.