Posted on 03/30/2020 3:07:00 PM PDT by buckalfa
CHARLESTON, W.Va. Some hospitals in West Virginia are starting to have cash flow problems with the doing away of elective surgeries and other procedures due to the coronavirus.
West Virginia Hospital Association President Joe Letnaunchyn said many services normally offered are being put off in the current environment.
The Surgeon General said cancel elective surgeries and you cancel electives, you cancel other related ancillary services and the revenue stream dries up, Letnaunchyn said during an appearance Monday on MetroNews Talkline. So were trying to find alternate ways to provide revenue to the hospitals in the interim until the federal bill gets going.
Hospitals are expected to receive some funding under the federal stimulus package signed into law last week.
Charleston Area Medical Center is cutting back hours of employees is connection with fewer patients.
Due to significant drops in the number of patients and procedures, CAMC has asked managers to adjust staffing to meet the reduced demands it is experiencing, CAMC spokesman Dale Witte told MetroNews Monday afternoon.
Managers are temporarily reducing hours of some employees.
CAMC President and CEO David Ramsey said during an appearance last week on Talkline his hospitals had 150 empty beds.
Letnaunchyn said his organizations coronavirus task force is seeking ways to help the hospitals in the state including an advance from Medicaid on reimbursements.
Were working with Medicaid right now to try and get some advance on Medicaid payments to some of the hospitals. Were working as quick as we can to synthesize how to get money flowing on the federal bill passed by Medicare, Letnaunchyn said.
West Virginia hospitals have been struggling in recent history because of a high number of patients that are covered by government insurance plans and small percentage of patients covered by commercial insurers. The reimbursement rate is lower with Medicaid and PEIA patients.
But now it appears to be just the lack of overall patient numbers thats causing the issue.
Letnaunchyn said its difficult to predict how long it will last. He said the hospitals may face a surge of coronavirus cases. He hopes not but they will ready if it happens.
All the messages to the public about the distancing, the hygiene, washing, maybe thats going to pay off for us and we wont have the surge but we have to plan like were going to or we wont be prepared, Letnaunchyn said.
See what happens when people don’t live right on fricking top of each other?
CC
Same thing in Austin hospitals. My son’s worried about getting enough hours to make a check.
Behold, Idiocracy in action...
Yeah agree totally. IIRC W.Va. was one of the last if not the last state to have any cases.
o her = other
You would think Austin’s population density would make it worse. Climate make a difference?
CC
I live an hour outside Detroit. Wayne county (Detroit) has 3195 cases. The county where I live, which is semi-rural and has one major city of not more that 35000 people has 25. Do the math.
CC
Sounds like they did a good job preparing for the upcoming onslaught. Good management there.
He works in the OR and all surgeries have been canceled. He was going to try to get in some hours in the Emergency Room but they’re not that busy.
One of the interesting things about our republic, is how different, regions can be.
Perhaps this current time in history should illustrate that what works in WVA, and what works in the city of New York, can and should be different measures.
Same thing in Austin hospitals. My sons worried about getting enough hours to make a check.
Same in my part of Florida. There is going to be a bunch of irritated docs. They’ll be making a fraction of their normal salaries with the kibosh put on elective surgery.
Sounds like they did a good job preparing for the upcoming onslaught. Good management there.
No, they just cancelled all elective procedures.
Yup - this entire approach globally is completely F’ed up. Please chicken with the global economy and our way of life to maybe save a few hundred thousand if the worst predictions are right (out of billions).
I have argued repeatedly with others online that “cookie cutter” solutions don’t work under these circumstances. You see that being played out in W. Virginia.
CC
Why do they not send non-CV patients from new york to these hospitals? It’s a win-win.
When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1821
Secession is the only remedy.
My county has the 3rd most in our state — 79. In response, we are on lockdown, and the beaches are closed until June.
In the past 6 days, our case count went up by 101, 69, 144, 135, 151, and 130. Notice the lack of a trend.
We have 136 people in hospital now. We have thousands of beds, and 1700 usable ICU beds (lack of doctors/nurses/support staff). At our current rate, we should hit about 300 hospitalizations before the oldest start dying or getting better, so we are at under 30% of our total capacity. Of course, it could get a lot worse.
Not possible! The Navy ships the Mercy and Comfort were sent into relieve these hospitals from their overloaded burdens.
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