New US hospitals face fiscal crisis over COVID relief money

ABC ^ | May 17, 2022, | JAY REEVES

[deport]

A whole town celebrated in 2020 when, early in the coronavirus pandemic, Thomasville Regional Medical Center opened, offering state-of-the-art medicine that was previously unavailable in a poor, isolated part of Alabama.

Now deep in the red two years into the pandemic, the 29-bed, $40 million hospital is among three medical centers are so new they lack full financial statements from before the crisis to prove how much it cost them.

“No hospital can sustain itself without getting the CARES Act money that everybody else got,” James said.

[deport]

29-bed .. May be too small to actually survive with all the expenses necessary for a hospital. JMO

[frogjerk]

Everybody will be screaming for CASH and bailouts as inflation keeps rolling along. More money will be borrowed and spent and printed by politicians and Washington making inflation progressively worse.

We need new leaders.

[deport]

We need new leaders.

********

I don't disagree but it takes a concerted effort and I'm not
sure how that will be accomplished. Politics pretty much
rules the roost in today's environment, JMO.

[ClearCase_guy]

The entire economic sphere is driven more by government taxes, regulations and funding than it is by simple Supply and Demand. I do not think economics is a “thing” at this point. It’s simply political science with numbers.

[frogjerk]

I don’t disagree with you either, you are correct as well.

[neverevergiveup]

The model of smaller boutique specialty service hospitals can work, and work better for patients, but requires a creative approach with shared central services, shared billing services, shared liability insurance costs, shared purchasing, and shared benefits programs among a network of private nominally independent facilities.

[Blurb2350]

Excellent point CC. “The free market” hasn’t a chance in this environment, with incentives so distorted.

[TribalPrincess2U]

>they lack full financial statements from before the crisis to prove how much it cost them.<

AND THERE YA GO!