ST. LOUIS — When it’s spread across thousands of recipients, $175 billion doesn’t go very far.
That’s the amount the federal CARES Act’s Provider Relief Fund has allocated to U.S. health care providers impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. The fund includes a $50 billion general allocation distributed in proportion to each provider’s historical net patient revenue, calculated in part from the provider's share of Medicare services. Another $50 billion targets providers in areas particularly impacted by the pandemic, rural providers, and providers serving low-income and uninsured populations.
While about $230 million of the fund has gone to providers in the St. Louis region, for many, that's just a drop in the bucket compared with floods of lost revenue from canceled elective procedures and additional coronavirus-related expenses.
For the 1,256 regional providers that received and accepted funds as of May 6, the average relief payment was $182,899. The median was $8,904, meaning half the providers received less than that amount. The region’s smaller, nonhospital recipients included nursing homes, hospice care facilities, ambulance services, pharmacies and eye care providers.
The largest local payouts went to SSM Health St. Louis ($34.9 million; excluding funds for specific hospitals) and Barnes-Jewish Hospital ($31.7 million). The other three organizations that received more than $10 million apiece were Washington University’s medical campus ($15.4 million), Mercy Hospitals East Communities ($12.9 million) and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital ($10.5 million).
But even those sums won't be nearly enough. Washington University's medical campus lost $60 million in revenue in just the first month of the pandemic, and projects a revenue loss of $150 million through the end of the fiscal year. It furloughed 1,300 workers in April. Mercy, BJC HealthCare, SSM Health and SLUCare have also announced furloughs and layoffs.
"Federal dollars are helpful and appreciated, but not the entire solution," said Nick Barto, senior vice president and chief financial officer for BJC HealthCare. According to Barto, BJC went from being on target for its strongest quarter in history to seeing volumes decline by 40-50%. The health system predicts it will lose between between $400 million and $500 million of operating income this year. Barto said BJC has received a total of $155 million in federal relief funds and is seeking other potential sources of support.
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