MiraMed Global Services Podcast

Those who elected to access the APP funds may remember that, unlike other PHE-related relief efforts, these funds were meant to be a temporary stop-gap measure to support health facilities in their time of need. They were not gifts, grants or forgiven debts. They were straight-up loans; and the loans have come due.

Every day, hospital executives must sift through data they’ve received from governmental and clinical leaders, and attempt to make wise choices based on such data.  The problem is not just that there is an overload of information out there, but that it is often conflicting information.  This group of doctors doesn’t agree with that group of doctors regarding treatment, or that leading official said one thing about mask effectiveness a few months ago and is saying something different today.  There are recurring claims of over-inflated COVID numbers and counter-claims of suppressed COVID numbers.  What is one to do?  Where does the truth lie?

In its analysis of hospital financial standing during Q2 of 2020, HealthcareDive is reporting that “all of the nation's largest for-profit hospital chains saw higher profits, and some more than tripled their net income compared to last year.”  Now, at first glance, that might seem like a shocking, provocative, and even dumbfounding statement to the outside observer; so, it deserves a little bit of unpacking. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided a press release on August 4, outlining several proposed rules that will affect the healthcare industry if approved.  The following will act to summarize a few of the key proposals.

We've recently completed six months of treating COVID patients in the United States, with the first known case occurring on January 20, in Everett, Washington. In that time, we have seen remarkable changes in American healthcare and American society. At the time of this writing, areas of the country that had been relatively cleared of the virus are now experiencing a dramatic rise in cases and the reported number of COVID-related deaths is hovering around 150,000.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would send an additional $10 billion in relief funds to hospitals that have been deemed to be located in recent COVID outbreak areas across the country. According to numerous reports over the last several days, the coronavirus case count has surged—particularly in the South and Southwest—and has created another crisis for many of the health facilities in those regions. 

It appears that the early predictions of extreme numbers of deaths (some suggesting millions of U.S. deaths) were the cause of governments taking the unusual precautions we’ve witnessed.  One can argue in retrospect whether state and federal measures over the last several months were warranted given the current reported number of COVID-related deaths, but the fact remains that our way of life is being completely overturned due to reported or perceived numbers of deaths.

We are doing our best to get on with our pre-COVID lives, to will our way to happier times, but at every turn we are faced with alarming news of record case levels and renewed shutdowns.

With the national birthday freshly celebrated, this may be a good time to take stock of some potentially positive news for the American people as it pertains to the ongoing pandemic. The operative word here is "potentially," as little is certain in these very uncertain times. With that said, the following reflects a couple of the latest stories hot off the press.

As things began to open up, millions experienced renewed hope, COVID cases began to spike; now there are signs that the days of closures and restrictions are about to make a comeback.  

Many had hoped the effects of COVID-19 would dissipate with the beginning of warmer weather. Now that we're in late June, one would think that a seasonal virus would be well on its way to dormancy, if only for a time; but there seems to be no letup in COVID's mission to seek and destroy—at least in certain sectors.