Hospitals have a message for Oregonians.
If your knee needs repairing, your colon needs scoping or your tummy needs tucking, they’re open, safe and eager for your business.
The Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems launched an ad campaign Wednesday to lure back patients scared off by the highly infectious coronavirus. The many empty beds have been devastating to hospitals’ finances.
The suspension of elective surgeries this spring cut hospital revenues by 40% or more. Business has improved since the peak of Oregon’s COVID-19 outbreak in March and April. But it’s nowhere near normal.
Even people in legitimate need of treatment from a hospital or emergency room are sucking it up and staying away.
How bad is it? So bad, that $422 million in federal assistance didn’t make a dent, hospital officials insist. That’s how much 60-odd Oregon hospitals got out of the CARES Act economic stimulus bill that Congress passed in March.
Nationally, the federal government showered hospitals, clinics and even individual providers with $175 billion. But the industry claims it wasn’t enough. The nation’s hospitals collectively lost about $500 billion in the first quarter, the industry claims.
Oregon hospitals got their share of the federal booty. But here, too, they claim they need more.
Earlier this spring, the hospitals asked for $200 million in state assistance. That hasn’t materialized and it seems somewhat unlikely after this spring’s dismal budget forecast. But the hospitals aren’t giving up.
Many hospitals, particularly small rural institutions, were struggling before the pandemic. They complied with Gov. Kate Brown’s order to virtually shut down their normal operations and prepare for a tsunami of COVID-19 patients. That tsunami never came, as Oregon had a relatively mild outbreak compared to other states.
Some rural hospitals didn’t have a single COVID-19 patient.
Doctors, nurses and other front-line workers were celebrated as heroes. But the positive PR did very little to attract new patients.
“People are delaying checkups and vital care because they fear hospitals are either unsafe or overwhelmed. Neither of those things are true here in Oregon,” said Becky Hultberg, president and CEO of the hospital trade group.
The cash grants came in several different rounds. The first chunk of money was the largest – more than $270 million. The checks ranged widely in size depending on the size of each organization.
At the top end, Providence Health & Services’ eight Oregon hospitals got a cumulative $57 million. Oregon Health & Science University got $34.3 million, the largest check to any one institution.
In contrast, Pioneer Hospital -- a 21-bed operation in Heppner -- got $388,000.
Some advocates of health care reform have criticized a public bailout of huge health systems that have billions of dollars in assets. The New York Times gave voice to those concerns in a May 25 story about Providence, the hospital chain that stretches from Alaska to West Texas. Though it has $25 billion in assets, more than 50 hospitals, an in-house venture capital operations and huge reserves, Providence got more than half-a-billion dollars in CARES Act bailout money.
But Providence has taken a beating this year. It lost $1.1 billion in the first quarter alone. On top of the revenue decline and higher expenses stemming from the pandemic, it suffered huge investment losses topping $700 million.