Caitlin Owens
May 5, 2020
Many hospitals may not make it out of the coronavirus pandemic, Axios’ Bob Herman reports.
The big picture: The most vulnerable organizations — especially those that treat more old, poor and non-white patients — are teetering on the edge of existence and have to compete with larger, affluent hospitals for federal aid.
Where it stands: Wealthy hospital systems are sitting on billions of dollars in cash and investments, and they “are strongly positioned to take full advantage of whatever method the government sets for distributing the remainder of the bailout funds,” Jordan Rau of Kaiser Health News recently reported.
- Smaller, independent facilities have long lived in the shadows of bigger systems. The coronavirus is more clearly exposing inequality in the industry, as some hospitals get large bailout sums and additional aid from financiers while others literally fall apart.