Pennsylvania hospitals, nursing homes warn of closures
Hospitals, nursing homes and child-care centers are asking the Pennsylvania state government for more money to avoid closures amid a surge of coronavirus-related demands on staffing and equipment. The union representing the state’s corrections officers wants the prison system to stop all transfers of inmates.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on March 23 ordered schools closed through at least April 6 and ordered 5.5 million people in the state’s hardest-hit counties to stay home, other than going to work at an essential business that’s still open or another errand involving health and safety.
Hospitals, nursing homes and child-care centers are pushing for emergency aid from state lawmakers and Wolf to help keep them afloat during the outbreak, and warning of closures without it. There is a “legitimate, credible threat” that some hospitals, without financial support from either the federal government or the state government, will close, said Andy Carter, CEO of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
The fund would help hospitals build surge capacity, retrofit critical-care units for highly infectious COVID-19 patients, hire more clinicians, pay for housing, establish on-site childcare facilities for healthcare workers and purchase protective gear. Carter did not provide a dollar figure, but said, “We know it’s going to be an extraordinary amount to match the size of the potential surge of care that we will be providing.”
The economic relief package that President Donald Trump signed last week, the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, includes $100 billion for hospitals and other providers, likely to be used to buy additional personal protective equipment and for other needs.
The federal Families First Coronavirus Response
Act signed into law by Trump on March 18 provides approximately $1.5 billion additional Medicaid dollars for Pennsylvania, nursing home organizations said.
Two nursing home associations—LeadingAge PA and the Pennsylvania Health Care Association—and labor unions that help staff the homes requested help getting protective equipment, a 3% increase in reimbursement rates and a minimum sum of $290 million to nursing homes in emergency assistance.
They also asked for emergency aid to offer paid sick leave to all staff who have exhausted their sick-leave benefits.
Child-care advocates said more than $100 million is needed to make up for the fees and co-pays that the centers aren’t collecting. They also urged lawmakers to pass legislation protecting the centers from coronavirus-related lawsuits. ●