Save health care, back doctors
First, the good news: America seems to be slowly turning the corner on the coronavirus outbreak.
Now the bad news: the crisis in our healthcare system is nowhere near over – and if we don’t act now, it might not end at all.
Doctors have been fighting on the frontlines against a deadly virus. Every day, they know they are putting their own health at risk. They isolate themselves from their families to protect their loved ones. Many have been quarantined. Some have even made the ultimate sacrifice, tragically losing their lives to COVID-19 as a result of caring for patients.
And while all this is going on, they have also had to confront a financial crisis that threatens their ability to do their own jobs as well as the long-term viability of our entire healthcare system.
The Department of Health and Human Services acted quickly and decisively to direct emergency relief funds to healthcare providers, primarily hospitals. The $175 billion from the first CARES Act provided critical support as we continue to wrap our arms around the COVID-19 crisis.
We must target relief to support doctors
Most people do not realize that doctors do not typically work for hospitals. Instead, they work for independent practices that partner with hospitals to provide care and services. For example, fewer than 24 percent of emergency room doctors nationwide are hospital employees.
With another round of emergency funding in the works, Congress and HHS should make sure those funds are targeted to the doctors they can help the most.
While the pandemic has created surges of COVID-19 patients in many hot spots around the country, the entire healthcare system is reeling from a major drop in patient visits. Numerous provider groups have reported declines as high as 70% in specialties like outpatient surgery.
Even emergency rooms are seeing far fewer patients as NON-COVID patients do everything in their power to stay home. In New York, the epicenter of America’s COVID outbreak, ER visits dropped 50% overall.
The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) and the University of Tennessee Nashville Emergency Medicine Residency program are in the process of conducting a study to determine the patient volume reductions and the financial impact of COVID-19 on emergency medicine physicians and their groups. Preliminary contact with many groups suggest the impact is catastrophic.
The damage isn’t just in our backyard
The first quarter of 2020 represented the largest decline ever reported in the healthcare industry. That’s only the beginning. The Department of Labor reported 43,000 healthcare jobs lost in March. The second quarter kicked off with the stunning loss of 1.4 million healthcare jobs in April. During the last crash from 2007-2009, the healthcare sector was extremely resilient.
The Department of Labor found almost no material effect on employment. This crisis, however, is unlike anything we’ve ever seen, making it unsurprising that economists are pointing to the healthcare industry as a major driver of the national recession.
The financial crisis in healthcare won’t stop when the virus retreats. Even as elective surgeries resume, patients will be slow to trickle back into medical practices. We can also reliably expect at least one additional wave of COVID-19 outbreaks to further strain our doctors and our system.
If those doctors go out of business – forced to close their practices or permanently laid off – they won’t be able to care for sick patients now and they won’t be there to provide care for patients in the months and years ahead.
The relatively short-term crisis we’re experiencing today could lead to long-term catastrophe. That’s why it is so critical that Congress and HHS get relief funds to where they matter most.
The first round of funding helped, but we need more – and we need it quickly. Doctors struggling with the sudden, steep loss of patients and revenue won’t be able to survive much longer without it.
The painful furloughs, pay cuts, and job losses we’ve seen across the healthcare system are only going to get worse without relief. We need a healthcare system in place, both for the pandemic and for the future. Targeted relief to doctors will make sure they can carry out their mission to care for patients without the threat of financial peril.
Kevin Beier, MD, FAAEM is a Board Member American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM)