RI hospitals to get $150M bailout
Funds will shore up hospital finances after suspension of most services
PROVIDENCE – Gov. Gina M. Raimondo Thursday said her administration has launched a hospital relief fund that will provide 150 million to help Rhode Island hospitals offset immediate costs during the COVID-1 pandemic and prepare for the future.
The emergency cash to shore up the state’s hospitals will come from the 1.25 billion in COVID-1 stimulus money Rhode Island received from the federal government, the governor said.
“We’re making this funding available to ensure that our hospitals stay open, stay financially viable, and are focused on making the changes necessary to remain viable during the crisis and after the crisis,” Raimondo said during her daily press briefing yesterday.
During that briefing, Raimondo said there were 14 new coronavirus-related deaths in Rhode Island and 100 new cases. As of yesterday, the total number of positive cases in Rhode Island stood at 15,325 and the death toll due to COVID-1 was 756.
At the start of the pandemic three months ago, hospitals nationwide suspended elective surgeries and procedures and reduced non-COVID-1 inpatient care to make beds available for coronavirus patients. The fall-off in revenue from elective services and patients visiting their doctors is now causing financial instability for the nation’s hospitals, including those in Rhode Island.
“The reality is we asked hospitals to cut down on the services they were delivering. That means they saw massive drops in their revenue,” Raimondo said. “They did the right thing, but at the same time, their costs were increasing for things like PPE, testing and other costs required to meet the COVID crisis.”
Raimondo said the state’s hospitals are weathering an unprecedented financial crisis, adding the 150 million in state aid will help the immediate emergency crunch they are facing and that more money will follow.
“The reality is our health care system is stretched and fragile in ways that it has never been before,” she said. “The COVID-1 crisis has taken an unbelievable toll on
our health care system at a time when people need health care the more than ever. It’s very important that we’re there to shore up our health care system so we come out stronger on the other end.”
Raimondo also announced Thursday that he will be convening a new pediatric advisory council led by Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott, which will distribute millions of dollars in state COVID-19 relief funds for relief and support of pediatric practices.
“All primary care physician groups have been hit hard and that is doubly true for pediatric practices,” Raimondo said. “They are most heavily dependent on Medicaid they haven’t had great success with telehealth and parents have been afraid to take their children in for immunizations and routine care. Our pediatricians are hurting and we need a strong system of care in the community.”
Raimondo said she was particularly concern that childhood immunizations have dropped by upwards of 50 percent during the pandemic.
“We need to get on that right now,” she said. “We’re going to come up with creative strategies to make sure that parents get their kids back into the pediatrician’s office as quickly as possible to get these kids immunized. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. If we don’t fix that now it could result in potentially devastating health care issues next winter.”
Raimondo also said she will extend for another 30 days, or until July 5, an executive order directing health insurance companies to cover telehealth for primary care, specialty care, and mental and behavioral health care conducted over the phone or video conference and that reimbursement rates for telehealth be equivalent to in-person visits.
“I want to work to make this permanent through statute because I think the people of Rhode Island and the providers of Rhode Island deserve a continuation of telehealth in a stable way.”
Most of Raimondo’s remarks yesterday were focused on the state’s health care system during the pandemic, saying Rhode Island will have to rebuild that system in a way that not only makes it more resilient and effective, but reduces disparities and inequities.
“The virus has worsened health disparities and has highlighted the pressing need to root out inequities in access to health care,” she said. “This inequity that we’ve seen spotlighted through the crisis is real and is something that we can’t accept. As we get to the business of rebuilding and strengthening our health care system, we have to do it in a way that reduces the inequities that have long existed in that system.”