Lodi News-Sentinel

California hospitals suffer massive losses

- By Mara Hoplamazia­n and Cathie Anderson

California hospitals lost at least $3.2 billion a month during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as they made preparatio­ns for a potential flood of patients, bought new equipment and canceled nonemergen­cy medical procedures, according to a report from the nonprofit California Health Care Foundation.

The report, released Wednesday, highlights how dramatical­ly the shutdown orders throughout California damaged the bottom line of hospitals as they cleared space for potential COVID-19 patients at the same time many people avoided trips to the emergency room because the number of coronaviru­s cases was spiking.

“I don’t think hospitals are going to recover for some time to come,” said Dr. Glenn Melnick, a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California and the co-author of the report. He said much of his research comes from work he’s done on his own in the field but that he also interviewe­d hospital executives and studied data from a company that tracks hospital admissions nationwide.

In the first month of shelter-in-place orders, California hospitals saw an estimated 50 percent reduction in revenue, the report said. Though there were gradual improvemen­ts as shelter-in-place orders began to loosen, the report estimates the average revenue for California hospitals fell by $3.2 billion a month during March, April and May, and are projected to be the same for June.

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