Jackson Health wants virus funds to be based on patients
After getting shortchanged in the early rounds of emergency federal grants for hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic, Jackson Health System is asking the Trump administration to distribute the remaining relief funds — about $125 billion — according to the amount of care each hospital provided to patients with COVID-19.
Jackson Health has received $24 million out of about $50 billion sent so far to all hospitals nationwide in April through the CARES Act federal stimulus legislation.
In a letter addressed to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya asked that the federal health agency overseeing the distribution of relief funds for hospitals use a “commonsense approach” that would help all medical centers, especially those in the hardest hit areas. The taxpayerowned hospital system is in Miami-Dade, the state’s worst COVID-19 hot spot.
“Complexity and delay are the biggest dangers faced by hospital systems holding together collapsing budgets in the COVID-19 fight,” Migoya said in the letter to Azar. “Until we fully resume normal operations, we need our national leaders to provide life-support dollars using simple formulas that quickly stabilize our financial foundations.”
Migoya’s letter recommends that HHS distribute the remaining CARES Act funds based on the amount of care each hospital provided to patients with COVID-19 and how long those patients stayed in the hospital. Migoya also asked that HHS give an extra 20 percent to hospitals in areas with the highest numbers of hospitalizations for COVID-19, such as MiamiDade.
Mark Knight, chief financial officer for Jackson Health, said the hospital system is grateful for the financial aid that Congress and the president have already delivered. The money arrived at Jackson about two weeks after the legislation was signed by the president on March 27, he said.
The recommendation that HHS distribute the money according to the amount of coronavirus-related care each hospital provided was a method to treat all hospitals equally, he said.
“So no hospital would be penalized,” Knight said.
The first round of about $30 billion in CARES Act funding was given to hospitals in April according to their share of revenue from traditional Medicare. But that spending formula hurt hospitals in South Florida — including Jackson Health — that rely more on revenue from Medicare Advantage, coverage provided by private health insurers that contract with Medicare.
In early April, Migoya sent a scathing letter to Azar and other lawmakers, saying the funding method could jeopardize “the very existence” of health systems like Jackson, which was grappling with the possibility of pay cuts and furloughs due to revenue losses from canceled non-emergency surgeries and patients avoiding hospitals during the pandemic.
On April 22, HHS announced that another $20 billion would be given to hospitals using a different formula based not just on Medicare revenue, but instead on each providers’ share of patient revenue from all sources. Since Medicaid typically reimburses at lower rates than other providers, this method could hurt hospitals that see a lot of Medicaid patients, such as Jackson Health.
For Jackson Health, the loss of revenue from the coronavirus pandemic has been significant. The hospital system’s executives said in April that Jackson Health will lose about $25 million a month during the crisis because all non-emergency surgeries have been canceled and patients are avoiding healthcare centers.
Knight said Jackson Health expects to receive more funding through the CARES Act, including a share of about $10 billion for hospitals in coronavirus hot spots, and an additional $10 billion to help hospitals cover the cost of providing care for uninsured patients with COVID-19.
Knight said HHS should distribute the money for hospitals in coronavirus hot spots next week, but he does not know how much Jackson Health will receive. CARES Act funding for uninsured patients has yet to be delivered.
On Friday, HHS announced that it had awarded additional CARES Act funds to Florida hospitals using existing criteria. The money included $286 million to Florida hospitals in COVID-19 hot spots, and an additional $119 million to state hospitals treating lowincome and uninsured patients.