{"id":55018,"date":"2020-04-02T09:29:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T14:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=55018"},"modified":"2020-04-02T09:29:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T14:29:52","slug":"hospitals-burn-through-cash-while-congress-weighs-next-stimulus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=55018","title":{"rendered":"Hospitals burn through cash while Congress weighs next stimulus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Shruti Date Singh and Lauren Coleman-Lochner<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tribune News Service<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. hospitals are burning through cash so quickly on the front lines of the nation’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic that the more than $100 billion they’re set to get from the federal emergency stimulus package might not be enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $2.2 trillion package lets hospitals get an advance on expected Medicare reimbursements and helps make up for lost revenue from suspended, profitable elective surgeries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rescue funds are intended to help hospitals keep the lights on, and to expand services and buy protective equipment as they race to care for COVID-19 patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the federal funds will help prop up hospitals in the immediate future, financial analysts are warning that more money will be needed to stem a drain on reserves or losses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moody’s Investors Service has already said the outbreak likely will hurt cash flow this year, even after the recent stimulus package. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S&P Global Ratings cut its outlook for the not-for-profit acute healthcare sector to negative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s intense stress on the balance sheet — across the board,” Wells Fargo Securities senior analyst George Huang said in a telephone interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hospitals are burning through cash very quickly. The longer it goes on, the increased likelihood hospitals will need more cash infusion. I think there’s likely a need for further aid down the road.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House and Congress have begun circling the idea of a fourth round of stimulus to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. Both President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have begun floating ideas for such a measure, just days after he signed the $2.2 trillion bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said he’s spoken with hospital executives and told reporters March 26 that some operators are “hanging on by a thread.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our hospitals are facing a moment of challenge and testing the likes of which they have never seen,” Durbin said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York-Presbyterian Hospital, located in the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S., told bond investors it expects operating losses between $104 million and $454 million in 2020, according to a regulatory filing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hospital had budgeted for income of $246 million this year before the outbreak hit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yale New Haven Health said in a filing that it needs to draw $100 million from its credit agreement with Wells Fargo & Co. to boost its cash on hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many non-profit and public hospitals tap the $3.9 trillion municipal bond market, which has been whipsawed over the last month as investors pulled record amounts out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic may compound existing financial strains in certain parts of the health care sector and municipal-bond investors may become “much more skeptical,” said Paul Ferdinands, a restructuring lawyer at King & Spalding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-yield hospital bonds have lost 6.4% this year, according to Bloomberg Barclays indexes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Of all the sectors in the municipal market, the health-care sector has the most long-term volatility because of the pandemic,” said Matt Fabian, an analyst at Municipal Market Analytics. “The federal government is pouring support into the health-care sector and will likely continue to do so.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shruti Date Singh and Lauren Coleman-Lochner Tribune News Service U.S. hospitals are burning through cash so quickly on the front lines of the nation’s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13675,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/BIZ-CORONAVIRUS-HOSPITALS-FINANCING-DMT.jpg?fit=2000%2C1339&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55020,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55018\/revisions\/55020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}