Minnesota health care providers want federal help covering $2.9B loss, costs from COVID-19 pandemic

(FOX 9) - The Minnesota Hospital Association is requesting additional federal funding for the state’s hospitals and health systems that are losing an estimated $2.9 billion over the next three months while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Thursday, MHA sent a letter to Minnesota’s congressional delegation asking lawmakers to help secure emergency funding for health care providers to lessen the financial impact of the pandemic. 

Health care providers have postponed elective surgeries and reduced in-person clinic visits in order to conserve personal protective equipment for health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic and reduce exposure to the coronavirus. MHA says the state’s hospitals and health systems are collectively losing $31 million in revenue per day as a result of the reduction in patient volumes. 

“That was the right thing to do, but the reduction in revenues and significant costs to acquire an unprecedented amount of supplies and equipment, build out temporary spaces for a surge of patients and ensure we will have the right workforce in place to care for COVID-19 patients – particularly in intensive care – are having a significant financial impact on health systems throughout Minnesota, large and small, metro and rural,” MHA President and CEO Dr. Rahul Koranne said in a statement. 
Hospitals and health systems are spending approximately $13.3 million per day to purchase equipment and supplies and to make physical and technological upgrades that will allow them to handle an influx of COVID-19 patients, according to MHA. 

MHA says significant federal funding is required to ensure health care providers are able to provider necessary services during the pandemic as well as keep hospitals and health systems afloat until the pandemic is resolved.