Name: 'Unprecedented financial pressure' facing Houston’s hospitals
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'Unprecedented financial pressure' facing Houston’s hospitals

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Houston hospitals, already losing money by the tens of millions of dollars, are bracing for more losses and a tougher financial future following the latest order from Gov. Greg Abbott barring some elective procedures in , including Harris County.While health care systems are hesitant to project revenues, they said their hospitals have been shaken by restrictions on which surgeries and scheduled procedures can proceed, the expenses of caring for those afflicted with COVID-19 and ongoing loss of patients who have delayed check-ups and other care out of fear of contracting the virus.“Like most health systems across the country,” said Vanessa Astros, a CHI St. Luke’s spokesperson, “we have experienced financial strain during this crisis with overall declines in volumes and revenue driven by decreases in elective procedures and outpatient visits.”In Houston, home to the world’s largest medical complex and a massive health care sector that employs more than 366,000 workers, sustained patient volume drops and reduction in revenues could lead to large-scale layoffs, analysts said. University of Texas researchers that hospitals in Houston were collectively losing an average of $25 million per day.Moody's Investor Services, the debt rating agency, said Monday the order to suspend elective surgeries “will likely disrupt what had been the beginning of a healthy recovery in hospital volumes.”Bigger financial hits are coming. Hospital systems nationwide would lose a combined $323 billion in revenues this year because of COVID-19, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Hospital Association, and most don’t expect to return to pre-pandemic revenue levels by the end of 2020.SURGE CAPACITY:The report estimated that patient volumes are declining rapidly. Hospital admissions, are down 19.5 percent, while outpatient visits are down 34.5 percent on average nationwide. About one-third of hospitals — many situated in , or serving uninsured and low-income populations — were already losing money before the pandemic, according to the American Hospital Association.“These losses now put unprecedented financial pressure on hospitals,” said Aaron Wesolowski, the association’s vice president for policy research, analytics and strategy.Elective procedures such as knee and hernia operations account for up to 75 percent of revenues at some U.S. hospitals. In Texas, not all elective procedures are banned by Abbott’s new restrictions, only ones that require intensive care beds and doctors and nurses with ICU training who could be deployed to help with COVID-19 patient care.That still leaves hospitals scrambling to figure out which procedures can continue as planned, said Roberta Schwartz, Houston Methodist’s executive vice president. Hospital officials are trying to divert nurses, doctors and hospital beds to ICUs while keeping medically necessary procedures on the calendar.Surgeries at its Houston Methodist’s Texas Medical Center campus fell 72 percent from early March to April when the first round of elective procedures were canceled or delayed, hospital officials said. Some cancellations resulted from having to make beds available to accommodate the surge in COVID-19 patients, but it’s unclear how many were canceled or postponed by patients afraid of catching COVID-19 or worried they would take resources from coronavirus patients, Schwartz said.“We’re not back to pre-COVID levels,” Schwartz said. “It’s going to take a while.”Texas Inc.:Previously, CHI St. Luke’s, MD Anderson Cancer Center, HCA Houston Healthcare and Texas Children's Hospital reported decreases in revenue and patient volumes. Memorial Hermann Hospital System spokesperson Alex Loessin said it’s “too soon” for hospital administrators to make financial projectionsMeanwhile health care costs could rise dramatically as a result of patients skipping necessary visits and ignoring health problems, requiring more extensive and expensive care later, hospital officials said.“For the long-term health of Houstonians,” Loessin said, “we must maintain a thoughtful balance between caring for those impacted by COVID-19 and addressing all other health care needs of our patients.”gwendolyn.wu@chron.comtwitter.com/gwendolynawu

Houston hospitals, already losing money by the tens of millions of dollars, are bracing for more losses and a tougher financial future following the latest order from Gov. Greg Abbott barring some elective procedures in , including Harris County.While health care systems are hesitant to project revenues, they said their hospitals have been shaken by restrictions on which surgeries and scheduled procedures can proceed, the expenses of caring for those afflicted with COVID-19 and ongoing loss of patients who have delayed check-ups and other care out of fear of contracting the virus.“Like most...

'Unprecedented financial pressure' facing Houston’s hospitals

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