More than $170 billion in Covid-19 relief funds the federal government allotted to struggling hospitals during the pandemic helped healthcare facilities stay afloat by offsetting major financial losses due to the coronavirus according to a new study.
More than $170 billion in Covid-19 relief funds the federal government allotted to struggling hospitals during the pandemic helped healthcare facilities stay afloat by offsetting major financial losses due to the coronavirus, a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found.
Despite these losses, from 2019 to 2020, some of the most vulnerable healthcare facilities—government, rural and smaller hospitals—saw increased profit margins compared to the years before the pandemic with the help of the CARES money, researchers found. Covid-19 relief funds provided a “lifeline” to keep financially struggling hospitals up and running, Ge Bai, an author of the study and professor at the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management, said in a statement.$54 billion.