- Kaufman Hall’s latest National Hospital Flash Report found that hospital margins and volumes remain below pre-pandemic numbers. Hospitals in the South and Midwest saw the biggest year-over-year drops in margins driven by high rates of the delta variant and declining patient confidence. Gross operating revenue grew 8.3 percent year-to-date compared with 2019 and 16.4 percent year-to-date compared with 2020. Inpatient revenue was up 3.7 percent compared to January through July 2019 and 10.5 percent compared to the same period in 2020. (Report here; Articles here and here)
- The American Medical Association urged the public and private sectors to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, arguing that other steps to simply incentivize vaccination have not resulted in the high vaccination rates needed to tame the highly transmissible delta variant. The call comes one day after the FDA fully approved the Pfizer vaccine, which is expected to instigate more employer vaccine mandates. (Article here)
- The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Nurses Association (ANA) are at odds about COVID-19 protections in the Occupational Health and Safety Administration standard. The AHA wants the Biden administration to withdraw a COVID-19 emergency protection standard because it believes hospitals are already doing enough to protect front-line workers. Simultaneously, the ANA wants to the temporary standard to be even stronger by including vaccine mandates. (Article here)
August 25, 2021
Providers