The coronavirus has placed tremendous financial pressure on hospitals across the country. A new report explains that hospitals are suffering from the higher costs associated with treating COVID-19 patients and acquiring personal protective equipment, while also losing revenue from elective procedures stopping, which continue to be postponed in most states. The report estimates the country’s hospitals will be forced to bear $202.6 billion in losses between March 1st to June 30th, or about $50.7 billion per month. Hospitals cannot afford to continue losing revenue, especially rural hospitals who already operated on slim or negative margins.

The Penn State Institute of State and Regional Affairs (ISRA) released today the second installment of the COVID-19 Report Series: Employment Risk, quantifying the extent of establishments and employment effected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of non-essential businesses.

The report uses current definitions for essential businesses paired with data on establishments, employment, and unemployment claims to assess the economic impact of the pandemic in Pennsylvania.

The key findings include:

• At least 1.2 million employees worked in industries impacted by business establishment closures.
• Over the four-week period from March 21 through April 4, nearly 1.7 million unemployment claims were filed.

Click here to read the latest report from ISRA’s COVID-19 Report Series for additional details on trends at the sector and county levels.

Fred Ullrich, BA; and Keith Mueller, PhD

The spread of COVID-19 across rural areas has fueled concern about the availability of healthcare resources for dealing with the pandemic. This brief looks at a single measure of healthcare resources – hospital beds – and reports of current COVID-19 cases in a single week to assess the impact on rural facilities.

Please click here to read the brief.

As states consider relaxing coronavirus lockdown orders, a new report estimates that fully reopening the economy would lead to an additional 233,000 deaths nationally by the end of June, relative to not reopening, but would at the same time save approximately 18.6 million jobs from being lost.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model analyzed the health and economic effects of states partially reopening (lifting emergency declarations, stay-at-home orders, and school closures) as well as fully reopening, which would include businesses and restaurants as well.

The model, released on Friday, projects on a national level that if states do not open before June 30 and maintain status quo, the cumulative national deaths due to the virus would rise to about 117,000 by June 30 (including deaths before May 1), and approximately 18.6 million jobs would be lost between May 1 and June 30.

Read more.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) provides an overview of the healthcare-related provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report focuses on coverage of COVID-19 testing and related items for individuals covered by Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, CHIP, TRICARE, Veterans healthcare, the IHS, and most private plans. The report also includes a discussion of changes to Medicare coverage of telehealth services.

In its most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an increase in chemical exposures related to cleaners and disinfectants for the period January-March 2020.  Last week, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services announced $5 million to support Poison Control Centers.

Read the report here.