Health systems across Nassau County, including Northwell Health, Catholic Health Services and NYU Winthrop, are experiencing steep revenue losses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The $2 trillion stimulus package enacted March 27 provided $100 billion in aid for U.S. hospitals, including $4.4 billion for New York hospitals deemed coronavirus hot spots.
Even with federal aid, hospitals on Long Island expect huge losses.
Northwell, which operates 11 hospitals on Long Island and was treating about 3,500 coronavirus patients a day at the apex of the pandemic around April 7, said that it is experiencing losses of $350 million to $400 million per month. Terry Lynam, senior vice president and chief public relations officer at Northwell, said the health system has received about $200 million from the stimulus package.
The statewide elective surgery ban has contributed significantly to the financial strain on health systems.
Northwell canceled all elective surgeries beginning March 16, which has taken away a significant amount of revenue, Lynam said. Hospitals get higher insurance reimbursement rates from elective surgeries than from other services, he said.
Health systems have all but shuttered their ambulatory centers as well.
Approximately 75 percent of Northwell’s 780 ambulatory centers have been closed, officials report.
“The financial stress is enormous, as our hospitals have effectively become COVID-19 sites and our ambulatory settings are shuttered,” Dan Widawsky, chief financial officer at NYU Langone, which operates NYU Winthrop, told Newsday. “Our losses are at $450 million per month. To put that in perspective, that’s more than we’ve earned in a year, with one exception.”
Additionally, hospitals have needed to add beds and hire additional staff to handle the influx of coronavirus patients.
Northwell added 1,900 beds and hired 500 nurses from around the country through staffing agencies, Lynam said.
“In addition to the expense of creating additional bed capacity, the larger expense had to do with the staffing,” he said. “Creating the beds is a relatively easy thing. Staffing them is something else.
“The staffing demands have been one of the most intense and one of the most expensive parts of this effort.”
Health systems are having to pay higher prices than usual for personal protective equipment as well.
Catholic Health Services of Long Island, which operates six hospitals, is losing about $100 million per month, Chief Financial Officer Daniel DeBarba told Newsday. About $500,000 went to ventilators for coronavirus patients, he said.
Northwell has a large network of suppliers, and therefore fared better than most, said Lynam.
“[W]e were able to secure literally millions of N95 masks, visors, gloves, gowns, [and] other personal protective equipment that’s needed for those on the front lines,” he said.
Even so, the added cost of protective equipment, and N95 respirators in particular, has had a financial impact on Northwell. The health system spends $10,000 to $40,000 on each respirator, Lynam said.
He added that Northwell has been using three to four times the amount of PPE that is typically used.
The next round of federal aid allocates nearly $1.5 billion to New York hospitals and health systems. It is yet to be determined how much funding will go to Nassau County hospitals.
