As hospitals across the state are losing revenue by the day, Mississippi Hospital Association President Tim Moore and other healthcare experts have requested that the Public Health and Welfare Committee work towards reimbursing hospitals for lost revenue induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A number of us were able to share our concerns and worries over where our healthcare system is,” Moore said. “We have seen some significant effects, collateral effects to our healthcare systems and all of our providers. We have seen reductions in revenue for 30 to 40 percent. There’s no way to reduce expenses as quickly as revenue is dropping.”
On Wednesday’s episode of The JT Show, Moore said that they presented hospital numbers from before the coronavirus to the committee.
“Total operating expense is 689 million dollars per month,” Moore said. “When you compare that to the revenue, the total net revenue that they receive, we are a negative 11 million dollars a month to operate the hospitals in the state of Mississippi.”
Hospitals typically depend on investment income to make up for that negative number, however, Moore is convinced that all of that money will be gone by the end of this pandemic.
“Reserves they have that they are having to dip into now to continue operations will be gone and it will be much harder than to supplement the operating cost with no investment income,” Moore said.
Moore, who has been in charge of the state’s hospitals since 2013, believes Mississippi hospitals will potentially need up to $500 million to get “where they were” prior to the pandemic, and he believes the government will be willing to help.
“We are looking at a potential need for anywhere from 320 to 500 million dollars to make our hospitals whole,” Moore said. “I am very appreciative that both our state senate and [United States] Congress have been willing to listen and take action to get funds to our hospitals.”
The full interview with Moore can be watched using the video below.
