The NYT team analyzed tax and securing filings from 60 large national hospital chains that received collectively more than $15 billion of that funding. They found that a lot of that money went into the pockets of CEOs while thousands of employees—health care and support workers—were furloughed, laid off, or had their pay cut.
For example, HCA Healthcare, whose chief executive was paid $26 million last year, got $1 billion in emergency funding, but reportedly failed to provide adequate protective gear to nurses, medical technicians and cleaning staff-- and even warned that they would lay off thousands of nurses if they didn't agree to wage freezes and other concessions.
Of the 60 hospital chains the Times looked into, at least
three dozen have laid off, furloughed, or cut the pay of their staff to
"try to save money during the pandemic," despite the fact that among
them they've got tens of billions in cash reserves. The five
highest-paid executives among these chains were paid a collective $874
million in the last year financial data was available. At these same hospitals, the front-line staff have been hurt the
hardest—custodial and cafeteria workers, and nursing assistants. They
also said that "pay cuts and furloughs made it even harder for members
of the medical staff to do their jobs, forcing them to treat more
patients in less time."
The Mayo Clinic got $170 million in CARES funds, despite having eight months worth of funding in reserve. It has furloughed or cut hours for 23,000 employees. Seven other chains—Trinity Health, Beaumont Health and the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan; SSM Health and Mercy in St. Louis; Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis; and Prisma Health in South Carolina—received a collective $1.5 billion and among them have let 30,000 employees go, either permanently or temporarily.
Tenet Healthcare got $345 million in bailout money, and has furloughed 11,000. Stanford University's health system got $100 million (it has $42.4 billion in reserve) and "is temporarily cutting the hours of nursing staff, nursing assistants, janitorial workers and others at its two hospitals."
HCA, however, is the worst offender. The $1 billion it got in emergency grants is the largest. But in the past few months, the medical staff at 19 of its hospitals have filed Occupational Safety and Health Administration complaints over lack of personal protective equipment, including respirator masks and gowns. At least two HCA employees have died from coronavirus because they didn't have adequate PPE. Celia Yap-Banago, a nurse in Kansas City died in April after she had to treat a patient without wearing PPE. At an HCA hospital in Riverside, California, Rosa Luna and her fellow janitorial staff clean rooms of coronavirus patients, but haven't been provided proper masks. Rosa Luna died last month, while HCA executive were pressuring its unionized workers to accept wage freezes and the elimination of company contributions to workers’ retirement plans, among other concessions.
Yes, all of these systems have lost money-- but they have received disproportionate amounts of CARES bailout funds and have billions in reserve collectively. They have CEOs bringing home millions in salary and bonuses. They can afford to keep their staff. They need to be required to use some of the bailout money to retain and pay staff at current (if not enhanced or hazard) rates.
There's a hell of a lot that this pandemic has revealed about how broken everything is in our health care system-- saving lives based on profit margins means that unacceptable numbers of lives are going to be sacrificed.
The Mayo Clinic got $170 million in CARES funds, despite having eight months worth of funding in reserve. It has furloughed or cut hours for 23,000 employees. Seven other chains—Trinity Health, Beaumont Health and the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan; SSM Health and Mercy in St. Louis; Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis; and Prisma Health in South Carolina—received a collective $1.5 billion and among them have let 30,000 employees go, either permanently or temporarily.
Tenet Healthcare got $345 million in bailout money, and has furloughed 11,000. Stanford University's health system got $100 million (it has $42.4 billion in reserve) and "is temporarily cutting the hours of nursing staff, nursing assistants, janitorial workers and others at its two hospitals."
HCA, however, is the worst offender. The $1 billion it got in emergency grants is the largest. But in the past few months, the medical staff at 19 of its hospitals have filed Occupational Safety and Health Administration complaints over lack of personal protective equipment, including respirator masks and gowns. At least two HCA employees have died from coronavirus because they didn't have adequate PPE. Celia Yap-Banago, a nurse in Kansas City died in April after she had to treat a patient without wearing PPE. At an HCA hospital in Riverside, California, Rosa Luna and her fellow janitorial staff clean rooms of coronavirus patients, but haven't been provided proper masks. Rosa Luna died last month, while HCA executive were pressuring its unionized workers to accept wage freezes and the elimination of company contributions to workers’ retirement plans, among other concessions.
Yes, all of these systems have lost money-- but they have received disproportionate amounts of CARES bailout funds and have billions in reserve collectively. They have CEOs bringing home millions in salary and bonuses. They can afford to keep their staff. They need to be required to use some of the bailout money to retain and pay staff at current (if not enhanced or hazard) rates.
There's a hell of a lot that this pandemic has revealed about how broken everything is in our health care system-- saving lives based on profit margins means that unacceptable numbers of lives are going to be sacrificed.
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