Hospitals are losing money on covid patients, and the more treatment they require (ICU, ventilator, medication), the more the hospital is losing. They do get paid about three times more for an intubated patient, but they lose more money too.
Hospitals make their profit off voluntary procedures like shoulder and knee surgeries and the constant flow of voluntary tests and procedures ("I just want to get this checked out"). They lose a lot of money when people spend three weeks in the ICU.
This is especially true when a huge percentage of the patients are Medicare or completely uninsured. Privately insured patients with good policies are better, but they still aren't getting rich off those people.
I have no sympathy for the hospital systems or the entire medical industry that has created a massive bureaucracy full of perverse incentives, exploitation, overbilling, and accounting games, but in this particular situation, even with the massive federal handouts, they're not making bank.
Hospitals make their profit off voluntary procedures like shoulder and knee surgeries and the constant flow of voluntary tests and procedures ("I just want to get this checked out"). They lose a lot of money when people spend three weeks in the ICU.
This is especially true when a huge percentage of the patients are Medicare or completely uninsured. Privately insured patients with good policies are better, but they still aren't getting rich off those people.
I have no sympathy for the hospital systems or the entire medical industry that has created a massive bureaucracy full of perverse incentives, exploitation, overbilling, and accounting games, but in this particular situation, even with the massive federal handouts, they're not making bank.