Sen. Moran: Federal Aid Hitting Rural Hospitals

Federal aid began flowing today to cash-strapped rural hospitals across Kansas, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran said this morning.

Although federal aid to business approved in March excluded rural hospitals owned by political subdivisions, Moran said additional federal money was being made available through the Department of Health and Human Services. A central Kansas site reporting arrival of $417,000 just this morning, he said.

“We are working to see they receive aid, just like the not for profit hospitals,” he said. “Their revenues are down significantly, and their costs are up significantly. Most rural hospitals’ profit margins already are narrow or even negative; I can’t imagine any in Kansas not in the red now.”

HHS, he said, was moving quickly and advancing to hospitals the equivalent of three to six months of their most recent Medicare reimbursements during a similar period, with $52 billion already disbursed.

Moran said he had been part of a conference call with President Trump’s top medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, who indicated that falling projections of the COVID-19 death toll were evidence that the pain of an economic shutdown and social distancing were slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

“Two things I keep paying attention to,” he said. “One, is isolation and social distancing working? And two, will spring weather bring less likelihood of continued spread? I’m anxious to find out.”

In the meantime, he said, the Paycheck Protection Act was starting to kick in to support small businesses slammed by cash-flow issues during the stay-at-home directives of local governments and forced closing of what are considered non-essential businesses.

Even though the PPP got off to a rocky start with huge demand overloading the Small Business Administration and participating lenders, “522,000 lons have alrady been approved for $134 billion” of the $349 billion set aside under the CARES Act, Moran said.

He also addressed longer-term issues of supply chain reliability for medical goods, especially those coming in from China. In a number of cases, he said, that equipment failed to meet health-provider standards and was being rejected upon arrival. Also longer-term he said, was the need for federal action to address preparedness levels for future outbreaks.

As Americans, he said, “we think we are immune to the problems of the world, that this pandemic will not affect us as other places we think of as Third World. We are not above these circumstances, and the attitude things will never affect us needs to disappear. As Kansans, we have the attitude that things happening on the coasts don’t happen to us. Again, what we have discovered is that while hot spots are not in our region yet, we are not immune.”