Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | June 8, 2020 | wbjournal.com Central Mass. healthcare centers have received $139M in bailout funds For providers like UMass Memorial, the funds still aren't enough BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor H ospitals and other health- care centers in Central Massachusetts have received nearly $139 mil- lion in coronavirus-re- lated funding to help during what some health leaders have said is a budgetary crisis as well as a health one. Aid has been both substantial and what some hospital leaders have said isn't nearly enough to ward off major fiscal challenges ahead, largely due to everyday medical procedures being postponed for weeks during the height of the pandemic. In Worcester, UMass Memorial Medi- cal Center has received $52 million, and Saint Vincent Hospital has gotten nearly $20 million, according to a review of fed- eral health grants by the website COVID Stimulus Watch, a project of Good Jobs First, a group tracking federal business subsidies and tax incentives. All 26 Central Massachusetts healthcare grants were received in early to mid-May. MetroWest Medical Center received nearly $19 million for its Framingham Union Hospital campus and another nearly $5 million for its Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick. Among other acute- care hospitals in Central Massachusetts, Milford Regional Medical Center and Clinton Hospital each received roughly $4 million. ose hospitals are recipients of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grants totaling more than $1.2 billion across Massachusetts. e federal CARES Act has dedicated $175 billion to hospitals and other healthcare centers, with most of that funding split based on a facility's typical patient revenue, its area's impact by the outbreak, and factors such as serving low-income and uninsured patients. More than $63 bil- lion has been disbursed through May 26, according to COVID Stimulus Watch, which collated its data through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion reporting system. Other area healthcare providers have received funding, too. Brigham And Women's Physicians Organization, for example, got $8 million for operations in Milford, where it runs a cancer care center at Milford Regional Medical Center with Dana Farber. McLean Hospital, a behavioral health hospital based in Belmont, received more than $3 million for a treatment center it runs in Petersham. Hospital leaders spoke about bud- getary concerns during a Worcester Business Journal web forum May 21. UMass Memorial Medical Center lost $25 million in March and another $40 million to $45 million in April, UMass Memorial Medical Center Worcester $52,411,308 MetroWest Medical Center - Framingham Union Hospital Framingham $18,946,354 Saint Vincent Hospital Worcester $19,567,300 Brigham And Women's Physicians Organization Milford $8,065,947 MetroWest Medical Center - Leonard Morse Hospital Natick $4,982,050 Milford Regional Medical Center Franklin $4,389,500 UMass Memorial HealthAlliance - Clinton Hospital Clinton $3,761,809 McLean Hospital Petersham $3,334,359 Harrington Hospital Southbridge $2,711,644 Heywood Hospital Gardner $2,353,354 VNA Care Network Worcester $1,863,424 AdCare Hospital Worcester $1,785,534 Foundation Medical Partners Pepperell $1,673,984 Marlborough Hospital Marlborough $1,523,579 MetroWest Rehab Corp. Westborough $1,309,799 CareGroup Parmenter Home Care & Hospice Wayland $1,244,700 Nashoba Valley Medical Center Ayer $1,218,100 VNA Care Hospice Southborough $1,067,982 Salmon Home Care Milford $1,066,943 Regional Home Care Framingham $915,641 Charles River Medical Associates Northborough $883,257 Milford Regional Physician Group Franklin $782,163 Breg Inc. Worcester $691,942 St. Patrick's Manor Framingham $616,652 Athol Hospital Athol $573,812 Care Alternatives of Massachusetts Marlborough $566,381 TridentUSA Mobile Clinical Services Fitchburg $509,273 TOTAL $138,816,795 Recipient Location Grant amount Source: COVID Stimulus Watch Hospital payments More than two dozen hosptials and other healthcare providers have received a total of nearly $139 million in federal grants through the CARES Act, which is meant to help entities during the coronavirus pandemic. as the hospital fought the peak of the pandemic, managed a field hospital at the DCU Center in Worcester and delayed more than 1,000 procedures. In all, the hospital has a roughly $75-million deficit, President Michael Gustafson said. Other healthcare leaders said they were fortunate to be part of larger for-profit health networks helping them weather the financial punch of the outbreak. Saint Vincent Hos- pital and MetroWest Medical Center are part of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, and Reliant Medical Group is part of Minnesota-based Optum, a branch of UnitedHealth Group. Tenet received a total of $308 million from the federal gov- ernment, COVID Stimulus Watch said. Steward Health Care, another Dal- las-based for-profit entity, which owns Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, received a total of $111 million. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found pandemic-related grants have tended to disproportion- ately benefit hospitals with the highest share of patients who pay with private insurance. Private payers generally reimburse hospitals at far higher rates than do Medicaid and Medicare. Many Central Massachusetts hospitals treat mostly Medicaid and Medicare patients though, according to the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis. At least 60% of patients fall into that category at nine area hospitals: Athol Hospital, Harrington Hospital, UMass Memorial HealthAlliance, Heywood Hospital, Heywood Hospital, Marlborough Hospital, MetroWest Medical Center, Nashoba Valley Medical Center, Saint Vincent Hospital, and UMass Memorial Medical Center. Athol Hospital is among the highest in the state, with 73% of patients pay- ing with a public coverage program. UMass Memorial Health Care set up a coronavirus testing center at its University Campus in March. W PHOTO/EDD COTE

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