Mayo Clinic has received $150 million in CARES Act funding so far. Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images
More than $3.2 billion in federal bailout funds have been disclosed by hospitals and health systems as of May 8, according to an Axios review of financial documents.
Why it matters: Hospitals do not have to repay these taxpayer funds, which are supposed to offset the lost revenue and higher costs associated with handling the coronavirus outbreak. HHS has released two datasets on the bailout money — one on the general allocation and another on the money that went to coronavirus hotspots — but the general allocation one is incomplete.
The big picture: Hospitals and other health care providers can receive coronavirus funds through two primary sources:
- A $175 billion bailout fund that does not have to be repaid.
- Advance payments from Medicare that function as loans and must be repaid.
Where it stands: Axios has found 40 hospital organizations — ranging from small community hospitals to large, multistate systems — that have disclosed bailout funding and Medicare loans through municipal bondholder documents or public filings, and compiled them into a database.
- Some of the largest bailout payments disclosed so far have gone to HCA Healthcare ($700 million), Tenet Healthcare ($345 million), Community Health Systems ($245 million), Banner Health ($200 million) and Mayo Clinic ($150 million).
- $50 billion of the first $100 billion in bailout funds is "allocated proportional to providers' share of 2018 net patient revenue," according to HHS, and therefore favors systems that are bigger and/or charge higher prices.
- Medicare has sent $100 billion as loans as of April 24, $14.3 billion of which has been disclosed to these 40 hospital systems. The federal government has paused that program for now, and hospitals want those loans converted into grants that don't have to be paid back.
Go deeper: The hospital bailout funding database
Updated May 8. This story will be updated as more financial disclosures are filed.