Sacramento Bee-
California hospitals have suffered short-term losses of $10 billion to $14 billion in revenue alone and face long-term financial upheaval as a result of measures taken to prepare for a surge of COVID-19 patients, leaders of the California Hospital Association announced Thursday.
CHA President Carmela Coyle said her association sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday, asking for $1 billion in financial assistance out of the state’s current fiscal budgets. The organization’s leaders say they expect to speak with the governor in a call later today.
Statewide, Coyle said, hospitals prepared for the surge by canceling elective procedures, even though, their leaders knew that this would result in devastating financial losses. They did so anyway, she said, because they were answering the call from county and state leaders to increase capacity for patients sickened by the coronavirus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19.
