Two Colorado hospitals that ran short on cash in recent months attributed the need to repay Medicare for interest-free loans received at the beginning of the pandemic as one factor, The Denver Post reported April 16.
Leadville, Colo.-based St. Vincent Hospital came close to closing before receiving funds from the state and Lake County in December, and Delta (Colo.) Health said nearly all of its cash was committed to paying off the debts at the end of March, according to the report.
Delta Health said April 12 that it was "on the right track" after it received a $653,060 advance from the state that allowed it to pay off another loan, freeing up funds for day-to-day needs.
Estes Park (Colo.) Health CEO Vern Carda said the Medicare advances were important early in the pandemic, allowing the hospital to keep paying employees and cover routine expenses and until patient volume rebounded, according to the report.
Mr. Carda said the hospital would have struggled without the advance, and the plans for the repayments to be deducted from future Medicare reimbursements was one factor in its decision to end obstetric and pediatric inpatient care. He said those units would have likely closed eventually because of low patient volumes, insufficient reimbursements and rising costs, but the need to repay the advances may have expedited that process.
Not all rural hospitals in the state struggled to repay loans. One hospital, Craig-based Memorial Regional Health, conducted more surgeries at some points during the pandemic when larger hospitals were unable to perform nonemergency procedures. The hospital also benefits from other stimulus funding and paycheck protection loans.