Hospital Margins Are Sputtering While Urgent Care’s Recovery Continues

Many, if not most, healthcare operations have suffered along with other types of business since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the general public might assume hospitals are an exception, it’s becoming increasingly clear that healthcare systems in general are struggling as much as (if not more than) others. And even though we all know how hard urgent care has been hit over the past few years, a new report published by Healthcare Finance seems to show that hospitals have been losing comparatively more patients since the pandemic began—with a corresponding loss in revenue—while urgent care and other settings have started to recoup lost visits. The nature of recent COVID variants is one causative factor, according to that article. While in general those variants tend to be less likely to inflict serious illness on those infected, patients who do have to be hospitalized are actually sicker and more expensive to treat than ever. The Healthcare Finance piece drew its data from the National Hospital Flash Report, which reflects the experiences of more than 900 hospitals.