Coronavirus Will Test the Limits of Our Hospitals
The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed financial weaknesses within the American healthcare system.
Many hospitals will be overpopulated and will not have the necessary infrastructure to care for this massive inflow of patients.
In order to care for the thousands of coronavirus patients, hospitals not only need an increased supply of ventilators and personal protective equipment, but also an injection of cash to pay the extra staff that will be needed to care for these patients.
Many hospitals are running low on funds and have stated that without immediate funding they will be forced to close. These hospitals will be hurt by the many patients who do not have health insurance and are thus unable to pay their hospital bills.
These problems highlight how unprepared the American healthcare system was to handle a pandemic of this scale and that there is a need for better practice management which can be provided by healthcare analytics software. While this software cannot solve every issue facing the American healthcare system, it can help ease some of the pain that the coronavirus pandemic has caused for American healthcare practices.
There are 26 million Americans without health insurance while another 60 million Americans have high-deductible plans that can leave them with large fees if they visit a hospital. That adds up to 86 million Americans or 26% of the American population who are at risk of being saddled with a large medical bill should they contract the Coronavirus.
How many of them will be able to pay back the hospital that cared for them? How much of that debt can our hospital system afford to bear?
With the C.D.C.’s models predicting perhaps 2.4 to 21 million total hospitalizations based on a wide range of scenarios, this could leave anywhere from 624,000 to 5.46 million hospitalized Americans who would face large hospital bills (assuming 26% of those hospitalized either do not have healthcare insurance or have a high-deductible plan).
This number also does not account for the increasing number of unemployed Americans who will lose the health insurance they previously received from their employers.
With the treatment for coronavirus costing anywhere from approximately $10,000 to $20,000 or much more, depending on the severity, hundreds of thousands and potentially even millions of Americans will have large amounts of debt that they are unable to pay. With many Americans unable to pay their hospital bills, the cash-strapped healthcare industry will only suffer more as they will not receive compensation for many of the services they provide.
Hospitals will require increased funds to expand their capacity and also to support the thousands of ventilators needed to care for the most severe cases of Coronavirus.
But, American hospitals are already in dire need of increased funding. One case, the Easton Hospital in Wilson, PA stated that it needs $40 million to stay open during the crisis due to financial problems.
While a $100 billion influx of cash as a result of the federal coronavirus package should help alleviate these financing issues, more efficient practice management could also ease the healthcare system’s financial struggles.
Spain Suffers Under Coronavirus
Data, Models & Misinformation on the Coronavirus
Coronavirus Travels the Silk Road
Coronavirus Attacks Italy's Sick and Elderly
Is the New Coronavirus Drug a Cure?
What is the Mystery of Germany's Low Coronavirus Fatality Rate?
The World Will Be More Technologically Advanced After the COVID-19 Pandemic
Why has the Coronavirus Not Exploded in Japan?
Italy's Coronavirus Death Rate is Falling
Coronavirus Speeds Up Robotic Revolution
Economic Depression Will Destroy More Lives Than Coronavirus
Can Hydroxychloroquine be Used to Treat Coronavirus?
Northern Italy & Wuhan: Partners for Better or Worse
The Race for the Coronavirus Cure
How Did Taiwan Manage the Coronavirus so Well?
What is the US Coronavirus Fatality Rate?
Travel Ban Saves Airlines Billions
Deep Learning Detects Coronavirus
Singapore's Coronavirus Patients Have a 0% Mortality Rate So Far... Why?
AI is Mapping the Coronavirus and Inferring its Possible Economic Impact
Interview with NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly: An American Hero
13 Questions With General David Petraeus
Why Choose Machine Learning Investing Over A Traditional Financial Advisor?
Interview With Home Depot Co-Founder Ken Langone
Interview with the Inventor of Amazon's Alexa
Automation and the Rebirth of American Retail
China Debuts Stealth Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle
Sweden's Economy Embraces AI & Automation
Austria's Automated Ai & Robotic Future Is Now
Nuclear Submarines: A 7,000 Lb Swiss Watch
Ai Can Write Its Own Computer Program
On Black Holes: Gateway to Another Dimension, or Ghosts of Stars’ Pasts?
Egypt's Artificial Intelligence Future
Supersonic Travel: The Future of Aviation
Shedding Light on Dark Matter: Using Machine Learning to Unravel Physics’ Hardest Questions
When High-Tech Meets Low-Tech Economy: Ai & the Construction Industry
Aquaponics: How Advanced Technology Grows Vegetables In The Desert
The World Cup Does Not Have a Lasting Positive Impact on Hosting Countries
Artificial Intelligence is Transforming the Forex Market
Do Machines Dream? Inside the Dreams of a Machine
Can Ai Replace Human Ski Coaches?
Faster than Sound and Undetectable by Radar
The Implications of Machine Learning on Condensed Matter Physics & Quantum Computing
Crafting Eco-Sustainability: WTC and Environmental Sustainability
Argentina's AI Future: Reversing a Century of Decline
Tennis & Artificial Intelligence
Peru's Ai Future Will Drive Economic Growth
The Colombian Approach to the AI Revolution
How AI Can Explain Its Thinking
Brazil & Artificial Intelligence
Written by Benjamin Stick & Edited by Alexander Fleiss