Jackson Health bears brunt of HHS’ funding error. Make Miami hospital whole — now| Editorial
It shouldn’t take an act of Congress or an act of God to keep Jackson Health System from drowning in the deluge of coronavirus patients. And it doesn’t need either one to rescue the hospital.
It just needs common sense, an all-hands-on-deck effort from elected officials and quick action by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to correct a mistake and then write a check.
Jackson Health System, doing what it does best under the unimaginable challenges of the surge in coronavirus cases, needs more of everything: more beds, more nurses and, of course, more money with which to treat the overflow of patients.
‘Life support’ funds
Jackson, Miami-Dade’s taxpayer-supported public health system, has lost $78 million this year amid the pandemic, according to CEO Carlos Migoya. He said that it received $75 million in federal CARES Act funds, which helped offset the loss; however, the health system already has used it up.
As Migoya wrote in an op-ed on the Herald’s opinion page this week: “The last two rounds of federal life-support funding were supposed to focus on safety-net hospitals caring for COVID patients but, despite the efforts of some elected officials from South Florida, your hospitals have not received a penny of that funding. In fact, we have not received anything since May, and everything we did receive was burned through by June just to keep the place running. We are now accumulating losses with no signs of recovery.”
Push HHS
The problem is that health system got nothing in the most recent round of CARES Act funds specifically meant to keep safety-net hospitals afloat. Jackson clearly qualifies. But HHS miscalculated the hospital system’s financial eligibility. Jackson administrators say that HHS factored in the money the health system receives from a voter-approved bond issue -- meant only for capital expenses, meaning building brick-and-mortar facilities.
Those fund do not go to operating expenses. They do not pay staff overtime. They do not buy N95 face masks. In other words, it should not count against the hospital.
In a heartening bipartisan effort, Florida’s senior Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala have been front and center, working with the administration to right this needless wrong. More of their elected colleagues from Greater Miami need to step up and help them push. Gov. DeSantis can help, too. First, they can demand HHS back out the bond money erroneously included in the calculation and adequately compensate the health system. Second, HHS, which is in the midst of developing a formula to help coronavirus “hot-spots,” must ensure that Jackson Health System is not cheated a second time.
It’s operating in the hottest spot on Earth.