Source: KFF.org
Starting early in the coronavirus pandemic, Congress, states and the Administration adopted a number of policies to ease financial pressure on hospitals and other health care providers. The infusion of funds was intended to help alleviate the fiscal impact of revenue loss due to patients delaying non-urgent care, coupled with new costs associated with COVID-19. This brief describes the main sources of federal funds for health care providers and how those funds have been allocated.
While health care spending plummeted early in the pandemic, recent analysis show that health care spending is rebounding. Overall health spending was up 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2020, as compared to 2019. Over the full year, 2020 health spending was down 1% overall compared to 2019, although the impact of COVID-19 varied by type of provider. Spending on physician office visits was down 3.8% for the year, hospital spending was relatively stable (0.1% higher than 2019), while laboratory spending increased 9.1%.
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