HARRISBURG, Pa. (EYT) — Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced a new Hospital Emergency Loan Program (HELP) on Friday afternoon during his daily briefing.
According to Wolf, this $450 million low-interest loan program will help hospitals that are hit hard by the financial stress of COVID-19.
“Some of these efforts are in preparation for a surge in COVID-19 patients, including moving additional staff to emergency rooms, purchasing additional equipment, and setting up more beds. All of these efforts come at a cost,” Wolf said. “Meanwhile, hospitals are working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by eliminating elective surgeries, preventive medicine, and other non-urgent care. This means many hospitals have had a significant decline in revenue. The combination of increased cost and decreased revenue has hurt many hospitals financially.”
This storm of circumstances, leaving hospitals in financial difficulty, is the catalyst for the Hospital Emergency Loan Program.
“We cannot allow any of our hospitals to become bankrupt,” Wolf said. “When this pandemic finally ends, we’re going to need our hospitals to care for our regular medical needs like heart attacks and broken bones.”
The loans are designed to provide immediate working capital that will allow medical facilities to get the equipment, including the personal protective equipment, they need.
“The Hospital Emergency Loan Program will help ensure every hospital can afford to get equipment essential to fighting this war without facing financial ruin,” Wolf said. “When we return to a more normal state, our hospitals will see their cash flows increase, allowing them to better shoulder the financial burden of COVID-19.
“The Hospital Emergency Loan Program will allow us to fully mobilize our health system right now so we can provide better care for every single Pennsylvanian who becomes sick with the 2019 novel Coronavirus. It will allow us to continue to care for all hospitalized patients, and we can keep our frontline medical staff safer and healthier.
“We owe it to these workers to do everything that we can to support them right now, from the doctors and nurses directly caring for COVID-19 patients to the maintenance staff cleaning our hospitals and keeping the equipment running, to everyone in between. You are our heroes right now. Once again, I’m calling on everyone to thank these workers by taking the one action that will help them the most: staying home.”
