Hospital's New message for Patients: Stay Home

Hospital executives think they can more than make up the revenue by shifting their exam and recovery rooms to patients’ homes. And Congress is urging them on, with legislation in the works to help hospitals expand their at-home offerings and to allow Medicare to continue paying for telehealth after lawmakers first granted temporary permission after Covid struck.The appeal to lawmakers is potential savings if remote care proves more efficient, but hospitals also see financial advantage.Hospital leaders believe spinning up new lines of business and making health systems more efficient have the potential to buoy a sector that is still contending with the financial fallout from the pandemic — now without the federal emergency funding that blunted Covid’s impact. The American Hospital Association points to costs rising at the same time the sector operated in the red every month of 2022. Margins have improved since, but not enough for hospital leaders to take comfort in the status quo.