Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1327468
11 CFO / FINANCE Thousands of medical practices close under stress from pandemic By Ayla Ellison P hysicians and nurses across the country are retiring early, and thousands of medical practices are closing due to the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, The New York Times reported Nov. 15. A July survey of 3,500 physicians revealed that thousands of physician practic- es have closed during the pandemic. About 8 percent of physicians said their offices have closed since the pandemic was declared, which the Physicians Foundation said could total about 16,000 practices. An additional 4 percent of physicians said they planned to close their practices within the next year, according to the report. Financial stress is one reason physician practices are closing. Financial strain is also pushing independent physician practices to seek out buyers, such as hospitals and private equity firms. The stresses of the pandemic are also causing physicians to retire early. Nearly a fifth of primary care clinicians say someone in their practice plans to retire early or already has because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Sep- tember survey cited by the Times. n 39 hospitals face maximum Medicare readmission penalties By Ayla Ellison A s part of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, Medicare will cut payments to 83 percent of the 3,080 hospitals evaluated for the program by anywhere from 0.01 percent to the maxi- mum of 3 percent in fiscal year 2021. CMS in November released the results for the ninth year of the program. irty-nine hospitals face the maximum 3 percent pay- ment cut for every Medicare case during fiscal 2021, which runs Oct. 1 through Sep- tember 2021, according to a Nov. 2 analysis by Kaiser Health News. Here are the 39 hospitals facing the max- imum penalty in fiscal 2021, according to Kaiser Health News. Arkansas Baptist Memorial Hospital (Jonesboro) California Emanuel Medical Center (Turlock) Oroville Hospital Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center of Santa Cruz Florida Palms of Pasadena Hospital (Saint Peters- burg) St. Lucie Medical Center (Port Saint Lucie) Georgia Perry Hospital Illinois Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center Indiana Henry County Memorial Hospital (New Castle) Kansas Providence Medical Center (Kansas City) Kentucky Greenview Regional Hospital (Bowling Green) Harlan ARH Hospital Hazard ARH Hospital Tug Valley ARH Regional Medical Center (South Williamson) Whitesburg ARH Hospital Louisiana Heart Hospital of Lafayette Massachusetts Anna Jaques Hospital (Newburyport) Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth Saint Anne's Hospital (Fall River) Sturdy Memorial Hospital (Attleboro) Michigan Lakeland Hospital Watervliet North Ottawa Community Health System (Grand Haven) Missouri St. Mary's Medical Center (Blue Springs) New Jersey Hackensack Meridian Health Pascack Valley Medical (Westwood) Ohio TriHealth Evendale Hospital (Cincinnati) Oklahoma Oklahoma Center for Orthopaedic & Multi-Specialty Surgery (Oklahoma City) Pennsylvania Nason Medical Center (Roaring Spring) Surgical Institute of Reading (Wyomissing) Surgical Specialty Center at Coordinated Health (Allentown) WellSpan Surgery and Rehabilitation Hospi- tal (York) South Carolina East Cooper Medical Center (Mount Pleas- ant) Texas Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Frisco Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Up- town (Dallas) Baylor Scott & White Surgical Hospital Fort Worth Christus Good Shepherd Medical Center (Longview) Houston Physicians' Hospital (Webster) Memorial Hermann Surgical Hospital King- wood Sugar Land Surgical Hospital n