Good news for NJ hospitals: Feds give $1.7B aid; fewer COVID-19 patients

TRENTON — Dozens of hospitals in New Jersey who have been treating coronavirus patients will be getting a large cash infusion from the federal government, which is providing billions of dollars to hospitals hardest hit by the pandemic.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services says 53 of the hardest hit hospitals are in the Garden State and will share a total of $1.7 billion in federal funding. The amount is the second largest given to any state, exceeded only by the amount going to health providers in New York.

The federal department said it is distributing $10 billion to 395 hospitals around the country that provided inpatient care for 100 or more COVID-19 patients through April 10 and will distribute an additional $2 billion to these hospitals “based on their Medicare and Medicaid disproportionate share and uncompensated care payments."

Gov. Phil Murphy said Saturday he was “incredibly satisfied" by the cash infusion, which he said would help the state's health care systems stay on sound financial footing.

“Many of our hospitals have taken quite simply a financial beating over the past two months, in addition to the general beating they've taken as all of their resources have been focused on getting their staffs everything they need to be protected and everything COVID19 patients need to beat this virus," he said.

New Jersey health officials are reporting another 205 deaths associated with the coronavirus, bringing the state total to 7,742.

The governor reported Saturday that the number of cases in New Jersey had topped 123,000, but he and health commissioner Judith Persichilli said they continued to be encouraged by decreases in hospitalizations.

Persichilli said that since the April 14 peak, there had been a 41 percent decrease in hospitalizations in the northern region and a 26 percent decrease in the central region, while increasing hospitalizations in the south had seen “some leveling off.”

“Hospitals are starting to transition from what we call crisis standards of care to standard operations,” she said.

For most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

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