LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — Inflation remains a top concern for everyone as prices continue to skyrocket and now, this economic crisis is taking a toll on Arkansas hospitals.
Right after hospitals began to finally catch a break from two years of COVID patients, they're now facing a brand new set of issues.
Expenses are up which unfortunately means revenue is going down, according to CHI St. Vincent's Market CEO.
"That's not sustainable," said Chad Aduddell, Market CEO of CHI St. Vincent.
This is causing a pricey problem. According to our partners at Arkansas Business, CHI St. Vincent is expecting a $75 million loss for this fiscal year.
Part of it is due to inflation hitting the hospital directly-- with things like supplies, drugs, and labor all having gone up by double digits.
"The government is only increasing healthcare in 2022 by 2.5% and yet you see inflation at 8.5% or 10%, so you don't have to be an economist to go, 'okay, the hospital is falling further behind,'" said Aduddell.
Inflation is also hitting patients and forcing some to choose between health care and the rest of their necessities.
"Cost of gas, the cost of groceries... where they've spent their income on other things and now maybe they don't have the money to pay for their deductible or their coinsurance," said Aduddell.
When CHI St. Vincent loses patients, it's losing revenue as a result. They predict patient levels are down between 5-15% across the hospital system.
And it's not just CHI St. Vincent either. Other hospitals across the state are being impacted too, according to Bo Ryall, President and CEO of the Arkansas Hospital Association.
"Every hospital is feeling the pinch right now and projecting even worse moving forward," Ryall said to Arkansas Business.
While CHI St. Vincent is a big system with hopes of making it through these tough times, smaller and rural hospitals may not be so lucky.
"A lot of those increases look to be midterm, long term, some of them permanent, and that's really putting pressure on hospitals [and] health care systems that already had low margins to begin with," said Aduddell.
He added the hospital is dealing with staffing shortages too. Their bed capacity in some parts of the hospital is down to just 50%, because they don't have enough nurses.