The Mayo Clinic announced this week that they are cutting $1.6 billion in pay after taking a stunning $3 billion revenue loss triggered by delays to so-called elective surgeries and non-COVID-19 related medical actions in preparation for the predicted onslaught of novel coronavirus patients, mostly by state order. Quest Diagnostics, ironically leading the way in testing for the novel coronavirus, was forced to lay off thousands, too, again the result of the COVID-19 response.
“Mayo Clinic has unveiled a plan to cut $1.6 billion in pay, withdraw nearly $1 billion from its financial reserves and save another $700 million through a hiring freeze to counteract a $3 billion loss inflicted by the coronavirus,” Alpha News reported Monday. “A large portion of this loss was the result of Governor Tim Walz’s ban on non-essential procedures that has cost Mayo up to 75% of its business in some areas.”
This is the first time Mayo Clinic has lost business since the Great Depression, according to the Post Bulletin.
“Meanwhile, the Rochester campus is running at about 35% patient capacity and performing only about a quarter of the surgeries it normally would,” said Alpha News. “This is because the majority of the procedures the world famous hospital provides have been forcibly canceled by Walz’s executive order prohibiting non life saving treatments.”
Quest Diagnostics is furloughing more than 4,000 employees, about 9% of their workforce, CBS News reported Tuesday.
“The company has performed nearly 800,000 tests for the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, or about 40% of all testing in the U.S. by commercial labs,” the report said. “But Quest also saw its overall testing volumes decline more than 40% in the last two weeks of March, CEO Steve Rusckowski wrote in a letter to employees filed on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
On top of the layoffs, Rusckowski said Quest’s board of directors “are all taking a 25% cut in pay for the next 12 weeks, while other employees will see wage reductions ranging from 5% to 20%,” CBS noted. Contributions to employees’ 401k plans will be halted and temporary and contract workers will be let go.
The hit to healthcare has been an underreported story in the mainstream media as the nation deals with China-originated COVID, which has shown to be particularly brutal to our elderly.
As reported by The Daily Wire last Monday, at least 40,000 healthcare workers filed for unemployment. The number is expected to have significantly ticked up this week, with real data readily available Friday. Though, a running but incomplete tally of hospital layoffs and cutbacks can be accessed here.
According to a HealthLandscape and American Academy of Family Physicians report released Thursday, nearly 20,000 family practices will shutter or scale back, with 260,000 of their employees getting pink slips or taking pay and hourly cuts. By the end of June, an estimated 60,000 family practices are expected to close or downgrade, with a stunning 800,000 of their employees being laid off or taking pay and hourly cuts.
According to Vox, hundreds of hospitals could close due to our COVID-19 response policies.
“Hospitals have taken huge revenue losses as they postpone elective surgeries and other routine care so they can make more staff and space available for the Covid-19 response,” Vox acknowledged. “Some hospitals expect to lose half their income, and the top industry trade groups have warned that hundreds of hospitals could close after this crisis.”