HOSPITALS PAID CEOS MILLIONS FROM BAILOUT

Hospitals paid CEOS millions from bailout. HCA Healthcare is one of the world's wealthiest hospital chains. It earned more than $7 billion in profits over the past two years. It is worth $36 billion. It paid its chief executive $26 million in 2019. But as the Coronavirus swept the country, employees at HCA repeatedly complained that the company was not providing adequate protective gear to nurses, medical technicians and cleaning staff. Last month, HCA executives warned that they would lay off thousands of nurses if they didn't agree to wage freezes and other concessions. A few weeks earlier, HCA had received about $1 billion in bailout funds from the federal government part of an effort to stabilize hospitals during the pandemic. Hospitals paid CEOS millions from bailout.

HCA is among a long list of deep pocketed health care companies that have received billions of dollars in taxpayer funds but are laying off or cutting the pay of tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and lower paid workers. Many have continued to pay their top executives millions, although some executives have taken modest cuts. The New York Times analyzed tax and securities filings by 60 of the country's largest hospital chains, which have received a total of more than $15 billion in emergency funds through the economic stimulus package in the federal CARES Act.

The hospitals--including publicly traded juggernauts like HCA and Tenet Healthcare, elite nonprofits like the mayo Clinic, and regional chains with thousands of beds and billions in case--are collectively sitting on tens of billions of dollars of cash reserves that are supposed to help them weather an unanticipated storm. They awarded their five highest paid officials about $874 million in the most recent year for which they have disclosed their finances. At least 36 of those hospital chains have laid off, furloughed or reduced the pay of employees as they try to save money during the pandemic.