Financial Effects of an Influenza Pandemic on US Hospitals

We estimate the financial effects of an influenza pandemic on US hospitals, including the cost of defer-ring elective admissions and the cost of uncompensated care for uninsured patients. Using US pandemic planning assumptions and national data on health care costs and revenues, a 1918-like pandemic would cause US hospitals to absorb a net loss of $3.9 billion, or an average $784,592 per hospital. Policy-makers should consider contingencies to ensure that hospitals do not become insolvent as a result of a severe pandemic. Key words: influenza pandemic, SARS, elective admissions, hospitalization, bed use, FluSurge. THE US Department of Health andHuman Services (HHS) estimatesthat a severe influenza pandemic could cause 90 million Americans to become infected and 9.9 million to be hospitalized.1 There are only a million hospital beds in the United States, so such an event would quickly overwhelm hospital capacity. As one strategy to respond to this excess demand, HHS has advised hospitals in a pan