Dignity Health received the most cash—$180 million—among private health systems and hospitals from an initial tranche of relief funding for COVID-19 divvied out over the last several weeks.
Cleveland Clinic brought in the second-biggest haul with $103 million.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) released on Wednesday the initial funding allocations. The website lists the payments sent out to physicians and hospitals as of May 4 and does not reflect additional payments that started being distributed late last week to COVID-19 hot spots and rural providers.
Publicly-traded heath giants HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare, Community Health Systems and Universal Health Systems reported they took in a combined $1.49 billion in federal stimulus dollars.
HRSA told FierceHealthcare that the published data only reflects physicians and health systems that attested to getting funding as of May 4.
"Individual providers will not be listed if they have not yet attested to the program terms and conditions or if they are within a larger billing entity that received payment," HRSA said.
According to the HRSA, Stanford Health Care based in Palo Alto, California, received $102 million and Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston got $92 million.
Several major hospital systems in New York, which has seen the most COVID-19 cases of any region so far, also received hefty payments.
The New York University Langone Hospital System received $92 million, while the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation that runs public hospitals and clinics in the city got $45 million.
Nearby hospitals in New Jersey, which has also been hit hard by COVID-19, also were big winners in the first round. Hackensack Meridian Health in Hackensack, New Jersey, got $76 million.
Another large amount of funding was sent to California-based systems. Los Angeles County, which also operates public hospitals, received $80 million, and the University of California got $45 million.
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The website tracks the first tranche of funding out of $175 billion that has been approved by Congress.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided to distribute the initial $30 billion in funding to all providers based on their historical Medicare payments because it was the fastest way to get the money out.
Provider groups representing safety-net hospitals and rural hospitals and clinics blasted the method, arguing that it left out providers that don’t get a lot of money via Medicare.
HHS has since announced plans on how to distribute $100 billion of the $175 billion. Part of the funding will also go to reimburse providers for COVID-19 treatments for the uninsured.
Last Friday, the agency started to distribute $12 billion to COVID-19 hot spots and $10 billion to rural hospitals and clinics.
But provider groups have said that more is needed to help hospitals weather the financial crisis created by COVID-19. Hospitals have furloughed workers, and physician practices have shuttered due to plummeting patient volumes and the cancellation of elective procedures.
An analysis provided by the American Hospital Association found that the COVID-19 pandemic could cost hospitals $200 billion through the end of June.