CommonSpirit Health posted a profit of $167 million in the third quarter after posting a $106 million loss in the last quarter.
The 139-hospital system posted its third-quarter financial earnings Friday and gave a glimpse into how its patient volumes have been impacted by the pandemic.
Overall, CommonSpirit posted revenues of $7.72 billion, up from $7.41 billion for the same period. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $642 million.
But the pandemic is still having a major impact on the system’s operations.
During the third quarter, CommonSpirit’s inpatient admissions were 6.4% below the levels in the third quarter of 2019. However, the volumes overall appear to be on the rebound as September’s admissions were just 5.2% below September 2019’s levels.
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The declines also weren’t as bad as in the second quarter, when CommonSpirit saw a 40% decline in volume in April.
The system had to shut down elective procedures at the onset of the pandemic to preserve the capacity to fight the virus but reported that all of its surgical operations have fully reopened as of August.
CommonSpirit pointed to its robust telehealth visits, noting that it has provided nearly 800,000 virtual visits since the onset of the pandemic.
“This represents an average of nearly 5,700 visits per day, a more than fifty-fold increase from pre-pandemic virtual visit volume,” the system said. “The demand for virtual visits persists, even after in-office visits have rebounded from their lows in April 2020.”
The system was helped greatly by several relief programs meant to keep hospitals afloat during the COVID-19 financial crisis.
CommonSpirit has received as of Sept. 30 approximately $1.3 billion under a $175 billion provider relief fund passed by Congress as part of the CARES Act.
The system recorded $192 million of the relief funding as operating revenue in the third quarter.
Without the CARES Act funding, the system’s operating loss would have been $25 million.
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CommonSpirit also got $2.6 billion from the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment Program, which gave loans to hospitals and certain suppliers and providers in Medicare Part B.
The hospital system also expects to defer approximately $380 million of payroll taxes to December 2021 and 2022.
“While the aid received from the programs … provides much-needed assistance during this crisis, CommonSpirit is unable to assess the extent to which the amounts and benefits received, or to be received, will offset the long-term changes in volumes, payer mix, service mix or care sites arising from the COVID-19 pandemic,” the earnings report said.