Business & Tech
Owner Of Worcester, MetroWest Hospitals Gets $345M Stimulus
Tenet Healthcare owns hospitals in Worcester, Framingham, and Natick — and has announced furloughs for medical workers recently.
WORCESTER, MA — The for-profit owner of hospitals in Worcester and MetroWest is getting a $345 million grant from the federal government as part of an economic stimulus program aimed at floating the U.S. economy through the coronavirus crisis, according to financial filings released Monday.
Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, which owns Saint Vincent Hospital and the MetroWest Medical Center hospitals, announced across-the-board furloughs last month due to anticipated lost revenue from services like elective surgery being canceled amid the crisis. The company has furloughed about 10 percent of its workforce in recent months.
On top of the stimulus, Tenet is getting $1.5 billion in advance payments from Medicare and Medicaid, although that will have to be paid back in the next year. The company also had $2.2 billion in excess cash and a $1.9 billion credit line available as of May 1, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Find out what's happening in Worcesterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
However, Tenet's revenue was down about $38 million over the first quarter of 2020 compared the same period in 2019. Tenet's second-quarter filing, which will cover April, May, and June, will be a better gauge of how badly coronavirus has hurt the company's revenue.
READ: Shareholders Plan Protest Of Tenet CEO's $24 Million Compensation
Find out what's happening in Worcesterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Saint Vincent has been a main provider of coronavirus care in Worcester, but there may be signs the hospital is preparing for post-coronavirus operations. Worcester Medical Director Michael Hirsh said Monday that Saint Vincent is preparing to begin some types of surgeries that have been on hold since the crisis hit.
Saint Vincent — and the UMass Memorial hospitals — counted 20 COVID-19 related deaths over the weekend, some of the highest totals so far during the crisis.
As of Monday, Saint Vincent was caring for 66 coronavirus patients with 14 in the intensive-care unit. The MetroWest Medical Center hospitals in Natick and Framingham were caring for 73 coronavirus patients, plus nine in the ICU.
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