To ‘keep the lights on’: Doctors and hospitals ask for advance Medicare payments

Darrin Menard, a family physician in Lafayette, Louisiana, has spent the past month easing patients’ anxieties about the coronavirus that has killed 10 people in his parish so far.But Menard has his own fears: How will his medical practice survive the pandemic?His office typically sees 70 patients a day, but now it handles half that amount and many of those appointments are done over the phone or computer. He said revenue in the practice has dropped by 40% — which makes it challenging to pay a mortgage, staff salaries, malpractice insurance, utilities, electronic health records costs and other...

Read More