The New York Times has an informative story on a growing trend in hospital management:  eliminating inpatient beds for pediatric patients and swapping them out for rooms for more profitable adult patients, eliminating hospitals where ill children can be treated.

The change is spurred specifically by profit motive:  adult patients tend to be in the hospital for more expensive–and profitable–procedures like hip replacements, heart surgeries, or elective procedures.  Children, on the other hand, primarily use up hospital beds for low-margin treatments or observation:  a sick child needing a drug or a chronically ill patient who is medically unstable.

In April, a Richmond, Virginia hospital, Doctor’s Hospital, announced it was closing its pediatric in-patient unit.  Tufts Children’s Hospital in Boston–note the name:  Tufts Children’s Hospital–said in July it was closing its unit.  Shriners Children’s New England in Springfield, Massachusetts will close its pediatric inpatient unit by the end of the year.  Other hospitals in Colorado and Pennsylvania have also closed or are in the process of closing their units. 

At the moment, a backlog of adult patients seeking procedures they put off during the coronavirus pandemic is making the change far more economically sound.  Plus, Medicaid only reimburses hospitals 70% of the cost that Medicare does–which itself is typically lower than private insurance costs–and nearly one-third of children in the United States are insured through Medicaid, making children’s hospital units less profitable.

That percentage of Medicaid coverage tends to be higher in rural and poor communities, so those areas would likely be hit hardest if the trend continues as for-profit hospital groups look to squeeze every cent of profit from their operations.  For families with sick children, however, the units’ closing will mean longer travel time to hospitals where they can find treatment.