Rural hospitals feeling the financial strain of fighting COVID-19

When it comes to battling the coronavirus, many rural hospitals have been hit the hardest financially.

Cutting back on elective surgeries and other hospital admissions have put a strain on revenues that those hospitals normally depend on.

In a conference call Monday, Senator Angus King said another round of funding from the CARES Act is on the way.

That will help cover additional expenditures, but doesn’t cover lost revenue.

“That’s going to be a secondary problem that’s going to hit us in a couple of months, in terms of state revenues at the very moment in which demand is going to go up," King said. "I think the revenue shortfall is going to be where the real problem is. The question is whether Congress and the president will step up to that part of this problem," Senator Angus King said.

A hospital is the largest employer in 8 of Maine’s 16 counties.