121-001 Aster DM Healthcare: Budgeting for a Crisis interventions. such as cataract surgery, gallbladder removal, or early-stage cancer treatment. While elective procedures were not urgent, many were still medically necessary} The company's operations were divided into three segments: Medcare. its premium brand of hospitals and clinics for high-income patients; Aster, a mid-level option; and Access, for lower- income patients. Aster also measured nancial performance by geographic segment. Its (300 operations typically generated 81% of the company's revenue while the remainder came from India. (See Exhibit 2 for Aster's segmented nancial performance for the rst halves of FY 2019 and FY 2020.) The company had six main verticals within its GCC business, which were primarily divided among the United Arab Emirates (UAE). the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Oman, and Qatar (see Exhibit 3). A chartered accountant by training, Alisha spent her early career at Deloitte and Ernst Fr Young (EY). She had worked at Aster since 2012, first overseeing the nances of one of the company's Medcare hospitals and medical centers, then managing the company's UAE-based clinics and hospitals. In 2019, the Aster board promoted Alisha to deputy managing director, with the understanding that she would succeed Dr. Moopen as managing director in the next two to three years. Aster and Covid-IQ In December 2019, Chinese doctors identied Covid-19. a novel coronavirus that had emerged from Wuhan, the capital city of the Huhei province. By March 2020, the virus had spread throughout the globe, prompting many countries to implement lockdowns to restrict movement and contain the virus. Symptoms included cough, fever, body aches, and chills. The severity of symptoms varied widely some infected individuals were asymptomatic, while other cases resulted in hospitalization, permanent lung damage, or death. Responses to the pandemicand the impact to Asterdiffered by region. The Indian government had hospitals with enough capacity to care for the influx of lCovid-19 patients; thus, Aster's India-based hospitals, which operated in the private sector, treated a relatively low volume of Covid- 19 cases in the initial months. Government restrictions in Oman and Qatar prohibited private sector hospitals from accepting Covid- 19 patients altogether. Both the UAE and KSA allowed the private sector to treat Covid-19 patients, as government hospitals did not have the bandwidth to care for all infected patients. Thus, Aster's operations in the UAE and KSA had to contend with the physical and operational stressors of Covid- 19, which included expanding hospital capacity to meet patient demand, protecting frontline workers from infection, and providing staff and their families with psychological support to cope with the virus-related risks. Aster's clinics and pharmacies, which were primarily based in the GCC, also encountered a 25% decline in revenue. as people were afraid to leave their homes during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the company's mission to provide clinical care remained its foremost priority. Following the cancellation of elective procedures, the hospitals only treated Covid-I9 patients and emergency procedures such as accidents, heart attacks. and strokes. This added to Aster's nancial strain, as insurance companies had temporarily stopped payments for Covid-19 patients. It was possible that insurance companies would resume payments, or that governments would provide subsidies to cover the costs of care for uninsured patients, but there was not yet a clear reimbursement structure. In the meantime, Aster continued to treat many patients without compensation