The CARES Act provided $100 billion in financial relief to hospitals responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The act included a 20 percent increase in Medicare payments to hospitals for their COVID-19 patients. However, studies have indicated that the costs associated with COVID-19 patients may be 35 percent more than original DRG payment rates, or 15 percent more than relief payment rates (Reese 2020).

For a hospital that admits COVID-19 patients, list the possible solutions to this cost crisis after examining the methods of cost accounting explained in this chapter.