Cincinnati hospitals get millions of federal dollars. Here’s how much
UPDATE: The Trump administration has reversed the executive order to freeze all federal grants and loans on Wednesday afternoon.
An executive order to freeze all federal grants has left hospitals, universities and other nonprofits that rely on federal money scrambling.
While a federal judge has delayed the freeze so that it won’t take effect until after a hearing on Feb. 3, the future of federal funding that many organizations view as a lifeline is in jeopardy.
More:‘See you in court’: Delaware AG says coalition of states plan to sue over federal grant freeze
More:Judge temporarily blocks Trump policy that aimed at freezing federal grant funding
Many details of the executive order – including which grants will be frozen, the logistics of pausing grants that may already be partially distributed and the constitutionality of doing so – remain unclear.
In Cincinnati, federal dollars cover a significant chunk of hospitals’ costs, funding lifesaving research, health care worker training and disaster preparedness.
“These federal resources help hospitals and other health care organizations with providing preventative health care and community wellness services as well as support the planning and coordination of preparedness programs,” said John Palmer, spokesperson for the Ohio Hospital Association.
“We hope this ‘temporary pause’ is short-term.”
During the freeze, which was intended to take effect Tuesday, agencies are expected to conduct a review to ensure that their grants support activities that are in line with President Donald Trump’s policies.
All of Cincinnati area’s hospitals received over a million federal dollars
All six of Greater Cincinnati’s hospitals received more than a million dollars in federal awards in fiscal year 2023, according to each hospital’s most recent audit documents.
The amount awarded varied widely.
Cincinnati Children’s received $223 million, the lion’s share of the group, while Bon Secours Mercy Health received $149 million. At $1.5 million, St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Northern Kentucky received the smallest amount.
The purpose of the federal awards varied, often based on the agency it came from.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave $1.4 million to Bon Secours Mercy Health for its Special Supplemental Nutrition Program, which helps feed pregnant women, infants and children. The program is commonly called WIC.
At Christ Hospital, the Department of Education awarded $6.4 million to be used on federal direct student loans and Pell Grants, which help low-income students pay for an undergraduate education.
And the U.S. Treasury Department disbursed COVID-19 recovery and relief dollars to more than one hospital.
At Cincinnati Children’s, most federal dollars went to funding research that ranged from preventing epilepsy to detecting and diagnosing cancer.
Most of it came from various agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, such as the National Institutes of Health, although around $4.5 million from the Department of Defense helped fund some clinical trials.
How we did this
Representatives of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, TriHealth, Christ Hospital and UC Health declined to comment on how much federal funding their hospitals receive. Bon Secours Mercy Health and St. Elizabeth Healthcare did not respond to a request for comment.
So how did The Enquirer get these numbers?
The law requires that any nonprofit that spends more than $750,000 in federal dollars in a year must be audited, the results of which are then published by the Federal Audit Clearinghouse.
Since all of Cincinnati’s hospitals are nonprofits that spend well over this amount every year, their numbers are available to the public.
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