COVID Impact on Service Providers
In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families. Those challenges get far more intense during disasters. And coronavirus is proving to be the biggest disaster of all. Service providers are facing dire economic problems.
In April 2020, the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) conducted a survey to quantify the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their members—over 1,600 community providers serving individuals with I/DD. The survey received valid responses from 689 organizations across all 50 states, District of Columbia, and two territories (Puerto Rico and Guam). ANCOR asked Avalere to independently analyze the survey responses and produce a report presenting findings from the analysis. Some highlights include:
- 68% of all organizations surveyed reported that they have had to close one or more service lines due to the pandemic resulting in an average loss of revenue of 32%.
- 52% of all organizations surveyed reported having increased staff overtime expenses.
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Based on the data reported by the surveyed organizations, Avalere estimated that revenue loss from the closed I/DD services lines combined with the additional expenditures related to training, onboarding, and overtime accounts for about 40% of annual revenue, on average.
Avalere also used organization-reported cash-on-hand (COH) to estimate how long these funds may sustain operations before the organization is no longer able to meet its immediate financial obligations. On average, organizations serving individuals with I/DD have enough cash to keep business afloat for a little over 1 month. Stated differently, half of respondents would not be able to stay in business for much more than 1 month given their financial resources.
