» Health district in the red in January

By Lise Hull
Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 | No comments posted. Unlike December’s financial report, which posted a net income of $44,000 for the Southern Coos Health District, January’s report was back in the minus column. Chief Financial Officer David Rollins announced a small net loss of $7,802 for the district and a fiscal year-to-date loss of $678,494.

Even though the hospital has cut its expenses by almost 10 percent, the effort has not been not enough to offset the poor revenue from the first part of the year, which was down (18.2 percent), according to the CFO report.

“We knew this month was going to be hard,” Rollins said at the February board meeting.

“January was below expectation. February, thus far, has been below expectations,” CEO Jim Wathen noted in his board report.

“As a result, we are working at completing a contingency plan for the board’s consideration,” the report stated.

One reason for the small loss is that the hospital experienced a decline in inpatient numbers, from 221 in December to 150 days in January. January 2008 recorded 238 inpatient days, “which equates to a $64,883 drop in gross patient revenues for the Med/Surg departments when compared year over year,” Rollins wrote in his report.

“Overall gross patient revenue is up over the prior year ... but is more than offset by the higher levels of bad debt and charity care ...,” Rollins noted.

Receipt of the $71,000 grant for the purchase of the computed radiography equipment helped the district come close to breaking even, Rollins said at the meeting.

He also noted that the health district will be receiving less than expected from Medicare for fiscal years 2004-2006. Of the projected $500,000 or more expected in reimbursements, the district will be getting an estimated $400,000. About $330,000 of this repayment was expected to arrive in February; the rest is anticipated in March.

Although the amounts are “less than expected,” Wathen said later, “they are settlements which provide us more than originally paid in those fiscal years due to our appeal of what was originally reimbursed in certain areas of our operations.”

“Additionally, due to the proportion of our current expenses to revenues, we know (and have been advised by our Medicare intermediary) that an additional $298,000 will be received this month for our current fiscal year reimbursements,” he also noted. Answering questions posed by Board Treasurer Vicki Gernandt, Rollins confirmed that Medicare does not reimburse the district for doctors’ services — the money comes from other funds.

“If we didn’t pay our doctors,” Rollins added, “we would be in the black.”

Budget Committee update

CEO Jim Wathen announced three of five positions on the district’s current budget committee need to be filled.

Six people have applied for the committee: Joe Briscoe, Leslie Clarke, Bob Hundhausen, Harv Schubothe, Gary Wiesner and Lawrence Williams. The two returning members are Paul Pearson and Mary Wilson.

Wathen proposed modifying the composition of the committee, which he tentatively redesignated as the “finance committee.”

Previously, the committee comprised the board of directors and five members of the community. Wathen suggested appointing only two board members to work with the five finance committee members from the community, district administrators and the CFO. The group would develop a proposal to submit to the full board of directors in May.

“It would broaden the participation of the public and create more of a working body,” Wathen said.

“It would set the table for the board to appoint an audit committee, who must be independent of the organizations they are serving,” he added.

Wathen will submit a formal proposal recommending which applicants to appoint to the finance committee at the next health district board meeting, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 26.