NRMC board discusses possible impact of stimulus dollars

Cindy Buck, Nevada Regional Medical Center CFO presented information on how the federal stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 would impact the hospital at the monthly board of director's meeting Tuesday evening. Buck held her fingers a few inches apart and said that the information she was presenting was boiled down from a document that was approximately that thick.

Among the expected outcomes was an increase of physicians in under-served areas and expansion of the eligibility and subsidy amounts for COBRA (The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985), which stipulates temporary coverage of an employee after termination. It would increase the federal government's share of Medicaid reimbursements. The act would extend Medicaid coverage an additional six months after a person loses eligibility through the Transitional Medicaid Insurance program.

"The caveat with all of these is you have to wait and see what the feds are going to do and you have to wait and see what the state is going to do and then you have to wait and see what CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) is going to do," Buck said.

Denise Sloniker reported on the Moore-Few Care Center upgrade to the facility's fire alarm system that can pinpoint the source of alarm much better than the old system.

"Before, the alarm would sound and we could see what zone the alarm was in but couldn't tell exactly where the alarm was coming from unless we could see the little red light on the smoke detector as we walked the hallway," Sloniker said. "When the alarm would go off the receptionist could see which zone it was in on the alarm panel and announce it over the overhead pager. The problem was our staff couldn't hear that because the alarm was going off."

Hospital CEO Judy Feuquay told the board she was looking forward to the opportunity for the board to discuss strategic issues during an upcoming planning retreat as she presented her report. During the retreat the board will discuss market and demographic information, planning efforts and will hear from the Missouri Hospital Association concerning what is happening within the hospital's geographic region.

Buck told the board the hospital's finances weren't where she had hoped they would be, the economy is having an effect on the bottom line.

"What I wanted to share with you today is some discussion about why we're not where we ought to be," Buck said.

Buck pointed to several areas where the receipts were below budgeted amounts and said that bad debt was higher than she liked.

"Our bad debt is about $112,000 more than we expected to see," Buck said. "We had more self-pay than we expected and that increased bad debt."

The board approved several items, renewal of a contract with Dr. Warren Lovinger for directorship of cardiopulmonary services, a contract renewal with Progressive Healthcare, Inc., a contract renewal for Midwest Surgical Services and purchase of sterilizer equipment.

Feuquay told the board the contract with Midwest was profitable for the hospital.

"The cost is about $600 per case and we are reimbursed more than $1,200," Feuquay said.

As for the sterilizer the hospital's present equipment is approximately 40 years old and should be replaced.

"This equipment sterilizes instruments for use in surgical and other sterile procedures," Feuquay said. "Our current equipment is estimated to be as old as 40 years. While it is maintaining, the reliability of the equipment has come into question."