Pinckneyville Hospital sees $1 million income in 2013-14 fiscal year
Pinckneyville Community Hospital had an operating income of $84,191 and a net income of $119,106 for April 2014. April was the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year. PCH showed an operating income of $493,269 and a net income of $1,099,949 for the year. Net income includes revenue from sources other than operations.
PCH hopes to reduce bad debt in the coming year by implementing a point of service collection policy.
Finance Committee member Chad Rushing that the committee has discussed point of service collections at several meetings. The new policy will require non-emergency patients to make their co-payments at the time of service.
Hospital employees must be trained to explain the new policy when appointments are made and to remind patients about it when calling to confirm appointments.
The new policy, when coupled with the greater number of insured patients due to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion, should help decrease the hospital's bad debt by several hundred thousand dollars a year. Over the past several years bad debt has been approximately $1 million.
The new policy may go into effect in July.
In other business, the board:
• heard from Administrator Tom Hudgins that the closing on the construction loan from AgStar will be held July 3 at 10 a.m. He added that the delay in finalizing the paperwork saved the hospital considerable funds in interest payments. Since construction began in March, there have been 16 days lost due to weather. The delay has not been all bad. There have been some new regulations put in place since the original drawings were done. At the last Owner/Architect/Construction Manger meeting in May, the need to add floor drains for toilets and change the lay-out of some restrooms to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements was discussed. Due to the weather delay, crews are installing the floor drains now, ahead of pouring floors. The next OAC meeting is June 11 at 10 a.m.
• heard from Dr. Gregg Fozard that he and Physician's Assistant Steve Priebe have come up with a questionnaire for those seeking CDL licensing exams. Once it is finished, he will hand it off to the hospital's attorney, Roger Seibert, to determine if it will limit the hospital's liability should an accident occur and it is determined the driver had a medical condition that was not disclosed during the physical.
• approved the purchase of new cables for CapOne CO2 sensors for $5,936, a Trilogy 202 ventilator for $11,257, a SAN server for $25,149 and a Pentax video processor image capture PC for $30,590. The monitors in patient rooms are capable of CO2 monitoring, which is a new Medicare regulation. Only cables were needed. The ventilator allows ventilation for multiple patients and will be paid for through an emergency preparedness grant. The server was budgeted for 2016. The IT department recommended moving up the purchase so the new system is in place when moving to the new building. The PC will replace an eight-year-old system that had a hardware failure.
• approved the annual levy of $197,500. The amount has not changed for several years.