Hospital board address denied SLIB grant

During the Tuesday night meeting of the Hot Springs County Memorial Board of Trustees, Board Chair, Bill Williams, and hospital CEO, Margie Molitor, spoke about their recent trip to Cheyenne to visit with the SLIB board.

The hospital’s SLIB application for $1.5 million was not recommended for funding, Molitor said, and there were two main reasons. There were $11.6 million worth of requests for SLIB grants, and they only have about $4 million to give. “At this point in the game with the biennium funding,” Molitor said, “large projects like ours usually don’t fare so well.”

The grant request was for the hospital addition and renovation, to supplement the project due to unforeseen expenses regarding asbestos abatement, the need for deep foundations and inflation factors.

The trip allowed Molitor and Williams to meet the SLIB board, introduce them to the project and get some input as to how they could apply next time. Molitor said the board also recommended the hospital wait until the new biennium and apply next September. She recommended when they travel to speak with the SLIB Board again, they bring a large contingent to speak about the expansion and renovation project.

Williams added they were on the “do not recommend” list is because of the grant the hospital received last June for which they have not received all the reimbursement information, which results in outstanding grant funds.

“That’s almost an automatic veto right there,” Williams said. “They don’t like to give another grant if you still have unused grant funds out there, which we basically didn’t have but, technically, hasn’t been through the state system yet.”

Williams also pointed out concerned citizens of Hot Springs County had written a letter to go along with the grant, and had gone down to meet with the elected officials. Following testimony about the project from Williams and Molitor, those citizens were allowed to testify as well.

The concerned citizens, Williams said, are people who were part of the political action committee opposed to the formation of the hospital district and the special purpose tax to pay for the expansion and renovation. “I still haven’t quite figured out why they testified against the possibility of us getting grant money,” he said, but it appears the campaign is continuing. He noted the testimony presented was the same from over a year ago, and was nothing new but only a reiteration.

Molitor said it was disappointing, as they were trying to get money not generated here back into the community and people were testifying against it.

In board action, a decision on the amended 2018 budget was tabled. Chief Financial Officer Shelly Larson said it was her intent to have a revised budget to the board. However, she wants to do a more comprehensive revision and plans to bring it to the board at their regular meeting on Feb. 27.

In other action, the board approved the hospital’s 990. Larson explained the hospital has dual status, as a district and a 501c3 organization. As such, they are required to film and information return, which is the 990. The return is due May 15, and has been reviewed by the financial committee.

The most important piece of the 990, Larson said, is Schedule H, which relates directly to hospitals. Part of that schedule is the hospital has to abide by the IRS requirements for financial assistance, community benefits and bill and collection. She noted this year the hospital had a total community benefit of $1,349,074, which does not include anything for bad debt or the slight loss the hospital took for Medicare.

With regard to the regular financial report, Larson said the number of days in accounts receivable is 46.82. She noted there was a bit of a creep up in December, primarily due to holidays, time off and people being ill. The number also reflects the inclusion of Red Rock Family Practice, and it was also a very good month, Larson said.

As for days cash on hand, Larson noted a bit of a slip to 23.36 days, mainly due to a fairly substantial amount due from Medicare. The prior year cost report reflected $628,000, and that was received on Jan. 3 along with a lump sum adjustment for the current year of about $110,000. There were also payments made on the qualified rate adjustment with Medicaid, she noted.

Also during the meeting, Dr. Jason Weyer provided a medical staff report, noting there was not enough people at the last staff meeting to make a quorum. Instead, he said, hey went over a few things. One of the most exciting things, Weyer said, is they are switching from faxing orders they are simply going to print them.

The reason this is so exciting, he explained, is it will help with delays in getting orders. Those delays can be caused by delays in a fax queue or an error in sending.

Weyer noted patients can get frustrated due to waiting for their orders to come over.

Patti Jeunehomme reported from July through December there have been 55 new employees come on board and 36 terminations. Many of the employees are PRN or “as needed,” she noted, but the biggest reason they leave is because they’re moving out of the community. The hospital’s turnover is at 15 percent, adding in the employees from Red Rock, hitting below the target of 16 percent.