Hospital shows positive margin for first time since 2018
Photo by Eric Pereira
This article was originally published in the June 24, 2020 edition of The Northeast Georgian.
BY ERIC PEREIRA
Habersham Medical Center has reported a positive revenue for the first time since 2018 according to incoming CEO Tyler Williams. For the month of May, the hospital reported revenues over budgeted expenses was $113,891.
Williams said the last time a positive margin was witnessed was in the latter half of 2018.
“None of this positive financial news has anything to do with the line of credit that was extended to us by the county or with the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act funding,” Williams said. He also confirmed they have not made any drawdowns of funds from the $5.2 million line of credit approved by Habersham County in April.
Susan McCrary, Director of Finance for HMC, attributes the positive revenue to funding from Disproportionate Share Hospitals or DSH.
DSH serves a significantly disproportionate number of low-income patients and receive payments from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services to cover the costs of providing care to uninsured patients according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.
McCrary estimates the hospital received at least $500,000 from DSH.
“If we had not received that, then we would not have a positive margin,” McCrary said. “Many of your hospitals in other states – many of your other states that are involved in Medicaid expansion – this is the kind of positivity that they see. But being that we are a non-expansion state, it does affect our indigent care and our debt.”
Indigent care refers to individuals who meet certain requirements based upon the Federal Poverty Level. “If they are at or below those limits, they qualify for financial assistance (indigent care) whether they have insurance or not. Most individuals do not have insurance or are underinsured,” Williams said.
Chief Operations Officer Angela Harpold said the DSH calculation speaks to the indigent care that Habersham Medical Center provides.
“It very well could be the calculation that got us this additional money this time was because we serviced a greater amount during the reporting period that we were paid for of an indigent patient or had a bigger amount that we attributed to indigent care. So it could be related to that,” Harpold said.
Williams does not expect an equal or greater outcome in regard to revenue next month.
“Right now, June will probably not look as good because our patient volumes are down and we don’t expect any state funding,” Williams said.
Elective surgeries are available again, but patients have to submit to a COVID-19 test 72 hours in advance.
COVID-19 MISCONCEPTION
HMC executives wanted to clear up the misconception that the hospital receives more money from people who die of COVID-19. The concern was brought forward to them at a Hospital Authority meeting on June 16.
“We get paid by what’s called a DRG (diagnosis related group) … So if you have an upper respiratory illness, the hospital gets paid X amount of dollars. Well COVID-19 falls into that, it’s nothing new. It’s a respiratory illness,” Harpold said.
In other words, there’s no difference if the patient has the flu, pneumonia or COVID-19 as it is all the same classification.
“There’s this whole misconception that we are putting COVID-19 positive tests on everybody so that we can get more money … that’s not how it works. Hospitals are reimbursed a certain way based off of what type of diseases the patients are being faced with,” Williams said.
THANKING COMMUNITY
In closing, the hospital wanted to express their thanks to the community for helping donate personal protective equipment, food and drinks to the hospital staff during the early months of COVID-19.
“I think it’s important to say thank you to the community,” Williams said. “During this time there has been an outflow of support for the hospital almost every day for the first two months of COVID-19.”
