Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board members will now spend their weekends reviewing hospital bills before administrators are allowed to pay them, according to an agreement reached during Thursday’s called board meeting.
Hospital Interim CEO Subho Basu told the board the hospital had a backlog of thousands of unpaid bills, was facing penalties for late payments and was being threatened with losing discounts on others after the board had cracked down on any expenditure above $5,000 that lacked prior approval by the board.
Basu pleaded with the board that he would meet with any member or group and give them a list of the items that needed paying. He said he would answer any questions and go through the items line by line if it would allow for more timely payment of bills incurred by the hospital.
“If we do not pay by dates on all these things, we will incur some late fees,” he said. “And sometimes we get rebates if we pay within (a certain amount of time). We will miss that.”
“It’s not that complicated,” board president Sammy Foster said. “It’s new occurring invoices. It’s something that’s occurring, but it’s new.”
Foster suggested sending new invoices to board members to let them review.
Board member Harris Powers Jr. questioned whether each board member needed to see copies of every invoice.
“Not every one, just new ones,” Foster said.
Basu estimated “significant” new bills would likely number 50 every week, compared with the thousands of line items the hospital pays regularly. He said he would send copies to each board member every Friday, answer any questions and meet with board members to scrutinize bills.
Previously, the board had assumed the bills were not being paid until approved, Foster said.
That wasn’t the practice by the administration, which was paying bills when they were due, counting on the board to approve items that were included in the hospital’s budget. The board stopped the practice after being told its members could be held personally liable for misspent funds.
“If it’s wrong, it all falls on me,” said board member Freddie White-Johnson. “Why would I approve something that’s already been spent? That’s the question.”
•Contact Gavin Maliska at 581-7235 or gmaliska@gwcommonwealth.com.
