Greenwood Leflore Hospital lost $246,497 in the month of January, despite reducing expenses compared to the previous year.
Hospital CFO Dawne Holmes pointed to a $1.4 million loss in net revenue during the first four months of the hospital’s fiscal year, compared to the previous year, and said it was the result of patients being treated as outpatients rather than inpatients.
The hospital is paid less for outpatient treatment because patients require fewer resources, Holmes said, indicating the practice is driven by insurance companies.
During the same period, the hospital reduced its expenses by $1.1 million. Still, even after accounting for other investment income, the hospital showed a loss of $1.3 million for the current fiscal year, up from $1.15 million in the previous year.
In January, the statement of operations showed total revenue of $9.8 million for the month and total expenses of $10.1 million, creating a loss of more than $246,000.
T. Richard Roberson Jr., general counsel of the Mississippi Hospital Association, told board members Greenwood Leflore Hospital is not alone among the state’s smaller hospitals in wrestling with financial losses.
Roberson said the hospital was “a huge economic engine” for the area with 1,500 employees and more than $217 million in salary, wages and benefits but is faced with revenue situations out of its control, such as a projected loss of $100 million in Medicare and Medicaid payments over the next 18 years through cuts engineered by federal and state governments.
“It leaves you in a hole that is not your doing at all,” he said.
In response to a question from board Chairman Sammy Foster about Medicaid expansion in Mississippi, Roberson said the association has had discussions with all people who have declared themselves as candidates for governor and found “very positive” results with nearly all of them.
Only Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican candidate for governor, has refused to back what he said was an expansion of Obamacare.
“We have candidates at the top of the ticket, all but one, who want to look at the numbers or support it,” Roberson said.
The fiscal challenges for rural hospitals can be seen in the closing of hospitals in Belzoni, Kilmichael, Marks, Natchez and Newton over the past 10 years, Roberson said. And hospitals in Batesville, Natchez, Aberdeen, Clarksdale, Amory and Magee have declared bankruptcy in the last 10 years, and Batesville has done it twice.
“In most of these cases, the hospitals have essentially withered. It’s a slow, painful demise,” he said. “ ... Their struggles are trying to get paid, trying to get reimbursed by Medicare, and trying to get reimbursed by Medicaid.”
In other business:
• The board responded to questions from the City Council about the hospital’s intentions toward properties it has purchased on Strong Avenue, Leflore Avenue and River Road. Interim Chief Executive Officer Subho Basu said the hospital has no intention of becoming a landlord but that the buildings were going to be demolished to widen the footprint of the hospital if it should expand in the future. Some of the properties have become clinics or may house other offices of the hospital.
• The board reviewed a spreadsheet that indicated the hospital was no longer advertising its services, with the exception of $600 per month in ads on four billboards, along with listings in phonebooks.
•Contact Gavin Maliska at 581-7235 or gmaliska@gwcommonwealth.com.
