By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The amount of uncompensated care provided by Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System increased dramatically over the past year with a large portion of it due to the pandemic.
“We’ve had about a $3 million increase in uncompensated care,” Duane Miller, CFO of Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System, said. “That's a mix between bad debt and charity. When I look at charity, the charity care will go up to almost $8 million.”
Miller says that nearly half of the charity care was connected to COVID, stating that about $3 million was related to the pandemic. Miller says the amount of charity compensation that has been given out is due to a more proactive approach.
“A part of that is because we’re being more intentional in identifying patients at the front end as charity so they don’t get billed and we don’t drag them through a process when you really aren’t going to receive payment,” Miller said.
Despite the amount of uncompensated care increase and the other challenges brought on by the pandemic, the hospital is still in sound financial shape.
“The CARES act funding that came earlier, we’ll be able to recognize pretty soon, and that's going to help us quite a bit,” Miller said. “The hospital is very stable when we look at our cash flows. The amount of cash we have on hand to run the operation hasn’t been dwindling down.”
That figure is important because, even though the hospital is designated as a nonprofit, it still has to pay its bills and employees.
“People have to replace their cars and other things and generally they have to save up or put a deposit down or be able to make those payments or pay off the item,” Miller stressed. “It’s not any different than a nonprofit organization. We have to replace equipment and all of the very up-to-date items that we have at this facility have a cost.”
Miller says the hospital has also been able to continue with several projects to improve the facility. He noted that the recently-completed ICU unit was instrumental in being able to secure COVID patients and provide intensive care treatment to others.
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