Tuesday, September 20, 2022, 4:52 pm News Flash Archive

The Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board of Trustees held its regular monthly meeting today.

After the opening prayer, the board went immediately into executive session, with the public and press excluded, to discuss strategic planning. The public and the media were excluded for 30 minutes. It was reported afterward that no action was taken.

The board then returned to open meeting.

The board received a report from the pension auditing firm for fiscal year 2021. The pension fund has a net value of $40 million, and received a 17% return on its investments for the year. It paid out $3.3 million to pensioners, and there is enough money available to continue to pay expected pensions for 10 or 15 years. However, the pension is only 81% funded, which means that it is underfunded by $9.4 million.

The board voted to renew its "directors and officers" liability policy for another three years for $89,715. Board members Tracy Shelton and Emma Bell voted against the renewal. The policy covers legal claims made against the officers and directors for their conduct while administering the hospital.

The board also renewed its cyber security insurance policy for one year, which pays claims for computer breaches that might disclose confidential patient information, for a cost of $48,750.

Mr. Marchand gave the financial report. The Hospital had an overall loss of $2.87 million in August. Operating expenses were $8.13 million, while operating revenue was $5.27 million. Revenue was down sharply in large part due to the closing of most of the hospital for several days during the sewage backup incident in August.

At the end of August, the usable cash reserves, after netting out the deferred revenue and the Medicare short term loan which must be paid back, are $2.5 million. The net cash burn for August was $1.5 million.

In August, Medicare retained $727,000 in payments for the repayment of the short term loan. The hospital still owes Medicare $6.25 million. So far, the hospital has dipped into the Medicare loan money to the tune of $952,000, because it has no other operating cash that it can access.

Overall, in the first 11 months of this fiscal year, the hospital has lost $15.6 million, even though it received $9.2 million in grants.

The board then went into its second executive session, with the public and the press excluded for 38 minutes.

It was reported that the board hired the law firm of Wise Carter from Jackson to represent the hospital in potential litigation against Medicaid for "Medicaid payment shortfalls."

The Board of Trustees meeting may be viewed here: GLH Board Meeting, September 20, 2022

To review our reporting on GLH and its financial woes, please see here: Index of Greenwood Leflore Hospital news articles

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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