Tuesday, August 22, 2023, 5:46 pm News Flash Archive

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

According to the financial report given by Mrs. Dawne Holmes, the Hospital had an operating loss of $1.65 million in July.

However, because GLH received a draw of $3.26 million in July from the $10 million loan arranged by Leflore County, the hospital showed an overall profit of $1.62 million.

In other words, the July operating loss ate up just over half of the first $3.26 million in loan proceeds from Leflore County.

GLH received a further draw of $1.1 million from the loan in August, which will appear on the August financial report next month.

In the first ten months of FY2022-2023, GLH has posted an overall loss of $7.12 million, which includes $7.28 million in money given or loaned to GLH from the city, county, and public utilities. The overall operating loss so far in FY2022-2023 is $14.5 million.

At the end of July, the useable cash and equivalents were $2.34 million.

As of the end of July, the hospital still owes Medicare $4.72 million. The Medicare loan is being paid down at around $102,000 per month.

The board voted to renew UMMC's leases of the OB/GYN clinic and the pediatrics clinic, both located on Strong Avenue just behind the hospital. The leases are for one year each. They can be terminated early by either party if need be.

State law now allows cities, counties, and public hospitals to capture state income tax refunds to collect delinquent bills owed by citizens or patients. The hospital board voted to join a consortium to implement this new form of debt collection.

Mrs. Holmes also presented some preliminary budget projections for FY2023-2024. She is projecting a total operating loss of $17.2 million in the current fiscal year (which ends September 30, 2023), and a total operating loss of $5.4 million in the upcoming fiscal year.

This projection is based upon the assumption that GLH receives critical access hospital designation in December 2023. That will result in enhanced Medicare payments, as well as enabling the hospital to reopen four beds in ICU, and to open a swing bed unit to increase revenue.

Mrs. Holmes and Gary Marchand, the interim CEO, have previously stated publicly that the hospital will not survive if it doesn't receive the critical access designation. CMS is now considering GLH's application and will make that decision, hopefully by the end of this year.

The board then went into executive session, with the public and the press excluded for 56 minutes.

During the executive session, the Critical Access Hospital application to CMS was discussed, but no information was made available about that discussion.

The Board of Trustees meeting may be viewed here: GLH Board Meeting, August 22, 2023

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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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