Financial picture for NRMC brightens, but in the red

Nevada Daily Mail

Nevada Regional Medical Centers financial picture is improving compared to July and August 2013, Kevin Leeper, NRMC CEO said at Tuesday's NRMC board meeting.

He said that revenues are up about 25 percent from the same time period last summer, with a projected increase in revenue of about 15 percent for the year.

However, the hospital is still losing money, ending August with a loss of about $123,000.

Leeper told the board that with all of the changes instituted to cut expenses, as well as increase revenue, he expects the hospital to cut its loss from $6 million last year to $2.2 million this year.

The continued loss of revenue troubled board member Catherine Hissink, when it came to approving the 2015 budget for NRMC.

"I can't approve something that projects an increase of 15 percent," she said, adding that 60 days of data do not negate the previous two years of data.

She said she would prefer to see a budget with zero increase from the 2014 budget. Then, if the hospital's revenue turned out better, the hospital could increase its case reserve.

"I can't see projecting this kind of growth," she said.

Board member Bill Denman said to have that kind of budget they would have to wipe out half of the staff.

"That's not reasonable," he said.

Hissink said the board still has not seen information that shows what is profitable and not profitable in the hospital.

Holding to her convictions, Hissink was the sole no vote when the board voted 8-1 to pass the budget.

One of the areas NRMC has been working in to improve its revenues is billing and follow-up to insurance companies.

Gay Walker, who is in charge of patient financial services at NRMC, told the board that there were a number of problems in that area and they have identified and cured about one-third of them.

She said the hospital is currently outsourcing its follow-up to Healthcare Resources Group for everything except workman comp and liability to keep the money coming in.

"We hope the volume becomes smaller," she said, adding that the goal is for HRG to put itself out of a job.

To deal with self-pay patients NRMC has contracted with Berlin White.

"They work with patients. Identify whether they need financial assistance, or if they have any ability to pay. Talking one-on-one with the patient," Walker said.

At the same time, she said her department is working with Cerner, building the hospital's statement cycle.

"All patients are receiving statements at this time," she said.

Walker said, in response to a question from a board member that based on the two months it has taken to identify and fix one-third of the problems she estimates it will take another six months to remedy the rest of the problem.

She said that she would like more cooperation from Cerner, but they have been very cooperative.

"They are doing what they need to do to help us. We'd like it to move faster, but they have their way," she said.

Whenever a problem is identified and a possible solution found, Walker said they then have to test the procedure to see if it works. That seems to take weeks.