Administrator Bi-Weekly Review For Two Weeks Ending July 5th, 2025

It was an interesting two weeks, which included the celebration of our 249^th Birthday as the world’s greatest nation, as well as the signing of one of the most talked about bills in a long time – OBBBA - beautiful to not as many as it is controversial to others. For those of us in healthcare, desirous of meeting the healthcare needs for all our citizens, it is a day as the American Hospital Association President, Rick Pollack said, “Today is an extremely disappointing and very difficult day for healthcare in America. Despite months of clearly demonstrating the implications that these Medicaid and marketplace coverage proposals will have on the patients and communities we serve, especially the most vulnerable populations, Congress has enacted cuts of nearly a trillion dollars to the Medicaid program.” Threats to our Community hospitals have, and always will be, the reliability of consistent funding for the expensive services we deliver. It will be interesting to see how we can weather these new ultimatums moving forward. For our community, I am somewhat relieved that our Medicaid utilization in Morris County is lower than in most, therefore we are not as dependent on those cash flows as other facilities. At the same time, however, we are seeing some of our hospitals in neighboring communities (Emporia, Junction City, and Topeka) end their contractual relationships with some of the Managed Medicaid plans and therefore we are seeing an influx of new Medicaid patients seeking care in our facility. From my perspective, we are here to serve all patients, and certainly those with insurance coverage of any form. But this new phenomenon is worth monitoring.

A nice victory for one of our longer tenured employees is worth noting today. Just this week Misty Burnett passed her registry exam as an RVT, Registered Vascular Ultrasound Technician! Her rise in this distinction, from serving as a 9-year Radiology Receptionist, is worthy of further mention. As sonographers are in great demand in Kansas, and we had a hole to fill, Misty came to me and her manager two years ago with an interest in jumping into a 20-month program to earn a degree in sonography. Much of that time is in hands on clinical training with providers who perform ultrasound studies at higher numbers than she can see at MCH. As a single breadwinner in her family, Misty had to maintain an income and knew she would have to study mostly at night and on weekends. It was clear that MCH needed to financially assist her in this ambition, and we were willing to do so in exchange for a commitment for her to work with us for a long time once credentialed. We worked through an innovative financial assistance plan good for both parties, and she will quite comfortably be able to repay her debt to us within a year, because of her new salary. I bring this to everyone’s attention (with her permission) to suggest that if any of you have a dream to elevate your position and still maintain (or begin) a job with us – we have a new template, and one that can most likely be adapted to meet yours and our visions. Bring your ambitions to us if you are so inclined!             And Congratulations and Thank You, from all of us, Misty!!

I’ll wrap up with only a brief comment about the soft numbers we experienced (below) during this holiday filled two-week cycle. I know if we are only going to have 7 metrics exceed our budgeted values – I’d sure rather one of them be the cash collected target, than anything else!! Enough said – and thanks to our Revenue Cycle team for working hard in a difficult environment!!! And again, thanks to all our team for consistently caring for our patients in a great manner! Have a great next two weeks!