Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review For Two Weeks Ending February 14th, 2026

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community

Once in a while you can really feel that your “work” works out! We all need to sense those experiences of satisfaction following identified results of participating in a work effort, or we will probably soon gravitate to working elsewhere – that is just part of our human nature. This month started off with two such results, that will truly make a difference for our hospital moving forward.

After three months of futility seeking assistance from a couple recommended attorneys, I reached out in mid-January to Richelle Marting, JD, of Marting Law, to see if she would research and write a letter to our MAC, WPS, supporting MCH's qualifying for new legislation allowing for EMS cost-based reimbursement, if operated by a CAH.  Within a couple of weeks Marting had a letter in my hand endorsing our eligibility for this new program. We then planned with GPHA to add a drop-down coding option of putting a B2 condition code on each EMS claim, targeting it for eligible cost reimbursement. These instructions were willingly given to Ms. Marta by WPS, which really validates our likely success. So nearly 60% of EMS claims now going back to the first of January 2026, will be captured for 2026 cost reimbursement. The extra funding, estimated to be $450-500K annually, will first begin to be collected following a planned 6-30-26 interim cost report! This result will likely end our long-lasting need of subsidizing EMS operations out of Hospital operations and perhaps enable us to better service the White City area, by stationing a crew there. We will be studying that possibility with the County Commissioners over the next few months. 

Secondly, after two years off and on dialogues with Dr. John Mosier of Herington, he has asked our system to partner with him and assist with the operation of his relatively new Medical Clinic. This close alignment will give our current team a nice footprint for growing our Obstetrics and Endoscopy services in a neighboring Community, as well as giving us access to Dr. Mosier filling in to cover our Emergency Room periodically. We welcome serving Herington residents on our campus, as well as on his campus, and this official partnership will further enhance those relationships.

Hope it is evident to all of you how beneficial these two additions will be to our operations! We are certainly having our share of good things over the past several weeks. If only Dr. Heck will add to our recent good fortune. An empty office still awaits you, Dr. Heck. Have a great two weeks, everybody.

-Kevin Leeper, CEO