Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review (June 26th, 2025)

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community

For Two Weeks Ending June 21st

As much as I hate to think about it, but the summer solstice has already passed. The days are now getting shorter, which signals the start of seasonal shifting. Guess you can also look at it as the official start of summer, which sounds much better. Let’s go with that mindset.

This week also represents the end of the first half of our fiscal and calendar year – another hard to believe reality.

The year has been pretty good for MCH, and I will be curious how the 2025 midyear comparison lines up to the last couple years of pretty remarkable growth. We’ll discuss that more in mid-July. We know our growth has softened quite a bit but there are still encouraging indicators.

A word or two on what is going on in Washington around healthcare. A lot of discussion about Trump’s leaning on the healthcare sector’s continued excessive costs and trying to reduce such at the expense of providers who must deliver care at lower payment rates for Medicare and Medicaid eligibles. All this to renew the expiring tax package of his last administration. That could be a huge downside for healthcare providers. On the plus side, it appears we are going to get some support from the Kennedy lead HHS and the Dr. Oz lead CMS teams, who are tackling head on the disruptive Big Insurance Companies’ practices of deterring care by executing rigid preauthorization programs, and then even holding up payments AFTER preauthorization permissions are given. The two leaders have met with the major insurance companies and announced this week some concessions to these practices. Only time will tell, but cutting out some of the administrative burdens of getting paid for rendered services will be a huge relief for hospitals and doctors’ offices.

Locally we welcome Dr. Samani’s recent credentialing to deliver a new knee replacement technique, called the Jiffy Knee, and his subsequent award of being the sole surgeon for most of central and eastern Kansas to deliver this speedier recovery procedure. Based on early calls, we should receive referrals from well outside our immediate service area. There is a lot of information on the web if you google Jiffy Knee. Also Dr. Hunt is growing her practice here and we are adjusting to her high-speed throughput of procedures on her given days in our Surgery Department. Lastly, we are finalizing an agreement and a start time to bring in Dr. Christopher Pole as a cataract surgeon to replace our retired Dr. Michael Reynolds. Hopefully it won’t be more than 2-3 months.

Congratulations go to Thomas Buttrey and his Lab team, who just this week passed a CLIA inspection with zero deficiencies, for the second straight year – a rarity in rural Kansas!! And again, thanks to all our team for consistently caring for our patients in a great manner! Have a great two weeks!

Kevin Leeper, CEO