Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community
Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review For Pay Period Ending September 2nd
Well, despite a rather ignominious defeat for our opening day Chiefs (and the recent cooling day(s) of rain), we have now officially embarked into the Fall of 2023…where better Chief’s sporting days are ahead. Sorry I am late with this report, as I was out last week at the annual KHA convention, which afforded some excellent speaker messages and considerably effective networking opportunities. KHA does listen to our hospital challenges and certainly attempts to bring solutions to the table. Most of us 124 Kansas hospitals are experiencing very similar issues, and some simply respond to some of them better than others, whereas each of us have focused on something that can assist the rest of us, if we make time to talk with others. One common theme addressed this year is the accelerated conversion of our patients from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage policies, which are totally managed by the CMS sanctioned commercial insurance carriers. One should not look at these plans as a Medicare replacement product, but as a true alternative to Medicare. For our 2-3 Counties book of residents, we will be planning some significant educational opportunities to share the differences between the two with prospective new MC beneficiaries. It matters because MC Advantage does not reimburse CAHs the same way as MC assures us to be paid, and those taking MC Advantage plans are not assured the same cadre of benefits that Medicare offers, even though enrollers may be enticed by some perks Medicare does not provide.
The second table below (comparing actual August volumes to budgeted August volumes) reveals one of the busiest months in a long time, including successful cash collections and record revenue numbers, fed by very busy departments across the board. Hopefully it will translate into an August income statement that looks similarly positive. I’d like to thank everyone, including our patients for their trust in us, for stepping up to the increased work demands! Growth in services delivered is really the only way we can help offset these inflationary times, so we should all be grateful that we can step up to higher volumes.
This week, we celebrate and honor those associated with National Assisted Living Centers, National Suicide Prevention efforts, as well as National Farm Animals Awareness Week, which brings attention to so many of our area residents! We extend our appreciation to those directly involved in such. And mostly, I thank you again for putting our PATIENTS FIRST each and every day at MCH!
Kevin Leeper, CEO
