From: hounddog23x@gmail.com   
      
   > at Singing River, about 60 percent of the hospital's reimbursement come from   
   Medicaid and Medicare.   
      
      
      
      
   Holland: Singing River still losing money, but less than before    
   System chief projects loss of $8M, down from $35M    
      
   BY PAUL HAMPTON, JPHAMPTON@SUNHERALD.COM    
   January 14, 2015 | Updated 20 hours ago    
      
      
      
   System chief projects loss of $8M, down from $35M    
      
   By PAUL HAMPTON    
      
      
   jphampton@sunherald.com    
      
   PASCAGOULA -- Singing River Health System chief Kevin Holland said the   
   system's turnaround plan is working and is cutting the financially troubled   
   system's losses.    
      
   Holland, who was named CEO in March, told the Rotary Club here SRHS lost about   
   $1.9 million in the first three months of the fiscal year, which could mean an   
   annual loss of about $8 million. The system lost about $35 million the   
   previous year, he said.    
      
      
   "When we learned about this we were two months into fiscal year '14," he said.    
      
   "As y'all know if you run businesses, you don't turn around a 32-, 33   
   -million-dollar loss in a five- or sixth-month period."    
      
   The system's turnaround plan includes "maximizing efficiencies and cost   
   savings," renegotiating contracts, cutting spending and working on a plan to   
   deal with its underfunded pension.    
      
   "I am open, and this organization, this board, is open to any solution that   
   anybody comes up with. I welcome the county help to try to come up with a   
   solution to salvage the pension plan in a way that allows us to preserve as   
   much of it as we can, and    
   also allows the organization to continue forward in a financially viable   
   state," he said.    
      
   The pension, he said, has about $136 million in it but has liabilities of $277   
   million.    
      
   The county Board of Supervisors has asked the hospital Board of Trustees to   
   resign, but the trustees declined to do that.    
      
   "You have a Board of Trustees that some of them have 15-plus years worth of   
   experience," said Board President Michael Heidelberg. "You look back 15 years   
   at where our hospital was and we were an average quality public community   
   hospital. If you look at    
   where we are today, we have world-class status."    
      
   Holland asked the Rotarians to stand behind the system, and call him if they   
   hear something "that doesn't sound right."    
      
   Holland said the state's failure to expand Medicaid, the state-federal program   
   that pays for medical care for the poor, was part of the problem. Low-incoming   
   working people, who could have joined Medicaid under the expansion, are among   
   those who receive    
   care at the hospital but can't pay their hospital bills. He said 35 percent of   
   the people who come to Singing River emergency rooms are "unfunded."    
      
   Not only problem    
      
   "Is that the sole source of our problem?" he said. "Absolutely not. But there   
   is a big difference now in that states that have chosen to expand Medicaid   
   across the country under the Affordable Care Act and those who haven't.    
      
   "The operating environment in the state of Mississippi for health care   
   organizations is very challenging and very difficult."    
      
   He also said the reimbursement from the government for treating people on   
   Medicaid and Medicare is shrinking.    
      
   "Medicare and Medicaid are breaking the system," he said. "It's very   
   challenging for the federal government and local government to continue to pay   
   for a burgeoning amount of health care services."    
      
   He said at Singing River, about 60 percent of the hospital's reimbursement   
   come from Medicaid and Medicare.    
      
   "We don't have one bit of say-so in the rates we get paid by the feds for   
   Medicare services and at the state level for Medicaid services," he said.    
      
   Another tax    
      
   Hospitals also have been hit with a tax to help pay the cost of Medicaid.    
      
   "In 2009, we didn't pay a dime of state Medicaid tax," he said. "Last year,   
   that was $11.2 million. That's just a straight tax."    
      
   That money goes to the state to help it match federal Medicaid funds,    
      
   More employers are cutting back on health-care coverage, giving some employees   
   deductibles they can't afford.    
      
   "It's harder for us to collect from individuals than it is to collect from   
   insurance companies," he said. But, he said, the hospital won't turn away   
   someone because they can't pay.    
      
   Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/01/14/6017553/holl   
   nd-singing-river-turnaround.html#storylink=cpy   
      
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