QUINCY - The Quincy Valley Hospital Board will receive a package of proposals to reduce the hospital's reliance on interest-bearing warrants at the Feb. 25 board meeting.

Warrants are issued by the county treasurer for a junior taxing district, like the hospital, when it doesn't have enough cash on hand to meet its obligations. The hospital pays the money back with interest.

At the end of January, the hospital's warrant balance was about $2.8 million, Grant County Treasurer Darryl Pheasant said. The outstanding balance has hovered around $2.5 million to $2.8 million for about a year, Pheasant said. Hospital officials have set a goal of reducing that to $1.7 million.

Hospital Administrator Mehdi Merred said part of the problem is that the hospital has seen in increase in patients who are paying their own hospital bills. The hospital was carrying about $800,000 to $900,000 in outstanding self-pay accounts, but at the end of 2012 that had risen to about $1.2 million, he said.

Administrators will propose several strategies to cut into the hospital's outstanding accounts, Merred said. The hospital will start charging interest to past-due private pay accounts, and will offer discounts to people who pay the bill in a timely manner.

About 40 percent of the hospital's patients have insurance through Medicare, Merred said, and about 30 percent are Medicaid patients (a federally-funded state program similar to Medicare). About 15 percent have commercial insurance, and about 15 percent are self-pay.

The hospital may have turned a profit of about $218,335 for 2012, but that was before officials received a request from Medicare to repay about $379,000. There's a reconciliation process, he said, and the amount owed may change, or the hospital might not owe anything. But that process will not be complete for a few months, he said.

The hospital will institute a process of estimating Medicare costs and reimbursement each month, he said, so hospital officials are better informed about the hospital's Medicare accounts.