Bad debt and charity care expenses total more than $7 million

MOSES LAKE — Samaritan Healthcare finished 2019 with more than $7 million in net income.

Chief administrative officer Alex Town presented the year-end report at the hospital commission meeting Feb. 25. The hospital finished the year with $7,075,024 in net income, he said.

“2019 was a great year,” he said, “considering the amount of expenses we took on, the number of providers, the clinic remodel — it was good.”

Net income for December was $484,416. For the year, net income was above the budget targets for seven of the eight months through August, and below budget targets in three of the four months from September through December. But Samaritan beat the budget target for the year by about $2.4 million.

Inpatient revenue finished the year below expectations, and Town attributed that to fewer hospital admissions than expected and fewer obstetrics patients than expected.

“In the region, we’re all experiencing a drop in OB admissions. We can’t explain why that drop is.”

Outpatient revenue, on the other hand, was 3 percent higher than expected for the year. Outpatients get treatment at the hospital or clinic, but are discharged the same day, Town said the increase could be attributed to increased use of Samaritan’s pain management clinic, lab, pharmacy and X-ray department.

Expenses were below expectations for 2019, Town said, but within that overall drop were increased expenses for temporary nurses, doctors and other medical personnel. Medical facilities throughout the region are having trouble filling those jobs.

“Those are tough areas where we’re recruiting, and there’s a lot of competition,” he said.

The delay in installing a new MRI meant the hospital had to spend more than anticipated to lease a mobile machine, he said, and that was reflected in the expenses also.

The hospital and clinic provided $7,080,792 in charity care and bad debt write-offs in 2019, Town said. In order to address the self-pay portion of the bad debt, “we have shifted one of the billers over to self-pay, because there’s a lot of money involved, and we want to work with the patients and answer their questions.”

Samaritan is implementing a new billing and medical records system in April 2020, and Town said he expects that project to have a negative impact on hospital revenue while doctors, patients, insurers and financial departments get used to the new system.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].