MACHAIS, Maine — Down East Community Hospital in Machias finished its last budget year with losses of $2.3 million, and facility President and CEO Douglas Jones is predicting harder times ahead given state cutbacks in reimbursements.
In a recent in-house memo to the staff of the 25-bed facility, Jones said that in 2011 operational expenses exceeded the $35 million budget by $500,000. Investment losses and an adjustment for pension fund liability for a defined benefit program that has since been phased out pushed the red ink to $2.3 million. That compares to losses in 2010 and 2009 of $885,991 and $623,371, respectively.
Jones says in his grim financial analysis that plans now being made in Augusta to lower the state’s hefty deficit will reduce the hospital’s state reimbursement by $180,000 this year and by $240,000 in 2013.
“Along with radical changes in MaineCare enrollment, coverage for opioids capped at 45 days and limitations on Suboxone therapy, I can see our county and our hospital struggling even more than this year,” Jones said.
“As you can see,” Jones said, “there is no room for the unbudgeted loss of revenue planned by the state. I have communicated with our entire legislative delegation and personally met with Senate President Kevin Raye. I am not expecting much help there.”
Jones said the hospital has implemented “financial turnaround” initiatives announced last summer with a goal of saving $1.8 million.
“Postponing salary adjustments was NOT part of that plan,” he wrote, “but became essential when we heard the Governor’s plans.”
Beyond fiscal headaches, Jones is dealing with strained labor relations.
Sixty-two nurses and technical employees at the hospital have been working without a contract since it expired on Jan. 12, 2012. Bargaining sessions for workers represented by the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United began in November, but no agreement was reached. The process now involves a federal mediator, with the next bargaining session scheduled for March 27.
In a statement released this week by the bargaining unit, the union claims that the hospital’s administration “has proposed cuts that would risk staffing shortages as well as other proposals that have been divisive and harmful to the relationship between staff and the administration.”
Nurses and technical employees plan to hold a candlelight vigil at the hospital on Friday, Feb. 17, at 5 p.m. “in support of patient safety and staff commitment.”
Jones says in his analysis of the 2011 financial results that cost cutting and revenue expansion are required to stop the fiscal bleeding.
“My goals place the highest priority on preserving employment, and we must focus on revenue generation,” he wrote. “One such idea will be pulmonary rehab services that some of our staff are beginning to look at. With new leadership in Cardiac Rehab, I am excited about expansion there. Also, the establishment of some new ideas in our [ear, nose and throat] clinic and in the Women’s Center. These are bright spots, and we need to find more of them.”
The hospital currently employs 268 full-time-equivalent workers.
Who should take the responsibility for the red ink? Mr. Jones has been there long enough to estimate anticipated revenues and should control expenses when warning signs appear. What role is played by the Board of Trustees. Mr. Jones might have tried to please too many people by not making difficult choices. The hospital will only increase the co-pay requirements for patients with health insurance. The monthly accounting reports should be made available for review on their web site. Deficit spending continues to spread without any real accountability.
You can anticipate revenues all you like but when your largest customer fails to pay its bills, in this case the state, the red ink piles up. Other customers would have been cut off for non payment but hospitals can’t refuse Mainecare patients – or people with safety net at all. Until we answer the question of whether or not healthcare in America is a right or a luxury this problem will continue to grow. Poorest areas, such as Washington County, will continue to be hardest hit.
Deficits spending is not an option..
I think a lot of this is what is owed to the Hospital from the State – a lot of Hospitals are in the same position this time of year!!
Notice that “state cutbacks in reimbursements” are at the heart of the problem.
This is our future, if we let Red politicians transfer more of this country’s wealth to corporations, away from the people.
You have it backwards. Way long ago, government decreed that hospitals must treat everyone who walks through their doors. All hospitals do so, but the promised compensation has never been at par or on time. Baldacci left office owing $125,000,000 to our hospitals. That money was spent elsewhere, buying votes from the Gimme Crowd. You can fire all the administrators you like, but that won’t make the money reappear. Hospitals MUST pay their suppliers and their staff, or they will cease to exist. They can’t even attract the best financial minds to help solve their problems because there is no money. The state must live up to its promises; this impacts everyone, rich or poor, who lives here. Perfect example of how Socialism serves only to spread the misery.
Great Response
LePage’s efforts to increase unemployment in Maine are moving right along… Cuts to MaineCare should really devaste us.
More workers will get laid off. They will be spending a lot less money in their communities. Local businesses will start laying off more people.
The Republican race-to-the-bottom continues.
It’s more like the Republicans inherited a ship of state that had already sunk. It is tough to bail effectively when the water is already over the gunwales. Oh yeah, and half of the crew is on the dole and can’t seem to help. Good job, Dems!
Speaking of “good job”, where are the JOBS LePage said he would bring to Maine? Nice sign at the southern border, but no actual jobs. Just cut-cut-cut anything that might help a jobless person survive, and now trying to destroy more healthcare jobs in the state.
35 years of Liberal Democratic control caused this. When the Dems were in power why didn’t they pay the hospitals what were due? The answer is they spent the money on higher priorities like buying votes. The end result is that Liberal and Dems have cost jobs.
Good job governor!!! We have crappy health care now as it is.. I am waiting since last august for a dental appointment that i am on a waiting list for.. I am suffering with 5 herniated discs in my back that got so much worse and still have yet to see a specialist and it’s been a year or longer.. I now have a hernia in my side and a lump that would scare most adults and give children nightmares for the rest of their lives.. Waiting on that too.. I love the fact that you don’t wait for health care here in the United States.. If I would be in Canada I would have this all taken care of by now as per what my relatives tell me. The same ones that left Connecticut, Florida and even Maine, in search of better health care.. Health care you don’t have to wait for.. I went to the er cause my side where my hernia is was turning purple and they said you have a hernia you must follow up with your doctor we cant do anything for you.. I have blood in my stool and in my urine and i called to make an appointment with my doctor and i am told we will make you an emergency appointment March 7.. I am so glad you don’t wait for healthcare like in Canada here.. These cuts and budget issues will only make these things worse.. As it is now people get pushed out of hospitals and there are more infections because of it.. When i was a kid women would go in for a hysterectomy they would be there for a week now you go in on Monday and your out Tuesday morning.. And by Thursday you have an infection..
When you were a kid, people paid for their health care. They stayed in hospital longer because effective drugs were not yet developed, and medical knowledge was not as advanced. Medicine has come a long way. Yes, there are cost-driven measures to shorten hospital stays, but these are brought about by government meddling in the medical field. When so many people do not pay their bills, and when government promises to pay for them, but fails to follow through, the hospitals must change the way they do business, in order to STAY in business. It sounds here like you expect the doctors to work on you, the hospitals to expend resources on you, the drug companies to give you medicine, and me to pay for it all, and you DON’T WANT TO WAIT. Oh, and you don’t want to pay, either. Good luck with that. Keep voting Democrat.
Did you notice the part where he mentioned that he’s in pain and bleeding, before you wrote your snide remark?
One day it will be you who is suffering, and lacking healthcare. If you keep working against MaineCare, it will not exist when you need it.
Healthcare is a basic human right. It is horrifying that any American would be against it. Yes, you and I pay for each other’s healthcare–through our insurance premiums and through taxes. That’s how a strong society works. It promotes its citizens’ health.
Again, you are not paying attention. Medical care is degrading because of government intervention and meddling. Three people, of every ten in health care, are shuffling papers generated primarily because of government requirements. We are paying their salaries too. We used to have the best health care in the world (hey, where do the dictators go when they hurt…?), and we still do – but only because the rest of the world is a little farther down the road to socialized medicine. Our care today is arguably not as good as it used to be. Now here is the important part: your FEELINGS are not enough to fix the system; you have to vote intelligently. If we continue along the lines we have lately established, it is a safe bet that a lot more of us will be waiting for health care and hurting.
Again you are the one not paying attention.. More uneducated banter.. Sounds like a broken GOP record.. You said it yourself, “Again, you are not paying attention. Medical care is degrading because of government intervention and meddling.” It seems to me that it is the GOP that’s doing all the meddling.. The Democrats are doing just fine with it.. Obamacare a republican idea that they don’t want, since the democrat’s wants it.. Again you cant even make sense out of your own beliefs back talking yourself.. Again ignorance is bliss…
For the record i pay over 400 a month for my health insurance..
That’s a lot, though less expensive than premiums that are required of people who have pre-existing conditions.
My own premiums are quite a bit lower, because my husband is retired military (Vietnam). Around $18/month.
What a tard its the republican party doing the mess
I do pay for my health insurance i pay over 400 a month for it and i still cant get the help needed.. I had an appointment seems like there was a no show and they squeezed me in this morning, and a specialist was called from the spine clinic in Scarborough and the earliest they can take me is in May.. We are trying to find other options.. And If you could read you would not of said what you did.. I have been waiting for over a year that’s 12 months plus to see a specialist.. That’s what I am complaining about.. I also have a grapefruit sized lump of intestine that’s pushing its way through my abdominal wall.. It is reddish purple and I have started urinating blood and passing it in my stool.. Is it wrong for me to expect healthcare professionals to help me with a fix for this? Your a cold hearted sob to say the things you said.. Furthermore if you werent wearing your blinders you would see it is the republicans that are doing the mess to start with.. Right in line with ALEC and Grover Norquist wishes.. And you cant see it.. Your uneducated banter only shows how uneducated you really are.. I feel sorry for people like you, going through life as ignorant as you are.. I guess ignorance really is bliss.. On another note, if you had any intelligence and knew anything of disc herniation’ s you would know that the pain you feel is the narrowing of the nerve root, caused by the disc itself pushing against the nerve. The PCP I am seeing feels that I am facing permanent paralysis if I don’t get this repaired.. I am showing signs of nerve damage.. And the hernia he is worried it will burst this could potentially kill me.. So I guess that my angst to get seen by specialist’s is unfounded by your reasoning.. I wish you heart less sob’s would think or at least educate your self before speaking like that and showing everyone how ignorant you really are…
You know the drill. If the grass is greener there…….
You sound like a deadbeat, please go to Canada
Flatlander = Troll.
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Thanks to Maine care and those that abuse it to the Exterme?
Perhaps the hospital can look at adding a nursing home to generate revenue and add jobs. The Nursing Home is Calais is going to close so that is something to consider for revenue generation. Maybe adding a Cardiac Rehab Program/ Community Fitness Center – or is this there already ?Something those in the community could also benefit from and bring in additional income.
I understand the problem with Maine care and reimbursement but a lot of money has been spent in the past on traveling nurses . In fact I know of 2 nurses who graduated last May who are from this area, and were not hired and I understand the ER is staffed with travelers. One of the reasons the union was formed was because of travelers and others being paid more and getting the benefit of lodging. How about scraping off the cream on top, instead of letting housekeeping and maintenance workers go. DECH is well known for not taking care of their local employees and doing all they can to employ and assist the travelers and ones “from away”. There are a good many nurses in this area who are not working at DECH for a variety of reasons, was there anything done to try and keep those nurses and other employees here instead of traveling elsewhere? Look how many local Dr’s have been alienated and others brought in at a bigger rate of pay. The slogan has been Buy Local, Shop Local, how about DECH hiring Local and hiring the young people who choose to stay here and work instead of going out of state.
I would like a follow up article delineating the hospital’s deficit – exactly how much is due to lack of state reimbursement? The discussion is getting side tracked. Take a look at management’s ability to effectively manage the hospital. It seems there is very little substantive action or forward thinking taking place. Jones’ ideas and “financial turnaround strategies” pop up like balloons and loose their hot air quickly. Perhaps well intentioned, but nonetheless ineffectual. The community deserves better.