Hospital district’s CEO predicts positive bottomline for 2014

On paper, CEO/CFO Gary Bostrom expects Adams County Public Hospital District No. 2 to end 2014 with a positive bottom line, albeit a conservative estimate.

When commissioners met in a special session on Tuesday, they unanimously approved a 2014 budget that projects a $1,522 positive bottom line at the end of next year.

Total operating revenue for 2014 is estimated at $4,628,923. Coupled with $658,516 in non-operating revenue, including $583,000 in property tax support, Bostrom predicts the district will come out ahead of the estimated expenses of $5,285,917.

How the district performed compared to its 2013 budget won’t be known until sometime next year. Commissioners had approved a 2013 budget that predicted a $2,197 positive bottom line. In 2012, the district lost $775,672.

Bostrom expects the district to achieve a positive finish in 2014 based on a series of budget assumptions. With the return of Valerie Eckley, MD in August of this year, Bostrom believes 2014 clinic visits will increase by 25 percent. He also expects emergency room visits to increase by three percent.

The budget also calls for increases in fees for the various services provided by the district. Users can expect a six percent overall increase in fees. Clinic fees will rise three percent.

Cautiously optimistic, Bostrom has also budgeted to hire a full time physician in 2014. He will add another full time employee to the business office and bring in another half time employee in physical therapy to attend to an increase in patient use.

In general, the budget calls for an across the board salary increase of less than 2.5 percent.

The district is bracing for major increase in health insurance premiums. As a participant in an insurance trust with other hospitals in the state, the district has enjoyed subsidized premiums in previous years. This year the trust’s members elected to balance the burden of health insurance costs among all of its members. It will offset a portion of the local district’s increased insurance premiums.

Bostrom said the increase is staggering even with a subsidy from the insurance trust. Health insurance coverage will increase by $225 per month per employee. The trust will cover 20 percent of the increase, leaving the district to absorb $180 per employee, per month. In the end, the cost of employee benefits is rising 39.84 percent.

In the matter of patient volumes, Bostrom is estimating patient days to mirror the current year’s estimates. Acute care and swing bed patient days in 2012 were 351. Based on the current trends, 2013 patient days will be 216. Bostrom expects 269 patient days in 2014, which is an average daily census of 0.7.

Estimated emergency room visits for this year is 1,040. Bostrom predicts 2014 numbers will reach 1,195.

Clinic visits are expected to rise 25 percent to 2,571 in 2014. The current year is trending toward 2,057 clinic visits.

Bostrom also predicts a notable increase in laboratory statistics. The 2013 pace is 8,507 billable tests. Next year he estimates the lab will process 10,633 billable tests.

Physical therapy is expected to increase volumes as well, from 4,623 treatments in 2013 to 5,548 in 2014.