Monthly Column: Next CEO at EARH hired, new state budget consists of both positives and negatives

The exciting news is that your District has settled on a new Chief Executive Officer to take

over from retiring CEO Gary Bostrom. The new CEO is Mr. Corey Fedie. He comes to us from the Kit Carson County Health Service District in Burlington, Colorado, which, like us, is a Critical Access Hospital with a 24/7 Emergency Department.

Corey was the finalist in what was a grueling selection process, for we were fortunate enough to have several highly qualified applicants. Corey will formally begin his duties on June 10th, giving him a three-week overlap with Gary so as to effect a smooth transition.

Gary has been a very popular administrator, and we are pleased that he is not leaving us altogether: rather, he will remain as our Chief Financial Officer, working on a part-time basis from his family home in Montana—so never more than a telephone call away for any needed information or advice. Thus, we retain a skilled financial officer well familiar with our facility and with our financial systems.

I’m not going to say a lot here about Corey, beyond that we are all pleased and looking forward to working with him, because he deserves a full-length article, which I daresay he will get here in the near future. I will, however, note that he has over 16 years of senior-management experience in the healthcare field, a Masters degree in Business Administration, and is recognized by the American Hospital Association as a Certified Healthcare Facility Manager.

In other news, the state legislature has settled on a budget for the 2019 - 2021 biennium, and there is a lot of news there—some great and some not so great—for the healthcare profession in general and your District in particular. Some of the good news is that a lot of money is going to pumped into funding major improvements in behavioral-health care; that is an area that has had huge unmet needs for far too long now, and it is good to see it finally being addressed head on. Also, there will be at least a small increase in funding for the 13 WRHAP Hospital Districts, of which we are one. The legislature has also voted to give Washingtonians the option to purchase lower-costing health insurance coverage on the Health Benefit

Exchange (the individual market); the details of the enactment are somewhat complex, and its full significance and impact remain to be seen.

Regrettably, the legislature also passed an act regarding break time for nurses; the effect of that law on the finances of small hospitals is expected to be quite harmful. While Crirical Access Hospitals like us are exempted from its effect till July 1st of 2021 (it takes effect for all other hospitals on January 1st, 2020), that only postpones the damage (unless something can be done in the next session toward ameliorating the law’s effect on small hospitals). There is a lot more new law, too much to note here, but as always, we win some and we lose some.