Veterans Memorial Hospital Administrator Mike Myers advises Board of Trustees on Medicaid expansion option

by Brianne Eilers

Veterans  Memorial Hospital (VMH) began the year 2013 on a positive note with a net income of $74,689, compared to beginning 2012 with a net income of $26,776. VMH Administrator Mike Myers noted that the areas of acute patient days, surgeries, emergency room and physical therapy were all up, and expenses were down, which helped contribute to a good bottom line.
Year-to-date, the hospital is showing a net income of $268,447, which translates to a three-percent operating margin. The hospital also has $3.2 million in cash reserves, and days in accounts receivable are at 67.2.
Myers, along with other members of the Iowa Hospital Association (IHA) Executive Committee, met with Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to discuss the State of Iowa accepting the Medicaid expansion option. Myers explained that the Governor would rather support the IowaCare program.
Myers further explained that IowaCare patients are directed to seek medical care at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines or go to Iowa City to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in order to have costs covered under IowaCare. Treatment at other facilities may not be covered by the program.
“What ends up happening is people like us (VMH) subsidize those patients here, with bad debt and charity care, we don’t get reimbursed,” he said. Myers pointed out that when patients are encouraged to seek healthcare at facilities that are away from the patient's home, it can be hard to establish a relationship with a healthcare provider or physician, as patients who see a local healthcare provider on a regular basis can do. Myers also said that IowaCare will need to get a waiver, but he was not sure that waiver could be obtained.
Myers cited a few potential issues with using IowaCare as opposed to Medicaid expansion. According to Myers, IowaCare does not cover mental health issues and it is lacking in the number of people covered. He further explained that Governor Branstad felt that Federal funding won’t be there for the Medicaid expansion.
Later this month, Myers will be taking part in a group trip to Washington D.C. to meet with United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to discuss Medicaid expansion in Iowa and other issues. The IHA is in support of the expansion because it will allow for those who have no health insurance to get coverage, and the Federal government will pay 100% of the cost for three years, then 90% of the cost after that.
Myers also touched on the issue of sequestration in the Federal government. “We have already had that factored in (to the hospital’s budget),” he said. He expected to see the two-percent cut becoming effective around April 1. The hospital's Board of Trustees finalized the next year’s operating budget for VMH, with a projected two percent operating margin. “We’ve tried to keep increases down to not create additional burdens, but have enough to cover a two percent margin,” he explained.
Despite the somewhat grim news that has been coming politically from the healthcare front, VMH has been down in numbers on its charity care and bad debt cases.