Drop in patient visits hits hospital’s revenue

Whitman Hospital is experiencing a year-long low in patient visits, in the midst of the changing national health care regulations and a poor economy.

In-patient stays at the hospital have been down by 25 percent overall since January, said CEO David Womack.

Womack said the decrease is largely in the number of in-patients covered by commercial insurance. He believes this is a direct result of the nation’s struggling economy.

“We have an overall drop in patient load all year, but it’s particularly bad for commercial insurance,” he said.

Visits from patients covered by Medicare and Medicaid continue to be strong, he said. Seventy percent of all patients at Whitman Hospital are on Medicare, while roughly 25 percent are covered by commercial insurance.

Of all patients, the hospital earns the most from those on commercial insurance. With those visits down, Womack said the hospital is now in the red for the year.

The hospital’s net operating income is $503,000 in the red as of Aug. 31 of this year. Last year’s net operating income as of Aug. 31, 2009 was $1,052,000 in the black. Net operating income is the income or loss from operations.

“Right now through this year, we are losing money. We are in the red,” Womack said.

Womack said the hospital is double-checking purchases, watching staff hours and trying to remain fiscally conservative.

Visits for September have risen to the number the hospital saw September of last year. Womack said if visits continue to match the numbers from last year, the hospital will break even by the end of the year.

The major national health bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed March 23. The bill will be enacted through phases over the next few years with the first phase implemented last Thursday.

Components of this phase include the following; companies can’t drop policyholders (with the exception of fraud), dependents are permitted to remain on their parent’s insurance plan until their 26th birthday, insurers are prohibited from excluding pre-existing medical conditions for children under the age of 19 and co-pays and deductibles for certain preventive care items are reduced or eliminated.

In regard to preventive care, Womack said the hospital is already encouraging patients eligible for those reductions to get that care. Whether on commercial insurance or Medicare (which will enact those preventive care regulations next January), patients of a certain age can receive those services.

The national health care bill will be partially funded on money cut from the Medicare budget. Reimbursements to hospitals for Medicare patients are dropping, according to a spokesman from the office of U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. This too will have an impact on Whitman Hospital because the majority of its patients are on Medicare.