UNION COUNTY — The Union Hospital District is hoping to break even by implementing $3 million in spending reductions over the next 90 days.
During a joint meeting of the Union Hospital District Board and Union County Council Thursday evening, district Chief Financial Officer Paul Newhouse presented the district’s plans to deal with the financial difficulties the district has experienced in recent years. The district is losing approximately $2 million to $3 million a year due to a combination of providing care to patients who are uninsured and reductions in reimbursements by Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance companies. Newhouse pointed out that the district has seen the percentage of patients who do not have insurance go from 12 percent in September to more than 16 percent in January.
To deal with this, Newhouse said the district is working to implement approximately $3 million in spending reductions. He said this will include renegotiating contractual agreements to get reduced costs for outside services; handling more services in-house instead of contracting them out; and greater efficiency. Newhouse said the district has already implemented approximately $700,000 worth of these reductions and hopes to have the rest implemented within the next 90 days.
Newhouse said the goal of the reductions is to get the district back to where it can break even. He said the district is also exploring options that can help it more from beyond breaking even to getting back in the black.
For more about the hospital district’s efforts to reduce costs see future editions of The Union Daily Times and online at www.uniondailytimes.com.
Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@civitasmedia.com.
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