Medical school seeing red

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1999 | 1:39 a.m.

"We are thinking that by the end of the fiscal year, we'll be looking at about a $200,000 deficit, assuming everything goes in the right direction," said Tom Anderes, vice chancellor for finance for the University and Community College System of Nevada.

In early 1998, the school borrowed $1.5 million from the University of Nevada, Reno, which runs the medical school. By the end of the 1999 calendar year, Anderes said, the medical school expects to pay back UNR and could begin showing a profit.

Regents are expected to be briefed on medical school business Thursday during a meeting at UN-Las Vegas.

"The good news is that, from here on out, revenues are expected to exceed expenses. We've come from a bad situation to an improved one," said regents chairwoman Jill Derby.

Medical school administrators had cited an inefficient bill-collecting system and delays in getting new teaching physicians licensed to practice medicine in Nevada as two sources for the school's financial woes.

Medical fees for the school's clinics were not collected in some cases because administrators leased a new computer system that never worked.

Another problem was a delay in getting some teaching physicians properly licensed so they could become "productive members" of the school's revenue-generating practice plans, Anderes said.

Under this plan, the school's teaching physicians treat patients and make enough money to pay the bulk of their own salaries.

Medical school administrators feel improvements have been made in billing and licensing, Anderes said.

In some cases, however, less-productive teaching physicians will be asked to take pay cuts as part of the deficit-reduction plan.