UMC CFO: Sept. 11 added to debt of $9 million

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002 | 10:57 a.m.

The debt incurred by Clark County's University Medical Center for the fiscal year ending in July climbed to $9 million due to Southern Nevada's economic struggles, hospital officials said Tuesday.

Dennis Morris, the hospital's chief financial officer, said when the unemployment rate rose following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the hospital began treating more patients who had no health insurance.

"This fiscal year has been very challenging," Morris said. "The things that occurred had a definite impact on us economically."

Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, vice chairwoman of the hospital's board of trustees, agreed that the increasing number of unemployed patients partially contributed to the hospital's financial woes. She suggested the hospital's financial staff work more closely with the county's finance division.

"I don't know how we're going to flip this," Atkinson Gates said. "But if we continue down the path we're headed, we're headed for a collision. We're headed for a financial meltdown at the hospital."

Earlier in the meeting, board members rejected the idea of privatizing UMC. George Stevens, the county's finance director, said the county does not yet have to subsidize the hospital as it did in the early 1990s. Morris said the number of working poor -- patients with jobs but no health insurance or government assistance -- increased by 28 percent. Treating the uninsured without being reimbursed cost UMC about $7.1 million. UMC's beds were filled mostly with patients who had no ability to pay, forcing insured patients to seek treatment from other Southern Nevada hospitals.

Morris said UMC treats 50 percent of the valley's patients with no sources of of payment; it also takes about 60 percent of the county's Medicaid patients.

"UMC is a safety net provider," Morris said. "It's the hospital that meets the needs of people in the community that have no means to pay. Right now, those needs are tremendous."

To remedy the debt, hospital officials plan to lobby state legislators for "upper payment limit" reimbursement, which would allow UMC to receive more federal and state Medicaid reimbursements. The plan could bring in $4 million to $5 million more each year.

The hospital will also review hiring in non-clinical areas, look at its cost-containment policies and improve productivity through technology, Morris said.