Erlanger Health System is more than $2 million deeper in the hole than it was a month ago, members of its board of trustees were told Monday.
January operating expenses totaled $45.8 million – far more than the $43.6 million collected in revenues, administrators acknowledged.
The consequence, they said: Erlanger’s shortfall for the year has climbed to a whopping $12,451,691.
However, administrators reassured members of the board’s Finance Committee, detailed financial analyses indicates significant improvement in areas such as employee salaries and overtime pay.
For example, despite the severance packages handed out to terminated workers, they noted, January salaries came in under budget.
And while the amount of overtime employees earned exceeded the projected total outlay, “we are beginning to see some improvement,” committee members were told.
Other factors are also expected to improve as time goes on, officials said. For example, the amount of Erlanger money going to cover expenses at Hutcheson in North Georgia will diminish as that hospital gradually gets back on its financial feet.
In-house, numerous strategies are being implemented aimed at improving Erlanger’s cash flow, administrators said, including retraining both employees in both admissions and billing to make sure that every patient provides the hospital with detailed financial information to make it easier to pay for the services they receive.
“It’s crucial that we do a good job (when incoming patients are interviewed during the intake procedure) . . . verifying insurance coverage,” according to Frank Steiner, the new director of Patient Financial Services.
It’s equally important, he noted, that when patients are discharged the services they received are properly coded so that reimbursement from their insurance companies will arrive without unnecessary delays.
Usually, he told the committee, when an insurer refuses to cover services already provided the reasons given are “clinical in nature.”