Munroe's message to former patients who still owe money: Pay up
Published: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 at 5:24 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 at 5:24 p.m.
Marion County Hospital District trustees voted Monday to step up pressure on former Munroe Regional Medical Center patients who still owe the hospital money — a group that includes about 600 Munroe employees who owe about $600,000.
The trustees are leasing the 421-bed hospital to Tennessee-based Community Health Systems. But outstanding patient debt totaling more $43 million that was accrued before the lease was finalized in April belongs to the trustees.
Jon Kurtz, trustee executive director, said during the Monday public meeting that unbeknownst to trustees and the hospital's governing board at the time, the hospital about six years ago became lenient when it came to collecting owed money.
"I think this is the time (the trustees) take collections to a further level," he said. "You have to collect money that's owed to you."
Trustee attorney Jon Dean told trustees that Munroe had not pursued new litigation to collect overdue money during the past six years.
"I was surprised," Dean told the Star-Banner during a break in the meeting.
About a quarter of the unpaid money is more than 241 days overdue. About $600,000 is owed by Munroe employees, according to a report submitted Monday by CHS to the trustees.
Kurtz said collection agencies now hired to help recover the money are being instructed to be "much more aggressive." The trustees also voted to treat Munroe employees owing money the same as anyone else when it came to collections.
Kurtz told the trustees that in the past, Munroe employees had never been aggressively pursued to pay for medical care.
Louise Tracey was one of the CHS officials who submitted the report. She told the trustees that prior to the lease, the hospital could have negotiated employee payroll deductions to resolve debts. But that option is no longer possible, pursuant to the lease terms.
Gail Burke, also of CHS, estimates that of the $43 million, about $9 million will be collected.
One part of the new approach is having collection companies identify debts ranging between about $1,000 and $5,000 by former patients with credit scores of about 600 or more. Kurtz told the trustees that group would be most likely to pay.
Those cases will be handed over to Dean and another lawyer, who will write the former patients letters warning that they should pay. If they don't pay, the two lawyers will pursue a court order that they pay what they owe. Dean said the goal is to oversee about 100 cases and report the effectiveness to the trustees.
Marion County Hospital District trustees are appointed by the County Commission. The trustees voted to lease Munroe after county residents voted down a 2012 hospital tax referendum, something hospital officials said they needed to keep the hospital financially viable.
Trustee consultant Ed Dean said trustees have an obligation to step up pressure to collect the owed money.
Before the lease, the hospital was operated by Munroe Regional Health System Inc., which was overseen by a 13-member board. Some of the board members also were district trustees.
Dean said while Munroe Regional Health Systems was operating the hospital, patient debt was the operator's problem. But now that the hospital is being leased to for-profit CHS, Dean said the unpaid money from the past is owed to the public.
In related issues:
• Jon Dean reported to trustees that former Munroe president and CEO Steve Purves' lawyer asked to meet to discuss a dispute over Purves' nearly $929,000 severance package.
Trustees stopped payments to Purves, who they say quit too early in the CHS lease process to be eligible for the money. Trustees halted payments by Munroe human resources employees when they learned they had OK'd biweekly payments requested by Purves. But by the time trustees learned of the payments earlier this year, about $200,000 had already been paid out. Purves is currently a president and CEO of a hospital group in Arizona.
• Jon Dean reported to trustees that Munroe estimates it owes $3.6 million in Medicaid reimbursements. This is part of a federal claim that Florida hospitals were overpaid for years through a program to help cover the costs of caring for the uninsured poor.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says Medicaid overpaid Florida safety net hospitals $267 million during an eight-year period through the Medicaid Low Income Pool. The federal government wants all of the money repaid in one year.
Dean predicts that Florida hospitals will sue over the federal claim, citing that individual hospitals were not audited, but rather that the claim for money was based on how much Medicaid all the hospitals received. Dean predicts that Munroe would pass the $3.6 million bill over to the trustees because the debt was incurred before the beginning of the CHS lease.
Contact Fred Hiers at 867-4157 or firstname.lastname@example.org.