Alva Review-Courier -

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority's website defines the UPL program this way: “The Upper Payment Limit (UPL) program will oversee an integrated supplemental payment system that enhances functionality, care management, decreases return to acute care days (RTA), day-to-day efficiency and economic competitiveness of the long term care industry. “

The bottom line is that both the Alva Hospital Authority and the participating nursing homes will receive significantly better reimbursement.

Chairman Jason Gaisford said, “We've been talking about this forever, but it is finally here. The agenda items will give authorization to myself, Kandice and Kevin O'Brien to enter into agreements with the Oklahoma Healthcare Medicaid UPL Nursing Home Program. You, as a board, will still vote on every agreement we bring to you. We hope we might work with about nine nursing homes.

“The UPL program may last forever, or it may last for only a few years. They have to go through a trust like ours; it can't be just a private hospital, it can't be a state hospital or a federal hospital. It has to be a trust or municipality like we are.

“It's a great opportunity for us as well as financially. Rick Cunningham (attorney) and I talked about this. He looked over our trust and our city agreements, and he says we are good to go.”

At the Tuesday evening meeting, the board named and approved the following participants: Emerald Healthcare, LLC; Beadles Nursing Home; Bedlam Properties; and Lightning Creek Investment Group.

Gaisford said they are hoping for an April 1 start date.

CEO's Report

Hospital CEO Kandice Allen told the Alva Hospital Authority that the facility has been swamped with admissions in early February and praised the staff for keeping up while continuing to smile. She said a lot of overtime hours were accumulated, but on the good side, she had received a lot of positive comments along with thank-you notes in regards to great care and customer service provided by the staff. The SMC Downtown Clinic had 76 patients in one day.

Allen said the cooperative agreement in which St. Anthony Hospital promises to always have open beds for SMC patients is working well. She said, “One of our swing patients that came back from St. Anthony had nothing but praise for the care she received while there.”

New hires at the Medical Center includes Robin Kilmer in Hospital Environmental Services, Marah Baldwin to the Homestead Dietary Staff and David Ward, Convalescent Home Nursing.

Allen told of the arrangement to have a podiatrist offer a clinic twice a month in Dr. Kinize's clinic on Thursdays. Dr. Labrejia, a foot and ankle surgeon, also has an office located in Enid. Appointments are made by calling 580-297-5184.

Financials

The end of January operating cash balance has increased to $361,245. This represents 10 days of operating expenses not including depreciation.

Hospital accounts receivable is $3,105,711, a decrease of $80,836 during January. The accounts payable balance is $828,176, which represents 50 days of operating expenses excluding the costs related to salaries, benefits and depreciation.

Looking at gross patient revenue for the month: the total was $2,002,300, a decrease of $12,207 from the prior month. The hospital increased by $2,101, the nursing home decreased by $7,820 and The Homestead decreased by $6,487. Total patient days for January were 120 compared to 106 in December. Total January office visits were 1,901 compared to 1,443 in December. Nursing home daily census was 53.7 in December and 52.7 in January.

Operating expenses excluding salaries, benefits and depreciation for January totaled $634,763, an increase of $207,794 compared to the prior month. Salaries and wages for January totaled $491,342, which was a decrease of $32,393 compared to the prior month. Net operating loss for January was $204,775. Net loss was $33,167.

Courtesy staff credentials were renewed for the following: Salman Zubair, MD, Telemed; Gregory Blair, MD, Telemed; Robert Rader, MD, Telemed; Gregory McKinnis, MD, Telemed; and Zahid Cheema, Telemed.