Phase three numbers released

Last month, the Platte Valley Healthcare Project (PVHP) committee received the third phase of projected numbers from BKD, the accounting group that has been working with both the 501(c)(3) and the Corbett Medical Foundation to determine the feasibility and sustainability of a critical access hospital in the Platte Valley. Since receiving those numbers, they have been submitted to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) where they are currently undergoing analysis.

The 56-page document provided to PVHP by BKD has multiple projections that members of the non-profit group feel comfortable about. As has been stated at multiple public meetings held by the group, the intention of the critical access hospital is to incorporate a rural health clinic, a skilled nursing facility and a 24-hour emergency room. The facility, which will be approximately 43,000 square feet in size, is anticipated to begin construction in July 2020 and be completed in September 2021.

With construction completed near the end of 2021, it is projected that the critical access hospital will have a total of $2.2 million in net patient care service revenue. With 2022 being the first full year that the critical access hospital is anticipated to be in service, those projections increase to $9.1 million. That assumption is based on a projected total of $4.2 million in inpatient and outpatient revenue from Medicare, $1.6 million in inpatient and outpatient revenue from Medicaid and $3.8 million in revenue from private insurance.

With the $9.1 million being net revenue, the gross total is actually $9.6 million, but it is projected that there will be approximately half a million in uncollectible accounts.

The forecasted revenues increase in the following years, with $9.2 million in net patient care service revenue for 2023 and $9.5 million for 2024.

“We’re using the best numbers that we can come up with—the numbers that are actually coming into the clinic, the numbers that are actually being done at the care center—using those numbers,” said PVHP member Sonja Collamer.

Along with the projected revenues from patient services, it is also assumed that there will be a certain amount of fundraising from within the community. As was reported previously (see “PVHP presents projections” on page 1 of the Aug. 21 Saratoga Sun), the PVHP estimated approximately $50,000 in donations that would be used to subsidize the critical access hospital. According to Collamer, that number is a quarter of what has traditionally been raised by the Corbett Medical Foundation to support the clinic.

“We’ve been losing money on healthcare all along because that’s where the Corbett (Medical) Foundation has come in. Nobody, except maybe Dr. Lunt, was making a profit. They all depended on the Corbett Foundation to subsidize their operation, so that’s not a new concept,” Collamer said. “The fact of the matter of it is, probably the Corbett Foundation won’t have to raise quite as much money once we get this thing going.”

Also in the forecasted financial statement provided by BKD is the assumptions of employment. According to the statement, it is expected that there will be one physician and approximately five nurse practitioners employed full-time at the facility. According to PVHP Chairman Will Faust, those full-time employee assumptions take the first year into account, but could increase in the following years.

In the schedule of full-time equivalent employees found on page 46 of the document, it is forecasted that the critical access hospital will have approximately 66 full-time employees with a third of those being in nursing. The next largest section would be administration, with 12.5 full-time employees and followed by dietary, with 10.9 employees.

Collamer, Faust and Corbett Medical Foundation member Laura Bucholz are positive about the numbers. They don’t expect a large amount of the local population to cease visiting their preferred physicians in other towns due to the proximity of the critical access hospital. All three admitted that they understood patient loyalty to a provider plays a role in the assumptions.

“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” said Bucholz.

While the forecasted statement takes all of Carbon County into consideration, it’s focus is on the zip codes of eastern Carbon County; Saratoga, Encampment, Riverside, Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow and parts of Rock River. Additionally, the forecasted statement includes both inpatient discharges and outpatient visits to regional hospitals.

According to the statement, Memorial Hospital of Carbon County (MHCC) saw a total of 225 inpatient discharges in 2016 and 150 in 2017. In that same time period, MHCC had nearly 30,000 outpatient visits in 2016 and just over 21,000 in 2017.

“These are based off of real numbers that we see now. We’re not saying, if we build a new clinic, if we’re averaging 28 patients a day, we’re not magically going to go to 36. What we’re assuming is that volume that we’re seeing now will increase about about two percent a year,” said Faust.

Though the PVHP and the Corbett Medical Foundation are positive about the numbers they have seen, the final say will come from the USDA, who will inform PVHP whether or not they believe that a critical access hospital is feasible in the Platte Valley.