6:00: Morning News

Admissions up but CAMC continues to lose money

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A recent surge in admissions continued at Charleston Area Medical Center in September but the operation is still losing money, members of the CAMC Board of Trustees were told at a meeting in Charleston Wednesday.

The hospital system, which employees 7,000 people and includes CAMC General, CAMC Memorial, CAMC Women and Children’s, CAMC Teays Valley and CAMC Cancer Center recorded a $4.2 million loss last month mainly because it continues to treat more patients that are covered by discounted payers Medicaid and Medicare and fewer patients covered by private insurance carriers.

CAMC President and CEO Dave Ramsey.

“We’ve lost of lot of employment in the state that is insured with private insurance or commercial insurance and it’s all been replaced with Medicaid or Medicare and they pay below costs,” CAMC President and CEO Dave Ramsey said. “It’s in an era when drug costs are going up, device costs are going up and technology costs are going up.”

Ramsey reminded the board the hospital has experienced a five percent drop in its commercial payer mix in the last three years that has resulted in a $60 million loss.

“We aren’t losing them (patients covered with private insurance) to anyone–they just aren’t there,” Ramsey told the board. “The economic environment of southern West Virginia has very much impacted our current situation.”

CAMC announced back in July plans to eliminate 300 jobs by the end of the calendar year. Ramsey said Wednesday they are on track to meet that number.

“We did have a reduction-in-force of 40 employees and we have no further layoffs planned at this point and time but we’re continuing to reduce the workforce through attrition,” Ramsey said.

After the meeting, Ramsey told reporters, despite rumors, CAMC is not being sold.

“We’re not talking to anybody about selling to anybody,” he said. “We hear the same rumors. It’s like trying to kill a snake. We can’t seem to stop those but we’re having no conversations with any other organization about selling.”

Admissions are up by 1,100 so far this budget year. Ramsey said most of the increase has happened since mid-summer.

“We are having to rethink what the overall revenue looks like for the organization (heading into the new budget year),” he said.

CAMC Chief Financial Officer Jeff Sandene told the board the new trend is causing them to re-project next year’s budget. The proposed budget will be up for approval at the board’s November meeting.

Ramsey said most of the increase seems to be coming in the areas of Medicaid patients.

“We just have a lot of demand with Medicaid expansion. Almost 40 percent of residents are covered with with Medicaid and 20 percent with Medicare plus we have more demand for the services from the outlying areas,” Ramsey said. “We’re hopeful we’ll begin to see an increase in the number of people with private or commercial insurance.”

The board was also updated on progress that’s being made in the area of spending reductions.

“It’s just a matter of turning over every rock. We’re a big organization and every dollar counts. So we’re trying to look for every possible way to reduce our cost of operation,” Ramsey said.

Questions also remain about the future of the Affordable Care Act but Ramsey said CAMC isn’t participating in the guessing game.

“We’re really not taking that into account. If indeed something happens in a negative fashion with the Affordable Care Act then we’ll just have to take that all into account,” he said.

CAMC is the state’s third largest private employer.





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