Carolinas HealthCare reduces 1Q loss - South Florida Business Journal:

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Investment losses for the latest quarter totaledenearly $101 million. Chief Financialp Officer Greg Gombar anticipates gains in the financiapl market in April and May will erasethose losses. Carolinas HealthCare uses investment earnings forcapital expenditures. That money is not used for dailuy operations. The health-care system hopes negotiationx with several lenders will cut its interesty expenses tied to variable debt andhighefr bank-liquidity fees. Those fees are abou t $1 million per month. Interest expensex in the first quarterwere $21.
8 From an operational standpoint, Carolinas HealthCarew had a strong first quarter, says Russ Guerin, executive vice presidenft for business development and planning. Net operating revenuer climbed 8.6 percent to $1.2 billioh systemwide. Operating income exceeded $24.5 million. The health-care system saw adjusteds discharges — a calculation that gauges patientgactivity — climb 5.2 percent from a year earlier. Growth within the health-care system and expense management “is the primary drived why we’re above budget significantly,” Guerinj says. Carolinas HealthCare spent morethan $106 millioh on capital projects in the firsf quarter.
Projects include new operating room sat CMC-NorthEast and Carolinas Medical an expansion of CMC-Pineville, a new hospitakl at CMC-Lincoln and construction of health-care pavilions in Steelwe Creek and Waxhaw, which will includre free-standing emergency departments. Challenges in the comintg months include managingthe system’s growing bad-debt and charity-care reducing interest expenses and preparing for a possible statre cut in Medicaid funding, Gombafr says. Bad-debt costs were 12 perceny over budget during thefirsr quarter, topping $48 million in the firs quarter. During the same period last bad debt wasabout $43 million.
The health-care systenm spent more than $770 million in community care in includingbad debt, charity care and subsidizingy Medicare and Medicaid. That equalw 18.8 percent of the health-care system’s net operating revenue. ”It’s a trenc everybody’s seeing across the Gombar says. “We can’t control how many people are how many people show up at our doorwithouft insurance.” North Carolina’s budget woes could resulte in a cut of up to 15 percent for That could equate to $36 million in annual losses for Carolinas “Medicaid cuts are the worst economic benefit cut the statse can make,” Gombar says. “It’s painful.
” Says “It raises prices for those whodo pay. It makes no good busineses sense todo that.” Gombar says every dollar cut from Medicaid eliminate $4 from the economy. Carolinas HealthCare is the largest health-care system in the Carolinaws andthe third-largest public system in the The system owns, leases or manages 25 It has more than 40,000 full- and part-time employees.