l. Executive Summary
ll. Call to Order
lll. Regular and Consent Agenda
lV. Reports
V. Presentations/Discussion/Action Items (Jerry Ehn, COO)
The last day of the Lonsdale Clinic was November 17th. The Primary Care patients have been moved to the Lakeville clinic, the Women’s Health and Addiction Medicine patients have been moved to the Northfield Clinic. The equipment has been either taken by providers, brought to the hospital central supply area or sold.
The building has been appraised at just over 2 million dollars. There have been four interested parties and an offer for the building. The hospital does not owe anything on the building.
VI. Executive and Committee Reports
A. CEO Report (Steve Underdahl, President and CEO)
It is not yet decided what will happen with the vacated Long Term Care space in the hospital. They are working on a process for how to make this decision. It may end up being used for more than one thing.
Strategic partnerships are being developed with other hospitals– working on how hospitals can network and work together.
The hospital continues to work on their Digital Service Plan. Many, if not most people start their journey with the Northfield Hospital digitally. Many patient services use digital technology.
There was a long discussion about how the hospital is struggling with the current payer mix.
There are an increasing number of patients using government (Medicare, Medicaid) insurance vs. private insurance because the population is aging. This creates a problem for the hospital (and all similar hospitals) because the government only reimburses about half of what the services cost.
Hospitals need to keep educating the public about what is driving the financial pressures for healthcare providers.
B. Financial Report (Eric Guth, CFO)
In October, patient volumes were up at the hospital and at the Urgent Care. However, the hospital experienced a $483,000 operating loss. This was because of the issues noted above in the CEO report, as well as staff health insurance claims which were up, and some lingering expenses due to the closure of the Lonsdale Clinic and the Long Term Care Center.
The hospital has a 10.2 million dollar operating loss so far this year.
Normally, the hospital does better financially in the 4th quarter because many people have met their insurance deductibles and have elective surgeries and procedures.
It was brought to the board’s attention that Medicare Advantage plans are really being pushed to the public right now and these plans pay providers even less than Medicare alone. They also might restrict what providers patients can see and what procedures will be covered. One doctor on the board said that it can sometimes take days for a recommended procedure to be approved by some Medicare Advantage plans and sometimes they are turned down. Medicare Advantage plans are different from Medicare supplement plans which do not have the same issues, but can be more expensive. People need to be better educated about these plans.
VII. Announcements
The board will consist of the same people next year.
The 2024 Board Calendar is available online.
At this point in the meeting there was a break before the board met in a Closed Session to discuss “marketing activity related to the hospital’s competitive position with other health care providers that offer similar services.” All non board members were asked to leave.
Respectfully submitted by observer Anne Larson.
