Days in accounts receivable
As a Board member, each of us were sworn in and promised to meet fiduciary responsibilities to the hospital. One of those responsibilities involves ensuring that bills are collected and paid. Days in accounts receivables is one of the measurements used to assess this responsibility. It is an area that directly affects the financial security of the hospital. Again, Mr. Freiberger and Mr. Reisert need to be held accountable if this problem is not addressed and fixed by the Board they appointed.
The goal set by the CEO and his administration was for the "days in accounts recievable" not to exceed 70 days. We never once in 2005 met this goal. I would repeatedly question why the number was trending up rather than down. The prior year (2004), the average was 79.7 and by November 2005, this had risen to 85.6 days.
Again the CEO and CFO were tired of the monthly questioning without having an adequate answer. The financial department continued to spend more and more money trying to fix the problem and continued to fall further behind. There were always excuses about indigent care, more self-paying patients etc., but the bottom line remained. We were not meeting the stated goals. Other hospitals seem to be meeting the goal. Why can’t we?
At the end of 2004, the CEO and CFO entered the hospital into plans to spend in excess of $100,000 related to software and a company that was supposed to help fix this problem. This contract in its totality was in excess of the limit that the CEO could approve without board consent. But the contract was split into parts and it appeared to have been hidden in routine financials and was brought to my attention by a concerned employee placing the information in my mailbox. This employee knew that the administration continued to throw money at a problem that was not being fixed and they did not want it to go unnoticed. The employees are wonderful people and they care what happens.
Now that a physician is no longer on the board, problems like these will likely revert to the days when the CEO and his administration could secretly do things without board approval or even their knowledge.
Accountability is the issue!!
Hope you're listening Mr. Freiberger, Mr. Reisert and Mr. Hanson.
The goal set by the CEO and his administration was for the "days in accounts recievable" not to exceed 70 days. We never once in 2005 met this goal. I would repeatedly question why the number was trending up rather than down. The prior year (2004), the average was 79.7 and by November 2005, this had risen to 85.6 days.
Again the CEO and CFO were tired of the monthly questioning without having an adequate answer. The financial department continued to spend more and more money trying to fix the problem and continued to fall further behind. There were always excuses about indigent care, more self-paying patients etc., but the bottom line remained. We were not meeting the stated goals. Other hospitals seem to be meeting the goal. Why can’t we?
At the end of 2004, the CEO and CFO entered the hospital into plans to spend in excess of $100,000 related to software and a company that was supposed to help fix this problem. This contract in its totality was in excess of the limit that the CEO could approve without board consent. But the contract was split into parts and it appeared to have been hidden in routine financials and was brought to my attention by a concerned employee placing the information in my mailbox. This employee knew that the administration continued to throw money at a problem that was not being fixed and they did not want it to go unnoticed. The employees are wonderful people and they care what happens.
Now that a physician is no longer on the board, problems like these will likely revert to the days when the CEO and his administration could secretly do things without board approval or even their knowledge.
Accountability is the issue!!
Hope you're listening Mr. Freiberger, Mr. Reisert and Mr. Hanson.
posted by Anonymous at 5:50 AM
1 Comments:
It makes one wonder if some of the same problems that are occuring at FMHHS today are similar to the ones that caused Mr. Hanson to lose his last CEO postion at a hospital in the Chicago area.
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