(Host) Bennington’s Southwestern Vermont Medical Center will be allowed to raise its rates five percent in the coming fiscal year.
State officials say the approval is a sign the hospital is turning its finances around. But questions remain about the multimillion dollar losses the hospital revealed earlier this year.
VPR’s Susan Keese reports.
(Keese) The state finalized budgets for all of Vermont’s Hospitals this week. Rates will be going up at all 14.
But Commissioner Paulette Thabault says that in the case of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, the thumbs-up is a good sign.
In June the Bennington hospital was projecting year-end losses of 22 million dollars. The budget for the fiscal year beginning in October shows the hospital ending with a surplus.
Commissioner Thabault:
(Thabault) "What we’re seeing is very positive. They’re definitely making some progress in getting their financial matters back in the right direction and we think that the 5 percent rate increases will help them and is in line with what the other hospitals in Vermont requested for rate increases, just around the usual expected increases in cost."
(Keese) Dr. Mark Novotny, the Bennington hospital’s interim CEO, says things are looking much better than last June. The hospital has laid off workers. It’s instituted a system of reporting that allows it to gauge how many patients are actually being treated and adjust projected revenues accordingly.
(Novotny) "The hospital’s reorganized a lot of services and we’ve been able to reduce the financial losses. Each month we’ve had performances that were much better than the first half of the year."
(Keese) The hospital and its parent company, Southwestern Vermont Health Care, are now projecting operating losses of around 8 million for the fiscal year now ending. Another $12 million dollars that had been counted in the grim projections last June, are no longer considered operating losses.
Novotny stepped in as chief executive last March, after the departure of long-time CEO Harvey Yorke. Yorke was reportedly asked to leave after the financial problems were presented to the board of directors.
Now Yorke is suing the hospital, the state of Vermont and Commissioner Thabault. In his suit, he claims that actions Thabault’s agency and the hospital took have kept him from receiving payments from a severance package of more than three hundred thirty thousand dollars annually.
Commissioner Thabault wouldn’t comment on the case.
(Thabault) "I do want to say that we are continuing to look at the past performances and to look into what some of the circumstances are around the hospital landing in a situation where they are facing such a huge deficit. That is still under investigation, the department is looking into that."
(Keese) Dr. Novotny says the hospital’s inquiries and audit show no signs of intentional wrongdoing and he says the hospital’s quality of care has never been in jeopardy.
For VPR News, I’m Susan Keese.