Allen County Regional Hospital continues to move closer to a lease under Saint Luke’s Health System of Kansas City.
Allen County Regional Hospital continues to move closer to a lease under Saint Luke’s Health System of Kansas City.
Officials with Saint Luke’s have started interviewing candidates for a new administrator to oversee ACRH through the transition and beyond.
Larry Peterson, chief financial officer and interim CEO, said the goal is to hire an administrator by mid-February, but that person likely would train under Saint Luke’s in the Kansas City area for a few months.
Saint Luke’s is expected to take over June 1; the current management contract with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) expires June 30.
However, Saint Luke’s likely will take over ACRH’s home health and hospice unit before that, on April 27. The home health and hospice unit has been in a transitory state for a couple of years, after the retirements of most of the staff. A series of temporary, out-of-state directors have worked to rebuild the department, and a director from the Chicago area recently signed a 12-week contract specifically to lead the transition to Saint Luke’s.
In the meantime, Saint Luke’s staff continue to work behind the scenes on issues like internet technology, information systems and contract negotiations with the various vendors who provide services to ACRH. Saint Luke’s is installing a new fiber optic internet line at ACRH to connect to its system.
It has taken time to facilitate conversations between Allen County, Saint Luke’s and HCA officials, Peterson said.
“It seems like everybody’s kind of cleared the hurdle and is talking to each other now,” he said. “It seems like things are starting to move.”
One issue was convincing payroll vendors to extend a contract that would allow ACRH to continue to use their systems until the transition was completed. The vendors agreed to extend the contract, but at a much higher cost.
“They’re being ridiculous price-wise, but at least we’ve got a system,” Peterson said.
TERRY SPARKS, board of trustees member, asked Peterson for an update about a separate contract dispute. HCA negotiated contracts with health insurance companies, but two of those contracts apparently lacked proper documents that would cover rural health clinics.
Such clinics receive a special reimbursement rate above the standard Medicare and Medicaid rates.
Sparks was concerned that ACRH’s clinics were not being paid by two health insurance providers, UnitedHealth and Aetna.
“I don’t know how you can get paid if you don’t have a contract,” Sparks said. “At some point, this has got to be a priority.”
Peterson said HCA is working to resolve the situation and the clinics have continued to receive payments at the rural health clinic rate.
