The Cook County North Shore Hospital board got to look at a mock-up of the potential dimensions of a care center room after the proposed renovation. (L-R) Tom Spence, Kay Olson, dsgw architect Rebecca Lewis, Justin Mueller. Board Member Sharon Bloomquist is in back. Additional public meetings will be scheduled to share information on the renovation with the public.
Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center Administrator Kimber Wraalstad told the hospital board that if the 2014 contract from Blue Cross Blue Shield would have been signed as presented, the hospital/care center would have received $575,000 less in payments than it would have in the past from the insurance provider.
“We negotiated that number down. It’s approaching $300,000, but it’s not $575,000,” Wraalstad told the board at its June 19, 2014 meeting.
Wraalstad said Blue Cross identified an issue of “cap at charge” for many facilities. “Essentially, Blue Cross found that facilities charge less than what Blue Cross would actually reimburse under the new methodology for certain services. This issue resulted in an even greater reduction in reimbursement than suggested by impact statements provided by Blue Cross. According to the information provided by Blue Cross, 38.8 percent of inpatient claims and 80.4 percent of outpatients were “capping at charge” for our facility,” said Wraalstad.
Wraalstad is implementing a floor for the “cap at charge” to mitigate the negative impacts to facilities, and proposed a modified rate options for the remainder of 2014. She will continue to analyze the impact of their new payment plan, said Wraalstad.
Still, the loss of funds, which are caused by caps on procedures paid to hospitals, will hurt, noted Board Member Tom Spence.
“Yes, but it’s not $575,000,” said Wraalstad. “A lot of hospitals that signed the contract as offered by Blue Cross are suffering the full consequences of that. I don’t think they [Blue Cross] understood the implications of the contract themselves. I think they had a lot of unattended consequences for rural critical health care in their contract,” Wraalstad said.
Wraalstad said she would meet with representatives of Blue Cross Blue Shield in the fall and negotiate next year’s contract with them.
CAP Inspection
The hospital’s lab had its biannual inspection from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) on April 14-15 and received excellent marks, said Wraalstad.
“There were only four minor citation/deficiencies, which have already been addressed and the lab has received CAP accreditation for the next two years.
“Please congratulate the lab staff on their excellent survey, the hard work they put into being prepared and the service they provide on a daily basis,” said Wraalstad.
Financial report
Hospital Financial Officer Vera Schuman reported that there was a loss from operations of $117,268 for the month of April. When the non-operating income and tax levy monies were factored in, there was a net loss of $47,059 for the month.
Wraalstad said that numbers were up in the care center over last year for May, and looked good for the summer.
Cassandra Beardsley and John Strange of St. Luke’s presented information about the Wilderness Health, Inc. group that St. Luke’s is helping to sponsor.
Beardsley said the group is a collaborative organization of health care providers located in northeastern Minnesota. The corporation’s goal is to develop and implement health care related goals and activities on a regional basis, which may include applying for grants, participating in various payer contracts and accountable care programs, facilitating shared services arrangements and other activities as may be identified by the board of directors of the corporation.
To date three hospitals out of 13 health care faculties have signed on, said Beardsley.
Sharing ideas and working on ways to provide the best services at the best rates possible for patients is the end goal of the corporation, said Beardsley.
After short discussion the board passed a motion to become a Wilderness Health, Inc. charter member at a cost of $8,600 for the first year.
Dsgw Architect
Rebecca Lewis, the dsgw architect hired to help plan the renovation of the hospital/ care center, came before the board and went over the progress her firm has made in gathering information for the upcoming $20 million project.
Lewis or one of her staff has been meeting with various departments and employees of the hospital/ care center weekly, gathering information and ideas that will be used in planning the renovation.
“The responses we have been getting are very, very positive,” Lewis said.
To give the board a better idea of how a care center patient room would look, Lewis and Rory Smith, head of the maintenance department, designed a mock-up room at the old Masonic Lodge (now owned by the hospital) across the parking lot from the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic.
The model provided the board with an idea of how large the rooms would be and where things will be placed. Several good suggestions were made by board members to improve the space and Lewis said that was the goal of making the mock-up.
Lewis said that meetings will be held throughout the summer with open houses planned for the west and east ends of the county as well as in Grand Marais. Board member Howard Abrahamson asked if a meeting could be held for the Good Harbor and Cascade Beach Road areas. After some discussion it was agreed upon to ask the owners of Cascade Lodge if they would host a meeting to discuss the new improvements to the hospital/care center.
Spence asked the board to host an information booth at the Fisherman’s Picnic.
“I think it will be important for us to have presence there,” said Spence.
The board agreed to work on staffing a booth and answering the public’s questions about the project.
A construction manager will be selected by July 24, so the more information that can be gathered the better, said Spence.
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