Jackson Health expects to lose about $85M this year

Jackson Health System expects to finish its fiscal year -- which ends Friday -- with "11 or 12 days of cash on hand," CFO Mark Knight told the governing board Monday at its monthly meeting. Though most successful public hospitals average about 160 days of cash to pay bills, Knight called Jackson's situation "good news," because the number might have been lower until the state assured him that on Thursday it will make a large payment to Jackson in special Medicaid funding. Physician-entrepreneur Stephen Dresnick said later: "I don't see a lot of good news in having 11 days of cash." For the past two months, Jackson has been delaying some bills to conserve cash, Knight said, and accounts payable has been growing by about $3.5 million a month. Knight said there were "many positive indicators" in the August financials, including the first time this fiscal year that Jackson showed an increase in admissions after months of declines.