The Challenge of Uncompensated Care

Linda S. Holyfield, RN, MSN
President & CEO
P&S Surgical Hospital
Monroe, La.

We are a procedural hospital, physician-owned. We do about 23% Medicaid and 35% to 40% Medicare. We are in a poor market and we don't cherry-pick our cases. We try to make our hospital as efficient as possible from a cost perspective; for example, short turn-around times. You can't cut and let outcomes fall because it increases your costs.

With the Accountable Care Act, in Louisiana, we are predicting that 52% our population will be eligible for Medicaid. Right now it's just about 25%. And our state can't pay for healthcare now so they will have to clamp down more on reimbursements. It's going to be tough but I think we will have a better chance of dealing with it because we are more cost-effective and higher-quality. And we are a joint venture with St. Francis Medical Center Monroe. We don't serve the community like a big hospital does. We serve our little niche and we are good at it. We can do things cost effectively and that is a win-win for the partnership. We can't replace what the big hospital does, and they can't replace us because we are so cost-effective.