Stephens Co. Hospital Authority Approves FY 17 Budget

The Stephens County Hospital Authority approves a budget for Fiscal Year 2017.

Hospital Authority members unanimously approved a new budget at their meeting on Monday.

According to Stephens County Hospital Administrator Lynne Anderson, the budget does include a rate increase that is around three percent on average, but varies from area to area.

Anderson said, however, that does not directly correlate to a patient’s bill.

“That does not go to the patient,” said Anderson. “They will see it on their total charges, but it is really a factor of what we get paid by the insurance companies because they pay us on a percentage of our charges. So if we get a rate increase, theoretically we get an increase on what the payers give us.”

Anderson did say that Stephens County Hospital, along with many hospitals, have challenges when it comes to what they receive from payers.

“We are experiencing a deterioration in what the payers are paying us, just like every hospital in the country, so we are going to really be focusing on how we can improve our cost efficiency and effectiveness.”

Other than the rate changes, Anderson said that the rest of the hospital’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget is fairly status quo.

“Obviously, we will have the new units open at the Wilkinson Center, but otherwise we have the physician’s practices up and running as they are and I think we will be moving on as usual, trying to improve our efficiencies, our patient satisfaction scores, working on our quality things, but those are things that we work on all the time,” said Anderson.

Fiscal Year 2017 begins at Stephens County Hospital on October 1.