The Salem Township Hospital Board received a clean audit at its Wednesday board meeting.
While there were no findings, the auditors expressed concern over the cost of inflation raising costs more than new revenue. After the meeting, Hospital CEO Jim Timpe shared similar concerns.
“One of the things that he did point out was that here, just like in every other hospital, our expenses are going up at a higher rate than our reimbursement is,” Timpe said. “That’s throughout every hospital in the United States, so you can see that we’re going to have to continue to strive over the next several years to keep controlling costs so that we can keep providing the same great care.”
Timpe is pleased that Congress is beginning to possibly move on providing help to those purchasing health insurance.
“The worry is that many people won’t renew their Affordable Care Act, and they’ll just go with no insurance. When people don’t have insurance, they clearly cannot afford their care when they do need emergency type care. The worry is that we’re going to have more and more patients who are self-pay, which usually ends up being bad debt or has to be written off at some point. That free care that you have to give out is a big expense back on the hospitals versus being reimbursed by an insurance company.”
So far this fiscal year, the hospital has provided more than $1.5 million in charity care. Timpe says the loss of health insurance also results in many going without medical treatment until they are more ill which can impact the outcome of their treatment.
Timpe notes the biggest changes in Medicaid that is expected to cut the number on the program won’t take effect until 2027.
