CHCC revenue at $30M; expenditures at $40M

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. raked in a total of $30 million in revenue in fiscal year 2014, much lesser than the over $40 million it spent during the same period, according to the corporation’s annual report.

Chief executive officer Esther Muna’s annual report for fiscal year 2014 states that, as of Sept. 30, 2014, CHCC’s revenue totaled $30,713,869, while incurring $40,012,776 in expenditures.

Muna stated that the hospital’s revenue and expenses were not from federal grants.

Broken down, CHCC received $11,130,695 from Medicaid, $10,016,585 from Medicare, $8,755,531 from other health insurance, $180,834 for indirect cost, $79,500 from rental/lease, $2,178 from interest income, and $548,546 from other revenues.

“Most of the reimbursement CHCC gets is from hospital and dialysis services through the Medicare and Medicaid programs and from private insurances. The reimbursement is used to fund services provided throughout CHCC, including Rota Health Center and Tinian Health Center. Maintaining compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulations is still of highest priority when using those funds,” Muña said.

CHCC’s expenses were mostly on wages, salaries, and benefits, utilities, and medical supplies. CHCC’s expenditures for wages, salaries, and benefits totaled $24,169,779, comprising 60.41 percent of total expenditures. Utilities cost a total of $6,214,859, about 15.53 percent of expenditures. Medical supplies totaled $5,738,146, about 14.34 percent of expenditures.

Grant monies
CHCC obtained a total of $8,307,607 in grant funding in fiscal year 2014. A total of $5,019,026 was acquired for public health services; $1,343,674 went to the Women’s, Infant and Children and Kagman Community Center; $813,509 for the Community Guidance Center, and $621,885 for hospital and others.

Muna said the grants fund 147 employees at CHCC and most of the grants are funded by the Centers for Disease Control, Department of Agriculture, Health Resources and Services Administration, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

CDC funds go toward promoting health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury and disability. DOA funds the WIC program. HRSA provides funding to expand health care services for the underserved, focusing on health professions, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, primary health care, rural health, and healthcare systems. SAMHSA supports programs for substance use disorders and mental illness.

“CHCC anticipates opening a grants management office for this year to not only manage the grants it already has but also to apply for grants fitting for the organization. A federal grant from the National Public Health Improvement Initiative will provide funding for training of grant writers and employees for this office, improving the quality for the grant and building internal capacity to allow for CHCC to apply for more competitive grants,” Muña said.

Since its creation in October 2011, CHCC’s development had been tenuous  but Muna noted that since then CHCC has continued to provide services to those who could not afford to pay, despite the small budget appropriations for the corporation.

“A $2 million annual appropriation is clearly insufficient investment, especially when health care matters to our people and our leaders. The loss of income from the Medicaid-match and from providing services to those that cannot afford to pay, the indigent, should be considered when deciding future appropriations. We need to invest appropriately because our people deserve the best,” Muña said.