Last autumn we asked the chief financial officers of the hospitals in our Rural Hospital Program three questions: in which months is cash tightest, why, and what would help. We had answers from 204 of them.
The first quarter, every time
Eighty-one percent named January, February or March as their tightest months. The reasons were consistent. Respiratory illness fills beds, so staffing costs rise, often with agency nurses at premium rates. Reimbursement for those weeks arrives one to three months later. And cost-report settlements, which can be a rural hospital’s largest single receipt, rarely arrive before the spring.
What would help
- Payments that are lower in the first quarter and higher later in the year (named by 64 percent).
- The option to defer a payment without having to ask in a crisis (52 percent).
- Loaner equipment for surges rather than more equipment all year (39 percent).
We already offer seasonal payment schedules. We are now looking at a standing deferral option, offered in advance each autumn, so that no finance team has to make the call in February.
The hospitals in this program are often the only place within an hour where a critically ill patient can be stabilized. Our job is to make the payments fit.
Thank you to everyone who answered. The full results are available to program members in the Client Center.