Health Center provides local community benefit
$290,000 in uncompensated care and health care services given annually

Lucas County Health Center (LCHC) in Chariton provides $1,451,043 in community benefits to the residents of Lucas County, according to an assessment of those programs and services completed late last year. That amount, based on 2005 figures, includes $290,147 in uncompensated care and $1,160,896 in free or discounted community benefits that LCHC specifically implemented to help Lucas County residents.

Community benefits are activities designed to improve health status and increase access to health care. Along with uncompensated care (which includes both charity care and bad debt), community benefits include such services and programs as health screenings, support groups, counseling, immunizations, nutritional services, and transportation programs.

The results for LCHC are included in a statewide report by the Iowa Hospital Association (IHA) that shows Iowa hospitals provided community benefits in 2005 valued at more than $789 million.

“We provide many programs at LCHC that are based on community need,” said LCHC chief executive officer Dan Minkoff. “Our Counseling Services department provides critical mental health services to 5,383 participants. The uncompensated cost to LCHC of providing those services totals $291,703.” Another such LCHC program is Kids’ Life Discovery Center. The uncompensated cost to LCHC of providing the childcare program is $179,837.

Losses to Medicare and Medicaid also figure into the community benefits equation. Both of those government insurance programs fail to fully cover the cost of care provided by LCHC, which in 2005 lost more than $2,225,000 to Medicare and $610,000 to Medicaid.

While Medicare and Medicaid combined represent about 60 percent of all hospital revenue in Iowa, providing services to the two programs’ beneficiaries creates approximately $219 million in losses for the state’s hospitals. Those losses will continue to grow if, as President Bush has proposed, nearly $163 million is cut from Iowa hospital Medicare payments over the next five years. The ability of LCHC to continue financing programs such as Counseling Services and Kids’ Life Discovery Center is very much threatened by these losses.

“Small hospitals such as LCHC cannot withstand cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement levels without having to scale back services offered to the community,” Minkoff said. “If LCHC becomes unable to sustain these programs, it would be a great loss to the community.” Iowa Hospital Association president Kirk Norris agrees.

“These kinds of programs are not likely to be supported or provided by any entity other than a community hospital,” Norris said. “Without Iowa’s 117 community hospitals offering this type of service, demand for tax-supported programs to provide the same services would be greater.”