Shamarie Farthing, risk, safety and quality director at Ellsworth County Medical Center, had good news during the Aug. 21 meeting of the hospital’s board of directors.

Farthing said the hospital has been chosen to report certain quality measures to Blue Cross for the past several years.

What Farthing and the hospital administration didn’t know, however, was what financial impact that would have. She noted ECMC will receive a 23.75 percent additional incentive for its Blue Cross/Blue Shield patients that are admitted through the hospital.

Farthing said ECMC earned $21,647 in 2017 in incentives and $234,196 in 2018.

The news came during a recent meeting with a representative from Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

“You know how we’ve talked about moving from volume to value,” Farthing said.“It’s finally starting to pay off a little bit. It is exciting to see that.”

This year, ECMC has earned $124,500 in incentives through Aug. 12.

“We anticipate the program will keep growing,” Farthing said.“It’s a winwin. We’re treating our patients more consistently, meeting those standards and receiving some incentives for that. It’s really good news.”

In other business:

• Approval was given to purchase three new Omnicore cabinets and a Windows 10 server for the pharmacy department. Total cost is $184,000. However, Angela Broaderway, the hospital’s pharmacy director, said ECMC saved $151,000. Andrew Bair, chief executive officer, said the new cabinets will reduce human error and make medication more secure.

• Lynn Brock, interim chief financial officer, said the July interim financial statement indicates an operating gain of $111,767, with a bottom line gain of $168,924. She noted there was a variance with expenses in July, due to an realignment of 340B pharmacy expenses because one of the hospital’s pharmacies decided to change wholesalers.

“We knew going in that we would have some variance here, as all of the 340B pharmacies use a mixed inventory,” Brock said. “As pharmacies dispense inventory, we replace that inventory, with full purchase quantities.

Brock said ECMC has a positive expense variance of $31,855. In reflection of the above comment, the actual amount of the 340B variance amounted to $38,777.50. Therefore, the hospital would have been $70,632 under budget in its operating budget.

She said the average daily census of patients at ECMC had a slight decrease to 4, which is a little better than last year at this time.

At 239, Brock said emergency room visits were higher in July than any other month in the last fiscal year. Those visits directly relate to ancillary department numbers, which show an increase over the previous month.

Rural Health Clinic visits increased slightly over the previous month, but are below the 2019-20 budget.

Days cash on hand has increased to 67.09 days.

“Our ability to keep our investments and reserves strong will need to remain a key indicator as we transition through changes in payment models,” she noted.

• Brock then briefed the board on proposed policies that came from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 29. She noted the proposed policies follow directives in President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First.”

According to a power point presentation displayed by Brock from the CMS website, these policies lay the foundation for a patient-driven healthcare system by making prices for items and services provided by all hospitals in the United States more transparent for patients so that they can be more informed about what they might pay for hospital items and services.

The proposed changes also encourage site-neutral payment between certain Medicare sites of services. Finally, the proposed rule proposes updates and policy changes under the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System.

These changes would further advance the agency’s commitment to increasing price transparency, including proposals for requirements that would apply to each hospital operating in the U.S., strengthening Medicare, rethinking rural health, unleashing innovation, reducing provider burden, and strengthening program integrity so that hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers can operate with better flexibility and patients have what they need to become active healthcare consumers.

Brock said she is closely monitoring this, as some of the proposed rules could be burdensome for ECMC and many other rural hospitals.

The board recommended the hospital draft a letter that will be sent to CMS within the comment period for the proposed rules stating the position of ECMC and other rural hospitals.

• Bair said two longtime employees, Bev Vasko and Deb Whitmer, plan to retire at the end of August. A retirement reception for Whitmer is planned for 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28, in the hospital conference room. A retirement reception for Vasko is planned for 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 29, in the conference room in the ECMC administration building. The public is invited to both receptions.

Whitmer worked at ECMC for the past eight years, mostly in the Wilson clinic. Vasko served many years as the secretary for the CEO. In the last few months, she has served as a human resources assistant.

• Bair said Charles Soeken of Merriam has been hired as the new director of information technology. He has family in Lorraine and Holyrood. Soeken plans to start in September.