New details revealed on Hillsboro Community Hospital’s plight

A new document filed in the lawsuit between the Bank of Hays and Hillsboro Community Hospital revealed that there are even bigger financials issues facing the hospital than just utility bills, making payroll and paying back a bank loan.

The document lists a number of concerns, including the hospital lab being closed last month due to lack of supplies, ambulances being diverted from the hospital to other hospitals, employees losing benefits, missing financial records and more.

This morning, the Bank of Hays filed a report in the Marion County District Court from the new management at the Hillsboro Community Hospital. This document is the latest in regard to the petition for foreclosure filed by the Bank of Hays on Jan. 8.

Last Friday, the Marion County District Court approved the Bank of Hays and the City of Hillsboro’s joint request to remove HCH out from EmpowerHMS and appointed a new company to take over the management. That afternoon, the new management, Cohesive Healthcare Management and Consulting, took over the hospital.

They began investigating the situation at the hospital and discovered a large number of issues. The petition filed this morning includes the full details of Cohesive’s report.

Immediate Challenge

According to the document, the hospital lab was closed in December 2018 due to loss of critical staff and inadequate supplies. The lab closure resulted in an ambulance divert being placed on the hospital. The diversion is still in place, but Cohesive is working on ending it.

Another issue of immediate concern is vendors and supplies. Due to outstanding debt of over $230,000, many vendors and suppliers have stopped providing critical supplies and services to the hospital.

The new management also has no access to the financial records at this time, outside of some reports that are currently in the hospital system. Some of the financial records missing are bank reconciliations, causing uncertainty in balances.

Cohesive is working to set up new bank accounts in order to start processing payments and expenses.

Because a main vendor, Athena, is in the process of terminating the relationship with the hospital due to nonpayment, medical records, claim processing and collections are being affected.

These are only a few of the challenges the hospital is facing at this time.

Human Resource Issues

The document also includes a statement from Human Resources Manager Olivia Robinson. In it, she states that the hospital currently employs 75 employees. Twenty-nine of them are insured or should be.

However, there are a large number of problems occurring for those 29, including:

◼ Medical insurance was terminated on Jan. 1, 2019, with around 10 outstanding claims.

◼ Dental insurance was terminated on Jan. 1, 2019, with around 29 outstanding claims.

◼ Vision insurance was terminated Dec. 1, 2018.

◼ Life insurance policy was never put in place, in spite of premiums being pulled from employees’

paychecks.

◼ Prescription insurance was terminated on Dec. 14, 2018.

There are many more issues listed in the document regarding facility insurance, surgical services,

outside vendors and information issues with the Internet and website. Some of the more noteworthy are:

◼ Worker’s comp insurance was cancelled in October 2018 due to non payment.

◼ Employment practices liability was cancelled in September and October of 2018.

◼ IP address and admin credentials are needed to access the network, on-site and off-site servers, phone services, website, e-mail and more.

With the filing of the document, the Free Press reached out to the City of Hillsboro.

“The city has no comment, as this matter involves pending litigation,” City Administrator Larry Paine said.

The Free Press will continue to keep readers informed as details become available.

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