Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County updated on financials, student housing

Aug. 21--ALBANY -- While being presented a financial picture of Phoebe Putney Health System and the impact health care reform has on it, the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County was also given a picture of what the future might hold for medical students coming to perform their rotations in Southwest Georgia.

Lauren Ray, executive director of the Phoebe Foundation, gave more details Thursday on the plans regarding a plot at North Jackson Street and West Fourth Avenue where officials hope to place a medical student housing complex for those doing area rotations through the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University and the University of Georgia Pharmacy School.

"We want to make sure capacity of care is a reality in Southwest Georgia," she said.

The physician-to-patient ratio in Georgia is already unfavorable, and with physicians either retiring or relocating, there is potential for the situation to get even more dire.

This prompted the establishment of a MCG clinical campus in Albany, but students need an incentive to stay.

"With assets in other areas with MCG campuses, Albany needs an equalizer," Ray said. "We believe that equalizer to be housing.

"If we can get this built, it will be a game changer."

The complex is expected to house up to 40 students, and will include family housing in a gated community that the students will live in for a nominal fee. The project is anticipated to cost $5 million, and Phoebe has the capacity to match donations up to $2.5 million -- which means half of the funding needs to be raised before construction can begin.

A recent $1 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation has brought the total raised for the project up to $1.3 million, leaving $1.2 million still to raise, Ray said.

Financial statements presented on Thursday by Kerry Loudermilk, chief financial officer for Phoebe, show that the Authority had $343,001 in total assets based on unaudited figures as of July 31, while also having $264,047 in total liabilities and $78,954 in total net assets. At the same time, the Authority had $100,000 in total operation revenue and $329,858 in total operating expenses, making for an operating loss of $229,858.

Total non-operating income was $350,090, and excess of revenue over expense was $120,232, unaudited figures available as of July 31 show.

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Phoebe North combined had $1.39 billion in revenues for the fiscal year that ended in July, $915.21 million in deductions and $16.55 million in other operating revenue. There was $490.74 million in net operating revenue and $510.74 million in expenses.

Loudermilk also discussed what he referred to as "drastic" revenue reductions for the fiscal year that recently ended that were in connection to the Affordable Care Act and Georgia's failure to expand Medicaid.

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, he said, had a $4.2 million reduction in Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) dollars, and the Affordable Care Act is aiming to reduce nationwide a total of $17.1 billion in DSH dollars by 2020. Meanwhile, the state has opted to not expand Medicaid, so an increase of $14 million that Phoebe would have gotten otherwise disappeared while there was a $4.2 million reduction -- resulting in an overall $18.2 million bottom line impact.

"The state's failure to expand Medicaid has a significant impact on Phoebe Putney," Loudermilk said. "There is a large concentration of Medicaid patients here."

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