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Four months into fiscal year 2014, UNM’s consolidated Health Sciences Center divisions have earned $4 million dollars more than they spent, combined.
According to a report presented by HSC administrators in a UNM Board of Hospital Directors meeting on Friday, HSC’s divisions brought in a total of about $520 million by the end of October, while they spent a total of $516 million. The divisions include the University-only branch of HSC, the UNM Hospital, the UNM Medical Group and the Sandoval Regional Medical Center.
The divisions have an expected $1.574 billion revenue and an expected $1.572 billion expenditure in fiscal year 2014.
UNMH brought in the most revenue during the first quarter of FY 2014, which amounts to about $277 million, with expenditures amounting to almost a similar value. The University-only branch of HSC brought in an actual total of $172 million, with expenditures amounting to about $165 million.
The UNM Medical Group, on the other hand, earned $54 million, just a little over its expenditure of about $53 million. The Sandoval Regional Medical Center fell short with earnings of about $17 million and expenditures of $21 million.
But UNM Chancellor Paul Roth said SRMC, which opened in July 2012, still managed to maintain a frugal budget despite being a relatively new institution.
“In just a matter of one or two quarters, SRMC has been able to make major changes in the revenue cycle considerably in the last few months,” Roth said.
In total, the University-only branch of HSC has an expected revenue of $519 million for FY 2014, while an expected expenditure amount of about $515 million. UNMH expects to earn a total of about $811 million, about $1 million short of its expected total expenditure amount.
The Medical Group, on the other hand, expects to earn and spend a total of about $175 million this fiscal year. This is a similar case with SRMC, which expects to earn and spend a total of about $70 million this year.
Steve McKernan, CEO of UNMH, said UNMH can gain more revenue if the hospital enforced stricter policies with charging patients. But he said the hospital is striving for “more liberal policies” and so are aiding patients better.
“UNMH has always had a very accommodating policy for our patients who are classified as self-care patients,” he said. “We allow for the writing of contract for those patients, and we allow to combine accounts and to set up monthly payments. Many of those patients get behind on their monthly payments. We try to stretch as far as we can before sending them to collection agencies.”
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NIH Grant
At the same meeting, Roth announced that the HSC’s Clinical and Translational Science Center received a $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The University’s CTSC conducts health research focused on the western region of the United States, he said.
“It is completely unique,” he said. “There is nothing like it anywhere else in the United States. This is the most successful CTSC in the country and is being held up as a model nationally for other major academic health centers.”
The grant will fund UNM’s CTSC for five years, Roth said.
