On 03/06/20, The Sun Newspaper provided a copy of this letter to the editor to Cedar County Memorial Hospital for clarification of facts. That clarification from Cedar County Memorial Hospital is provided in the following bullet points.

• In her letter, Ms. Malone comments that, “they’ve [Cedar County Memorial Hospital] already been getting increases all along”. Let’s put this in perspective. In fiscal year (FY) 2020, Cedar County Memorial Hospital received $267,626.00 in tax levy revenue. Total assessed property valuation for Cedar County increased only by 1 percent from 2017 to 2018 and 2.5 percent from 2018 to 2019. Cedar County Memorial Hospital began operating the Cedar County Health Department in 1995 to assure the continuation of public health services in Cedar County. While most counties have separate levies for their hospital and health department; Cedar County does not. Cedar County Memorial Hospital receives less tax revenue to operate the Hospital AND the Cedar County Health Department than similar hospitals receive to operate just their hospital.

• Cedar County Memorial Hospital’s original levy was set at 0.2000 in 1961. Today, it is even less (now at 0.1528) due to the rollback effect of Missouri’s Hancock Amendment. Ms. Malone questions why this levy increase is needed. In 1966, the average annual RN salary was $5,200 a year. (Source: https://work.chron.com/salaries-changed-nurses-23316.html) There have been countless medical advances since the 1960s. In 1960, CT equipment was not standard of care in the hospital setting; today it is. CT machines can cost anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. We have given these examples to demonstrate the cost growth of healthcare since the 1960s. None of us want to be paid wages from the 1960s or want to be treated with the same standards of medical treatment that were acceptable in the 1960s. It is no longer feasible to expect Cedar County Memorial Hospital to operate at a levy rate that was passed in 1961.

• Regarding Ms. Malone’s criticism of the example the Hospital used last year for computing the cost of the property tax increase—this was an example. There is no way we could compute every possible tax scenario because different types of property are assessed at different rates. And yes, the computation we provided yielded what the tax increase would be. “To increase” means to “add to”. We felt this was clear by definition.

• Regarding Ms. Malone’s statement about most hospitals not receiving tax support, it is important to compare apples to apples. Cedar County Memorial Hospital is a Critical Access Hospital (CAH). Most patients that access their care at CAHs are older and poorer and are often covered by Medicare and/or Medicaid, which reimburse at lower rates than commercial insurers. Often, patients have no insurance at all. Cuts to CAH reimbursement through sequestration–a Budget Control Act of 2011 provision that cut annual Medicare reimbursement by 2 percent–resulting in reimbursement rates that are less than the cost of providing services. And, cuts to Medicare reimbursement for bad debt have severely crippled the finances of CAHs. Because of this and for many other reasons, all of the 21 public CAHs in Missouri receive tax support. (Reference: 2019 Property Tax Rates–Nicole Galloway, CPA, Missouri State Auditor)

Jana Witt, CEO of Cedar County Memorial Hospital

Facebook Comments