Tulare Healthcare District Board Gets Hospital Progress Report

Tulare Regional Medical Center is inching closer to reopening, but there’s no concrete date yet, the hospital’s board was told Wednesday.

The hospital has, however, received over 500 applications for employment, and a job fair is in the process of being scheduled, interim CEO Larry Blitz told the board.

Additionally, the hospital’s management consultants now have access to records and to the hospital itself — although the hospital’s keys were handed off the night before Thanksgiving, they entered the hospital on 7am Monday.

Access to Records

“We’re to the point where we have the information and can create the budget, and now what we have to do is sell that to people who want to invest, or loan money, to the district,” Blitz told the board.

“In order for the board to be able to tell you when the hospital’s going to be opening, we’re going to be sitting down in the next week with potential funders showing them what our financial projections are,” he said.

Blitz said his staff at HFS/Wipfli Consultants are preparing three budgets for the hospital: a skeleton crew budget to keep its building and physical plant in order, a budget to reopen, and a budget to ramp-up to full capacity.

Additionally, the re-opening of the hospital would include the clinics — and the clinics couldn’t reopen before the hospital, according to the California Department of Public Health, he said.

Dan Heckathorne, the hospital’s interim CFO, said that officials won’t have access to the hospital’s bank balances until Thursday morning.

“We can’t see our bank account yet,” he said.

The hospital also needs to evaluate its outstanding accounts receivable.

“There’s a very large number out there – we’re not sure how much of that is collectable,” Blitz said.

The hospital’s previous firm handling its accounts receivable and “revenue cycle,” Navigant Cymetrix, claims to be owed upward of $1.7m by the district.

According to Navigant’s records, the hospital stopped paying the company in August of 2016, just one month after officials with HCCA extended out a line of credit to the Southern Inyo Healthcare District.

The current board released them from the “automatic stay” in bankruptcy proceedings, allowing them to stop providing accounts receivable services and enter an administrative claim for the amount owed.

Evolutions Oversight Board

Additionally, hospital board members appointed citizens to a committee that would provide financial oversight to the newly-revived Evolutions.

The committee members appointed were:

  • Edward Henry
  • Derek Jackson
  • Alberto Aguilar
  • Courtney Waters
  • Phil Smith

The committee will report on the operations of Evo Management Company to the members of the hospital board.

The hospital board’s next two meetings will be on on December 6 and 20, both at 6:30pm.

In Depth: Tulare Regional Medical Center

7 thoughts on “Tulare Healthcare District Board Gets Hospital Progress Report

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  1. Navigant also took over the registration department at time of outsourcing billing. Accourding to the letter above, these employees can not be hired by Tulare for 12 mos. Read Letter dated Sept 21, 2017 paragraph 3.

  2. Paragraph 3 actually states TRMC cannot solicit Navigant employees for employment. Navigant employees can seek employment with the Hospital on their own. Many Navigant employees have already turned in applications as their last day was November 30 with Navigant.

  3. No wonder in the July 2017 financials it showed 89 million in receivables. If you don’t pay the billing company, they won’t collect. It was always my suspicion that was the case. If he had paid the outsourced group, they would have pulled the money in and the bills would have been paid.

    What other damage has Benzeevi AND Alan Germany done to sabotage our hospital?

    Has anyone ever picked up a rock and lots of little bugs crawl out? That’s I compare the horrible, but not surprising, problems the Board keeps finding. Each time they uncover a problem, a bunch of other issues come crawling out.

    Cheers and my sincere thanks to our Board members and new administration for working tirelessly to tackle the problems head on and move our community forward to bringing back quality health care to the district.

  4. As much as the board is looking forward to the hospital opening soon, and as much as I’m sure the employees look forward to a reopening some have expressed that since it appears it will take longer through no ones fault , at least let them spend the holidays with their families a week one way or the other is not going to make a huge difference at this juncture. Personally as a community member I wouldn’t want the hospital reopened until everything is in perfect condition and order, there is only one chance to make a first impression with a public that still has a sour taste in its mouth from the previous occupants. Please board remember it’s quality this community deserves not just a quick start date that compromises its goals, you have accomplished much and have wisely chosen a group of managers to achieve those goals let them do their jobs. I would prefer to again use our hospital with competent staff and doctors in place this time around, again you have one chance to make a good impression, please don’t squander that opportunity.

    • Very good comment. I believe also that “bigger” doesn’t always translate into “better” if there isn’t “quality care”. With out quality care all the added wings, rooms and beds mean nothing.

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