Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Columnist Peter Gott,MD Got it Right


 

http://www.drdonsopinion.blogspot.com/ 

Needlessly Delayed: SBLHC's 2010 Form 990

 
(Note to administrators and board of SBLHS:  I know you want input from the community.  I thought you might be interested in my blog on healthcare since much relates to Sarah Bush.  I took the liberty of sending the latest entry and will continue to send updates as I get them written.  If you do not want to receive these, please let me know and I will delete your name.  Dr. Don Selvidge 235-4664, 962-1764 )
 
Needlessly Delayed
Sarah Bush's 2010 Form 990: Income/Expenses

The federal government requires that private non-profit hospitals give a yearly report
on Form 990.  The purpose of this report is to give the community the hospital serves an opportunity to look into the hospital's finances and operations.

Form 990 includes tax status, income and source of income, expense breakdown, net assets, programs and costs, board members and pay of top staff.  It also asks if there are any self-dealing transactions, conflicts of interest, lobbying activity, and other questions.

In my opinion this report is filed needlessly late (12 months after close of financial year). This time included 6 months plus two requested 3 month extensions putting its filing date for year ending June 30, 2010 at May 2, 2011.  I am told that it actually takes this much time to get the data together, have it audited, and get it filed.  

 I am not convinced. An organization as highly organized as SBLHS with such talented people and extensive resources surely can get this report together within 6 months or sooner if they wanted to.  If the auditor causes the delay, I think they need to get another auditor.  Could it be they want to make the report's release to the public as old and irrelevant as possible? 

In the rest of this article I will give some information and observation on the SBLHS income.  In future postings I will talk about expenses and other information. 

SBLHC's Financial Summary

In the area of income the reports gives SBLHC 2010 gross receipts at 368,187,007. This represents an increase of $140,734,700 or 38% increase over the previous year. Gross receipts is not actually collected, but is what is charged for services. (I'm confused.  Why do they call it gross receipts?)

The amount actually collected for the year was $193,981,053 was increased by 11% over the $173,138,671 collected in the previous year.  I would be interested in what specifically brought the additional 11% increase in income.

The investment income for June 2010 year was $8,824,515 up from -$4,602,808 the previous year  an increase of about 300%.  I was unable to find where these investments were made.

It appears that after all is said and done, SBLHC recorded $18,471,574 profit up from $3,051,055 for the year an increase of about 600%.

I hope to sponsor a meeting in the future inviting a representative of SBLHC to answer all the questions we may have about the Form 990 for year ending June 2010.
 
I will continue to analyze SBLHC's Form 990 in future postings. I believe they are doing a great job. I also believe the public should be fully aware (and apparently the US government thinks so as well) of their finances and operation.
 
More Later.
 
Dr. Don Selvidge
Action for Affordable Healthcare (AAH) 

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