Story Published:
Dec 2, 2011 at 4:27 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Dec 2, 2011 at 7:27 PM EDT
A much anticipated meeting between state lawmakers and Carthage Area Hospital over the facility's money woes turned out to be not very productive.
Senator Patty Ritchie (R. - 48th District) and Ken Blankenbush (R. - 122nd) said they didn't get the information they wanted about CAH's financial condition in a 40 minute meeting with hospital officials Friday.
"There's still a lot of unanswered questions out there. We need more details about what's going on," said Ritchie.
Ritchie and Blankenbush said they are looking for the total amount of the hospital's payroll, the amount of billing that's gone uncollected, and the amount that may be so past due that the hospital can no longer collect state reimbursement.
Hospital officials promised to get back to the legislators with the information sometime next week, Ritchie and Blankenbush said.
The meeting in Ritchie's office was with Brian Scott, chairman of the hospital board, Dale Klock, president of the Meadowbrook Terrace Assisted Living Center and Joe Millard, administrator of Meadowbrook.
Samaritan Medical Center CEO Tom Carman joined the meeting for the last 10 minutes.
Ritchie and Blankenbush were told that the hospital made its payroll this week.
The two asked about rumors that hospital had been behind in 401K employer contributions.
"They did say they were brought up to date just recently," Ritchie said.
The troublesome billing software blamed for many of the hospital's problems is expected to be fully functional in about 60 days, hospital officials told the legislators.
That's because of new steps taken since the departure of CEO Walter Becker, the officials said.
Ritchie and Blankenbush offered the services of the New York State Department of Health to help the hospital with its books.
"At this time they weren't interested in that," Ritchie said.
CAH issued a statement on the meeting late Friday afternoon.
Carman's attendance was strictly to discuss the state HEAL grant that is funding both Meadowbrook Terrace and a residential facility planned by Samaritan, the legislators said.
