Hospital subsidy pitched here

Although “the sky isn’t falling,” as Holton Community Hospital CEO Carrie Lutz told members of the Holton City Commission and Jackson County Commission at their meetings on Monday, the hospital is facing some financial issues with Medicare reimbursement and pandemic-related problems that have hospital leaders asking city and county officials to consider a subsidy, possibly in the form of a sales tax.

“You are elected officials, and our county, state and federal officials need to know that decisions you make can impact us,” Lutz told county commissioners.

Lutz met with county commissioners on Monday afternoon and with city commissioners that evening to discuss the hospital’s challenges and successes in the past few years, noting that while the hospital’s recent expansion allows extra services to be offered and annual revenue has doubled from $22 million to $44 million between 2013 and 2013, there’s still a need for financial assistance.

“Health care is very challenging right now,” Lutz told commissioners. “Any business is challenged, but we’re doing our due diligence.”

The matter is expected to be discussed further at the county level at a special, county commission-hosted public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30 at the Jackson County Courthouse to discuss a possible one-percent increase to the county sales tax to offset property taxes, and the county commission encouraged Lutz to attend the meeting.

Across the state, there are 59 hospitals that receive public funding, whether in the form of a sales tax or property tax levy or a “special hospital district” tax, Lutz told city commissioners that evening. She added that 31 hospitals in Kansas — including HCH — receive no public subsidy, and many of them are “vulnerable to closure.”

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