Haywood Regional Medical Center has yet to receive any money from either Medicare or Medicaid, though the hospital regained its certification from both following an inspection on May 22.

As of July 7, the hospital was owed $3 million from Medicare and more than $800,000 from Medicaid.

If the hospital fails to receive reimbursements from the agencies by the end of August, it will hold just $716,000 in its bank account.

“We had every expectation that before now we would have started receiving funds,” interim CEO Al Byers told county commissioners Monday (July 7).

Even if the billing platform opens up today, there would still be a 14-day period before the hospital would receive Medicare funds and a 4- to 6-week period before they would receive Medicaid money.

Pressure on the part of congressional representatives being applied to the Atlanta-based office of Medicare and by the North Carolina Hospital Association at the state Medicaid office seem to have had little effect on getting the agencies to hurry up.

Why the hold up? Vice President of Finance Gwen Evans attributes it to several factors.

“It’s been a difficult learning curve for everyone involved both on the hospital and the Medicare and Medicaid side,” Evans said.

For example, the Medicare team has told the hospital it isn’t receiving vital information it needs to start providing HRMC with reimbursements. But the hospital’s system indicates that in fact the information did make it to the Medicare office. It’s hard to tell if that’s due to a technical glitch or some other factor.

The hospital has also had trouble collecting money from other sources. It’s owed an excess of $300,000 for a sales tax refund being held by the state, according to Evans. The state twice told the hospital it had lost the documents needed to get the refund and asked the hospital to resubmit them.

Apparently, the holiday period isn’t helping the hospital’s cause. Offices have shut down, and Evans said “several of the front line staff took a whole week off last week.”

While the staff of the Medicare and Medicaid agencies enjoys a summer vacation, the situation at HRMC is growing more dire by the day. The hospital is now considering selling major pieces of equipment, such as its MRI and OR machines, and leasing them back. That would turn in around $2 million quickly.

All told, HRMC will still suffer a major loss — Byers predicts it will lose between $6 million and $10 million by Oct. 1, the end of its fiscal year.