MovingOn, awesome find! http://www.ivantageindex.
Post# of 178
27.6% Operating Profit Margin.
Not only is that substantial in comparison to the other critical access hospitals(CAH), rural pps and others, but it depicts an under-served market in need of a turnaround.
Take a look at this(sourced below):
"NRHA Save Rural Hospitals Action Center
As of Jan. 2019, 94 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, with more than 120 and counting closed since 2005. Right now, 673 additional facilities are vulnerable and could close, representing more than one-third of rural hospitals in the U.S.
The rate of closure has steadily increased since sequestration began and bad debt cuts began to hit rural hospitals, resulting in a rate six times higher in 2015 compared to 2010.
It’s clear that cuts in hospital payments have taken their toll, forcing closures and leaving many of our nation's most vulnerable populations without timely access to care.
If Congress doesn't act to stop the bleeding and prevent further rural hospital closures, an estimated 11.7 million patients will lose direct access to care while local economies suffer.
Without congressional intervention, layoffs, reduced wages, economic loss, reduced services and facility closures will occur in more rural communities across America.
NRHA is asking members of Congress to #SaveRural Hospitals. And to join us and hundreds of colleagues from across the country at the nation's largest rural advocacy event, NRHA's Rural Health Policy Institute."
https://www.ruralhealthweb.org/advocate/save-rural-hospitals
Look at some of the facts:
* 94 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, with 673 more being vulnerable to such, representing 1/3 of ALL rural hospitals
* Rate of sequestration and closure is up 6x in 2015 compared to 2010
* 11.7M people will lose access to care, affecting local economies
* #SaveRuralHospitals is the LARGEST rural advocacy event(*which one might have instead guessed to be farming)
Mountain Lakes was the gem, with a few others, such as Candler and Polk following reasonably close behind.
And according to something I just read elsewhere, 88% of rural hospitals are in the red, with 12 having closed in Alabama alone, thus making Crenshaw even more valuable due to lack of competition.
Rural hospitals are looking for Medicaid expansion, or at least partial Medicaid expansion, which is being estimated to have a $3B impact on surrounding areas.
Hospital systems can serve as an anchor for local communities, meeting a prime need for safety and security in case of an acute event or illness. This brings new business to the area, while stabilizing those which already are stationed there.
Here is a bit of a depiction of the economic impact of CAH facilities:
CAHs support both the health and
economy of local communities
Annual services provided to patients include:
• 8 Million patients treated in emergency
departments
• 39 Million outpatient visits
• 809,000 patients admitted
• 82,000 babies delivered
Economic Impact of CAHs
• 300,000 skilled healthcare jobs provided
• $7.1 Million invested into local
communities through wages, salaries,
and benefits per CAH, on average
• 1.8 Million reinvested as taxable retail
sales per CAH, on average
https://www.ruralhealthweb.org/NRHA/media/Eme...c-2017.pdf
The innovative future model solution, created by the Save Rural Hospitals Act, establishes a new Medicare payment designation, the Community Outpatient Hospital (COH). It creates an innovative delivery model that will ensure emergency access to care for rural patients across the nation, meeting the population health need of their rural community.
• Eligibility: Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) and rural hospitals with 50 beds or less as of December 31, 2014 are eligible to become COH (this includes facilities as described that have closed within 5 years prior to enactment).
• Services:
o Emergency Services – a COH must
Provide emergency medical care and observation care (not to exceed an annual average of 24 hours), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Have protocols in place for the timely transfer of patients who require a higher level of care or inpatient admission.
o Meeting the Needs of Rural Communities. Based upon a community needs assessment, a COH could provide medical services in addition to the Emergency services, but not limited to observation care, skilled nursing facility (SNF) care, infusion services, hemodialysis, home health, hospice, nursing home care, population health and telemedicine services.
COHs are encouraged to provide primary care services though a FQHC (or FQHC look alike) or rural health clinic. These primary care services will ensure the community don’t lose primary care and inappropriately use the emergency room.
The COH will not operate any inpatient acute care beds, but can operate swing beds and observation beds.
• Payments: The Medicare payment rate for services furnished at a COH (emergency care and outpatient services) will be 105% of reasonable cost. Plus COHs are eligible for population health grants to meet the needs of their community.
• Conversion:
o For every CAH that converts to a COH, another hospital currently not designated as a CAH and located in the same state, would be eligible to become a CAH so long as all criteria other than the distance criteria are met.
o CAHs that convert to COHs may revert back to the CAH designation at any time and under the same conditions they were originally designated.
• Rural Hospital Grants: New grants are included for Rural EMS. Hospital based grants are available to assist rural hospitals with the change to value based payment models and for rural hospitals working on population health (included a grant program targeted at COHs).
The solution is The Save Rural Hospitals Act. A comprehensive solution is necessary; a new model alone isn’t enough. We have to first stop the bleeding.
Notice the new designation? The COH, or Community Outpatient Hospital?
And the 24/7 provision of emergency care? Remember the partnership between Northeast Georgia and Mountain Lakes Medical? Sharing their emergency staff? What about all of the updates on MLMC regarding Georgia Emergency Medical on March 1st?
This just came out around 2:20pm EST:
Mountain Lakes Medical Center
25 mins ·
Join us at 5:30 this evening to meet the physicians of Georgia Emergency Department Services as we begin our partnership to provide emergency care.
Considering the partnership, in conjunction with 27.6% net operating profit, this would be a great centerpiece for other local area hospitals to merge into, seeing it is the most profitable(and maybe the newest) of the local rural hospitals. It has an obvious working model that is behind its net operational profits, and expanding that model to others merging in would serve to strengthen those that are not so efficient. Additionally, and maybe most importantly, this would serve as a COH. It has a working model from a fiscal perspective, while being new and state of the art for the area, and a partnership is forming for cross pollination of emergency services. We have also seen a few of the surrounding facilities show an increase in operational hours(*plus there are a good handful of assisted living facilities attached from which elderly patients can be transported for care while already being known and on file from their stay at the assisted living units).
NVSOS updated. New CEO on board. Still looking for updates on Brad and additional BOD members(*likely they have an order of operations, like PEMDAS in basic math).
Also looking for 8k and audits. Rene may have stepped down as CEO, but Rene owns Pantheon, with Pantheon owning 200M shares as a stake in Toron, and with Toron having just acquired InMed(and already owning iMedScan), then Rene is still along for the ride. The 8k would be to his benefit as well, seeing as that is what the market is waiting for(which would be the catalyst to increasing his share value - and also the holdings of his business partners: InMed, Flagship, Patienttrac).
With the Southeastern and South-Central US showing the most red on the heat map of affected areas, InMed's MLMC and their partnership for emergency medical, could create a great anchor for the company and for the surrounding areas as a COH.
On the list provided up top by MovingOn, I do not see a single COH, just CAH and Rural PPS designations. If MLMC becomes a COH, then Toron has a working model for acquiring other net profitable turnarounds, setting them up as anchors, partnering with emergency medical, then merging in failing systems and creating COH designations in other areas. If Medicaid expansion goes through, and Toron can acquire just beforehand, they buying hospitals in the red and bring them back into the green, govt backed.