Revised at 2:15 p.m. May 20 to include comments by Finance Committee Chairman Gary Borgosz

By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- A combination of weather, increased patient confidence and fixing Medicaid coding issues led Massena Memorial Hospital to finish in the black for the first time in months, Massena Memorial Hospital officials said Monday.

MMH CFO James Smith said they handled more inpatient cases and observation visits than anticipated, leading to the books showing a $121,850 net gain for April.

“Those two totals pretty much drove up the monthly total (gain),” Smith said.

He added that May looks just as promising.

“May totals look even better through the first 17 days,” Smith said.

“We remain cautiously optimistic about the month of May,” MMH CEO Robert Wollebin said later in the discussion about the May financial report.

On Wednesday, Finance Committee Chairman Gary Borgosz said he is concerned Smith's description of positive financial results for May are premature.

"I don't want people making statements like that when the final month's numbers are not in," he said.

"We're very superstitious about jumping the gun ... It's not a trend until we demonstrate the ability to hold cost down and generate revenue for a long period of time. Too many things can go wrong in this business."

At the Monday meeting, MMH’s top executive theorized that the reason for better-than-expected April numbers is twofold – more emergency room traffic, which means more inpatient registrations, and the weather.

“When the emergency room is busy and patients walk in and are sick who need inpatient care, 18 to 22 percent of them are admitted,” he said.

He also pointed to recent “odd weather,” with rapid fluctuations between hot and cold temperatures. This can aggravate congestive heart conditions and COPD, Wollebin said.

“The flu has hung around here,” he said. “It’s a combination of things, it’s no one thing.”

He also lauded MMH staff.

“There’s been a lot of hard work by a lot of staff,” Wollebin said.

Health Information Management Director Julie Zyzik said the Clinical Documentation Improvement program is showing results. The board voted to buy the software in September after they learned cases weren’t being properly coded, meaning they were missing out on millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements.

She said their Medicaid case mix is up 12.5 percent year-to-date.

“We’re extremely encouraged by that. It could mean an extra $1 million in Medicaid dollars,” Zyzik said.

The financial and statistical summary made public on Monday shows that despite ending April on a positive note, the hospital is $224,558 year-to-date. They lost $470,000 in April 2014 and year-to-date had lost $1.3 million.