BY ANDY GARDNER 

North Country This Week

MASSENA -- Massena Memorial Hospital struggled with inpatient volumes in May, leading to a monthly loss of $855,000, CEO Pat Facteau reported at Monday's Board of Managers meeting.

They discharged 122 inpatients in May, about 25 percent behind their expected 161, according to a financial and statistical document published at the meeting. That's also down about 20 percent from the same period last year.

"That's roughly is a $300,000 difference between where we were last year and this year," Facteau told the board. "All our volumes are down, which drives the revenue down."

He said their emergency visits were up slightly last month compared to last year. However, comparing year-to-date 2019 with the same period in 2018, they're short there as well.

"It's volume, volume, volume ... the costs are basically the same as what they were for five months of last year versus five months of this year," the CEO said.

Facteau also said they haven't been getting adequate reimbursement from the BOCES self-insured health plan, which covers school district employees.

He said they received $210,000 less than they should have.

The CEO said they have a contract with BOCES to get 92 percent reimbursement for charges of school district employees, and the alleged shortfall is the subject of a pending lawsuit.

"They were paying closer to 62% than they were to 92%," Facteau said.