BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

MASSENA -- Massena Memorial Hospital predicts an $806,000 loss for the first three months of 2020, but only if they are still a public hospital.

Their chief financial officer said if they can get their privatization and affiliation with St. Lawrence Health System completed by the end of this year, "it should be zero."

At the Monday, Nov. 18 MMH board meeting, CFO Pat Facteau said the $806,000 is based on conservative estimates of revenues and expenses for the first quarter.

Part of that debt includes what they owe to the New York state pension system. Once MMH privatizes, they'll no longer have to pay in.

Facteau also said it doesn't include increased Medicare reimbursements once they receive designation as a critical access hospital. The designation is based on number of beds and average length of patient stay, along with other factors. MMH has a pending critical access application with the state.

In October of this year, MMH lost just over $300,000. Facteau said even though it was another month in the red, they've made significant progress given that earlier months this year brought $1 million or more in operating losses.

"We continue to hope ... to get more revenue to help with these expenses and get the bottom line even better before the next few months," Facteau said.

He said they were able to cut the loss through a number of changes in their medical coding, contract services and eliminating their critical care unit.

Board member Paul Morrow criticized their obstetrics/gynecology service because it may end up losing money for 2019.

He asked Facteau how many newborns they've had so far in 2019. The CFO said there have been 137 so far this year, down from 156 at the same time last year.

"So we're gonna lose money this year," Morrow said.

"It's a service we provide and it's a community service. We can't control that," Facteau said.