CARTI Losses Bring Worry, Advice for Financial Cure Inside New Center

CARTI already was experiencing operating losses before it opened its $88 million cancer center in west Little Rock last November. In the months since then, Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute Inc. has seen its operating losses widen to $20.5 million over the last three fiscal years and missed a financial benchmark for its $49 million bond, which forced it to hire a management consulting firm. Whether it is back on track remains to be seen. CARTI President and CEO Jan Burford recently told Arkansas Business that she is concerned because in the first quarter of its fiscal year that began July 1, the outpatient cancer care provider saw a 2 percent increase in the number of patients on Medicare, the federal health care insurance program for people 65 and older and for the disabled. Medicare’s reimbursement for cancer treatment is generally less than the cost to provide the service, Burford said. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, nearly 58 percent of CARTI’s patients were on Medicare. “We don’t know that it’s a trend,” she said. “Every once in awhile it will go up a month or two here or there.” Burford blamed the operating losses on several one-time events, such as a delay in receiving a piece of medical equipment, the cost associated with the move to the 175,000-SF cancer center and a massive computer conversion. “We had a year with just several things that hit us,” she said. “Maybe we would have wea...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news