The Monroe County reporter. (Forsyth, Ga.) 1972-current, March 24, 2010, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 4A LOOKING BACK A look back at what the people of Monroe County were reading in the Reporter 5, 10, 20 and 25 years ago this very week: 2005 Declining SPLOST rev enues forced the City of Forsyth to dip into its cash reserve to make a bond payments. The City Council knew SPLOST revenues were likely to fall, but the decrease was larger than expected, and the city needed $176,953 more dollars than previ ously alloted to make the bond payment. Monroe County Courthouse security was scrutinized in the wake of a deadly courthouse shooting in Atlanta. An armed deputy was assigned to the Courthouse during busi ness hours, and no one was admitted without passing through a metal detector. 2000 Hubbard Elementary School principal Dr. Nancy Brunson decided to retire after 34 years in education. Brunson served as Hubbard Elementary principal from 1994 to 2000. Perry Slaughter won the annual Forsythia Festival 5K race with a time of 17:38. 1995 As a member of the Flint Judicial Circuit, Monroe County will receive a third judgeship when Gov. Zell Miller fills 14 vacant Superior Court positions later in 1995. Up to 5,000 people attended the first ever Culloden Highland Games and Scottish Festival. Games presi dent Felton McLaughlin declared the Games "a smashing success." 1990 Torrential rainfall resulted in the highest creek and lake levels in years, flooding dozens of homes and causing hun dreds of thousands of dollars in property dam age. Despite rainfall, Forsythia Festival plan ners declared the 1990 edition "a success." 1980 County unemployment dropped from 4.7 per cent in December 1979 to 4.1 percent in January 1980. OPINION POLL What did you think of the new layout of the Forsythia Festival down Johnston Street? Loved it. Easier to 41 votes find everything. Sim- 51 percent pie crowd flow. 40 votes Didn't like it. It be- 49 percent longs back on the square. GET IT OFF YOUR CHEST The Reporter welcomes your opinions. Submit a letter to the edi tor via email to publisher@mymcr.net, fax to 994-2359, or mail to PO. Box 795, Forsyth, GA 31029. Keep it under 500 words. Include your real name and hometown. Include a phone number. Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Join the free and open exchange of ideas! is published every week by The Monroe County Reporter Inc. Will Davis, president Robert M. Williams Jr., vice president Cheryl S. Williams, secretary-treasurer OUR STAFF Will Davis Publisher/Editor publisher@mymcr.net Gina Herring News Editor news@mymcr.net Richard Dumas Reporter for syth@mymcr. net Adam Ham Webmaster webmaster@mymcr.net Trellis Grant Business Manager business@mymcr.net Carolyn Martel Advertising Manager ads@my mcr. net Gini Seitz Advertising Representative sales@mymcr.net Amy Haisten Graphic Artist graphics@mymcr.net 50 N. Jacksgn St., Forsyth, GA 31029 Periodicals Postage Paid at Forsyth, Ga 31029 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: THE MONROE COUNTY REPORTER P.O.Box795, Forsyth,GA31029 Official Organ of Monroe County and the City of Forsyth Phone: 478-994-2358 • FAX 478-994-2359 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Monroe County - $25 Out of County - $38 Single copy - 75$ Deadlines are noon on r riday prior to issue. The comments featured on the opinion pages are the sole creations of the writers, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Re porter management. Publication No. USPS 997-840) 1 Reporter March 24, 2010 Opinion Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not; Jeremiah 50:2 On the Porch ‘There ain’t no rules around here’ F or great moments in Democratic gov ernance, look no further than last week's pronouncement by Congressman Alcee Hastings. Who is he? Well, Hastings was a federal judge from Florida (appointed by Jimmy Carter) for 10 years before he was impeached and removed from office for corrup tion and perjury. So then, he was, of course, elected to Congress. And the Democrats put him on the one of the most power ful committees in the House - the Rules Committee, where, leading up to Sunday’s healthcare takeover vote, he said this: "There ain’t no rules around here — we’re trying to accomplish something. And therefore, when the deal goes down, all this talk about rules, we make ‘em up as we go along." Let's thank Rep. Hastings for his honesty. People like to say, "there's no difference between the parties, throw them all out." And it’s true - Republicans can be as bad with pork-barrel spending and kick-back politics as Democrats (usually only Republicans pay a price for it). But this past week reminded us that there remain big differences. Despite repeated election setbacks and widespread opposition, Speaker Pelosi and her meddle some band of 1960s radicals rammed down our throats their 2,500-page utopi an dream: gov ernment control of healthcare. As Hastings’ com ments illustrate, liberals stop at nothing - rules, protests, blizzards, to impose their vision on the country. They live for politi cal power. Conservatives, in contrast, generally resist the idea of a larger domes tic role for federal power. Yet, Gallup says there are twice as many conserva tives in the country as lib erals. And still, by a fluke of history, liberals have found themselves in control of two branches of govern ment and are now hastily dictating terms from Washington. As a result, under the bill the president signed Tuesday, for the first time our government will take our hard-earned money and use it to fund abortions, something many of us consider murder, at community health centers created by the legislation. It will dictate that individ uals must buy a product, health insurance, under the threat of a fine or jail. It will dictate what the product is and how much it costs. (As an aside, several of our south Monroe County - - 31210 - subscribers didn’t get last week’s Reporter until this week, Monday. The post office assured me the papers just got left somewhere in their Zebulon Road office. As I told one caller on Monday, don’t worry, I’m sure the federal government will do a better job than this with healthcare. “Don’t get me started!” she replied.) This is a sad time in America - this is how it must have been as Chavez rose in Venezuela or Castro in Cuba, promising hope and change for the masses while amassing power for themselves. Conservatives necessarily must play by the rules - we believe in the rule of law. And so we need to take a page from the playbook of Martin Luther King. When King saw racism codified by immoral laws, he marched, he held sit-ins, he led digni fied civil disobedience. And because his movement was peaceful, grounded in moral and biblical truths and anchored in American traditions, he successfully changed society. There’s a new moral ugli ness being thrust on America - not racism but statism. We are sinking in debt, and yet Congress is amassing monstrous amounts of new debt for unborn children to pay. Congress is stealing more and more bread earned by the sweat of the worker’s brow, and using it to encourage things we find harmful to society - lazi ness, unwed pregnancy, and now, abortion. The fed eral behemoth, like out of control kudzu, is choking out healthy growth in soci ety - strangling the bonds of community and family with its all-consuming lust for resources and power. Even so, conservatives should cheer up. It’s becom ing clearer every day that we, like King, have the moral high ground. I believe as King said, “... that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in real ity.” So onward, all you who love liberty and hate tryan- ny. November’s election is just around the comer. Hospital continued from the front released last week. The hospital's operating loss was actually $828,000, but the hospital offset that largely due to a $200,000 contribution from county commissioners. The overall $631,000 loss in 2009 is considerably greater than the $52,000 loss the hospital posted in the 2008 fiscal year. "It's a significant loss, but it's not the end of the world," Floyd said. "It doesn't mean financial ruin." Floyd pointed to the hos pital's stable revenue even in a bad economy as evi dence the hospital is suc ceeding. The hospital's total operating revenue has exceeded $9 million in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and it actually increased by $170,000 in 2009, a two percent increase from 2008. Floyd said the hospital's heavy losses in 2009 are actually due to increased expenses. The hospital's total operating expense was $679,000 higher in 2009 than 2008, an increase of 7 percent. Floyd said three new hos pital projects were prima rily responsible for the substantial expense increase in 2009. She said start-up costs for the hos pital's added Outpatient Physical Therapy program and new Rural Health Center were financial bur dens the hospital will not face in coming years. In fact, Floyd said the outpa tient physical therapy pro gram has shown early profitability, and the rural health center expenses are being largely underwritten by a federal grant intended to support the clinic during its first two years of opera tion. Floyd said the grant is paid on a reimburse ment basis. She said both new services have been well-received in the com munity, and patient vol umes are so far at or above projections. Floyd also said the hospi tal incurred an additional expense with its new MRI imaging capacity. She said the hospital did not previ ously have its own full time MRI unit and instead relied upon a mobile unit that was brought in sever al days per week. Floyd said in regards to the hospital's cash flow, many of the hospital's larg er payments are coming from state and federal gov ernment health plans, so delays in payment do occur and monthly traffic fluctu ates. So the hospital has borrowed money from Monroe County Bank and The Farmers Bank through lines of credit to bridge the lag in cash receipts. She said as pay ments are received, the line of credit is paid down. Floyd said that although the audit shows a large loss for the year, most of a Critical Access Hospital like Monroe County Hospital's cost-based finan cial "settlement payments with Medicare and Medicaid are not settled up until after the year has been completed. She said the hospital currently awaits $600,000 in pay ments due to it from the combined Medicare cost settlement payment and the state's Indigent Care Trust Fund. Floyd said when you factor things like that, the bottom line does not look nearly as bad. Floyd added 2009 was a "transitional year" for the hospital, since the hospital had three different CEOs. O.J. Booker resigned after fours years as hospital CEO in February 2009. Former administrator Buzz Tanner took over the position on an interim basis until Floyd was hired in July 2009. The hospital continues to have strong assets, Floyd said. The hospital has over $2.6 million in total cur rent assets against over $1.2 million in total cur rent liabilities. However, the hospital's total net assets decreased by $77,000 or just over 2 percent from 2008 to 2009 from $3.47 million to $3.39 million. The total net asset figure factors in the $554,000 that the hospital received from capital grants and sales tax funds in 2009. Floyd said much of the hospital's financial strug gles stems from the hospi tal's treatment of indigent care patients, particularly in a weak economic cli mate. Floyd said indigent care is a particular issue at a non-profit safety net hos pital, such as Monroe County Hospital. Floyd said the hospital receives some federal and state money for indigent care through the state's Indigent Care Trust Fund, but she said some services for indigent patients remain unpaid. Floyd said the hospital has to pay sev eral hundred thousand dol lars annually out of its own pocket for services to patients that couldn't pay. Floyd said the hospital furnished $1,147 million in charity and indigent care in 2009, an increase of over $200,000 from 2008. She said this increase is indica tive of the recession. Floyd said she allocates the money the hospital receives from Monroe County to help fund indi gent care. "I think our community is as hard hit as anyone," Floyd said. Floyd said one aspect the hospital is really focusing on and improving in is becoming more outpatient service driven. "Shifting utilization to outpatient services is cer tainly on the rise here," Floyd said. Floyd said that increas ing the amount of general surgery at the hospital is a must for the hospital's long-term financial suc cess. She said that plans are underway to grow the medical staff once again to replace several doctors that have left in the last two to three years. Family practice physician, Dr. William S. Taunton, joined the hospital's active staff already in 2010, and Floyd said other primary and specialty physicians are being sought. Floyd said she believes more doctors will lead to greater financial success for the hospital. "We improve our access to care when we bring new docs to town," Floyd said. "The docs will send more patients." One important way Floyd hopes to recruit new doc tors is with a brand new 15,000 to 20,000 square foot medical facility a few hundred feet south of the hospital's current location. Floyd said the building, which is tentatively sched uled to open in late spring of 2011, will house the offices of three to five doc tors. Floyd said the build ing will be paid for using a portion of the hospital's $4.3 million in 2008-13 SPLOST proceeds. SPLOST money must be used for capital projects and cannot be utilized to resolve the hospital's oper ating losses. Monroe County Hospital is not alone in its financial struggles. A 2008 financial study by the Georgia State Office of Rural Health evaluated 11 of Georgia's 34 Critical Access Hospitals, including other midstate hospitals located in Putnam and Peach counties. The report showed 7 of the 11 CAH's included in the study lost money, and 5 of the 11 CAH's operated with a negative total margin. Kevin Bloye, spokesman for the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA), said he's not surprised by the losses. Bloye said the lat est survey of rural hospital finances showed that 60 percent of them lost money annually. "It's tough sledding out there for rural hospitals," Bloye said. "Especially with the economy and growing uninsured and declining Medicare and Medicaid reimburse ments." Bloye said that is why it's important that local citi zens support their local hospital, not just because it provides health care 24-7, but because it is a huge economic engine in the community. "Citizens should rally around their hospital," said Bloye.

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The Monroe County reporter. (Forsyth, Ga.) 1972-current, March 24, 2010, Image 4