Yuma Hospital District CEO Anne Kreutzer provided an update on the Big Beautiful Bill impact on health care during the board of director’s regular monthly meeting, last week in the Pearse Board Room.
All five members were in attendance: President Mitch Korf, Mark Werts, Delaina Klein, Elizabeth Hickman and Monica King.
Kreutzer based her information on a report from the national Advisory Board.
Cuts in the legislation include $1.2 trillion health care impact. It includes market place tax credits, medicaid cost shares, a work requirement for Medicaid and more.
Potentially, 14.2 million people in the United States could lose their health insurance. Kreutzer said that will move them to self-pay, but many will not be able to afford the services provided so health care providers will have to write it off.
“Sequestration” would kick in if the country’s deficit would get too high. If that occurs, YDH would receive 94 percent of costs for Medicaid services instead of the current 99 percent. There could be less coming to the facility from the Medicare Provider Tax as well.
Kreutzer said YDH would not start realizing the impacts until 2027, “so we have time to plan how to position the district to withstand the storm that will be coming.”
The board took steps in that direction by passing some resolutions during last week’s meeting. One is to discontinue the automatic rollover in Raymond James Investment accounts. Instead, it will be determined where to invest those funds for the best return when that time rolls around.
Another passed resolution closes a public fund operational account at TBK Bank, and reinvest those funds. It was noted TBK has been a good partner with the district, but the district is just looking for higher interest income.
Another resolution closes multiple accounts at Bank of Colorado, simplifying the process into one account.
Interim Financial Officer Colette Martin as approved as a signator on the district’s accounts so she could complete the above tasks.
Martin provided the financial report for August, showing the district still remains on pace for a strong year financially.
A 2026 preliminary budget was presented to the board, as that had to be done by October 15 to meet special district requirements. A notice of budget will be published, and the budget will be fine tuned until it comes back before the board for final approval in December.
A capital request from the Rehab Department for two new pieces of exercise equipment was approved, at a cost of $14,098.
Kreutzer told the board that clinic hours at Harmony Home/Eben Ezer are expected to start in October.
She said a new lab tech was scheduled to begin working here this past Monday. It is the first time in a long time that YDH Lab will not have any traveling lab staff (locums), which is expensive.
Flu shot clinics are coming up in October, and the health fair will be at the end of the month.
New medical staff appointments approved by the board were for: Alexander Blitch, MD, family medicine; Ryan LeBaron, MD, radiology, and; Jason Wadibia, MD, neurology.
Approved reappointments were for: Austin Reed, CRNA, anesthesiology; Alan Favier, FNP, family medicine; Jill Wilson, MD, radiology, and; Robert Jelinek, DPM, podiatry. The board approved the resigned privileges of Brian Davis, MD, orthopedics.
October 22 will be the board’s next regular meeting.