County-owned hospital not costing taxpayers

A local hospital is finding ways to provide better care and save taxpayers money.

It’s costing Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg $84 million to stay open this year, but none of that cost is being passed to taxpayers.

Last year, when the hospital needed to renovate the delivery unit, it sought private donations.

“We have a hospital foundation that many members of the community, even our own employees support with deductions out of their paycheck,” said Madison Memorial CFO Troy Christensen.

The hospital also takes advantage of grants.

“That’s typical of most other hospitals out there,” Christensen said.

This comes at a time when the hospital is faced with a number of additional costs.

“The equipment, the supplies–those things–are very expensive and we can count on increases in those costs every year,” Christensen said.

Christensen said the Affordable Care Act is forcing the hospital to switch to a more complex billing system.

“This fall, we will transition–unless it’s delayed—to ICD-10 where we have 141,000 codes that we have to get right,” Christensen said.

But even with the challenges that lay ahead, hospital leaders say they are confident they can continue to operate without taxpayer support.