OTTAWA — Because of changes in federal payments for Medicare, Ransom Memorial Hospital’s budget faces some heavy cuts in revenues next year. Among the most immediate cuts — a special Medicare program that gave the hospital a 6 percent raise over two years because of the number of Medicare patients the hospital treated, said hospital finance director Dean Ohmart. He estimated that the hospital could lose $600,000 to $700,000 next year because of the end of the special program. “And that’s just the start of things,” he said. The hospital has made some deep cuts and is now looking at another option of adding new doctors and offering new services in attempt to boost revenues, he said. The hospital does have a major advantage in that it doesn’t have any debt, he said. Many other hospitals will have more difficulty in weathering Medicare cuts because they also have to pay off debt, he said.
Wednesday, Dec. 26, 3 p.m.
