August was the best financial month of the year for Three Rivers Health, but it was still a loss.

That was the word from Steve Andrews, vice president of finance, as he reviewed financial statements Thursday (September 25th) during the regular monthly meeting of the Three Rivers Health Authority Board.

Andrews said Three Rivers Health recorded a total net loss of $91,000 ($91,105) in August, which he said was “pretty much what we had predicted last month.”

For the year-to-date, the net loss totals just over $1.5 million ($1,547,720).

Andrews said, “We do expect there to be some more improvement over September and October,” but he cautioned that, “even with all these improvements,” the losses in November and December will likely be worse than these months because of the holidays.  Andrews said, “We’re trying to get ahead of that to see if we can offset that somewhat, but, historically, those have been tough months and we expect that to happen again.”

Andrews said preliminary projections for the remainder of the year suggest the days cash on hand – around 15 to 20 days – will not get worse, but “pretty much stay in that range.”

Later in the meeting, in comments regarding “Recovery Planning,” Matt Chambers, President & CEO, said that, “By January, with the cuts that we have made and the cuts that are planned for the future, we will be able to make, essentially, a “break even” starting in January.  But we’ll need to work on other ways to generate more capital for the organization going forward.”

The statute under which the Three Rivers Health Authority operates allows the use of millage and this is among revenue generating options that are being explored.  The board can authorize a four-tenths-of-a-mill levy for operations and – with voter approval – levy up to two additional mills to raise money for capital expenditures.