Mar. 19, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
A long and tedious process that will provide federal reimbursement to Roosevelt General Hospital is close to an end says the administrator.

The hospital is in the process of establishing hospital-based rural health clinics in Portales and Clovis. The two clinics are up and operating but have still not received approval for reimbursement, said RGH administrator James D'Agostino, during Tuesday's hospital board meeting.

"The additional income generated by the clinic can be used to recruit physicians to this area," D'Agostino said.
The application has been sent to the Trailblazers Alpha Enterprises acts on behalf of Central Medicare Medicaid Services. The process has taken 220 days, D'Agostino said.

"The application was sent back because it was not precise in their eyes," D'Agostino said.

There were times that the application was sent back due to minor mistakes such as the address listed on the application was P.O. Box 868 and because we received mail in drawer 868 it was kicked back. A second time was because we submitted the application with the name listed as RGH and our proper name is Roosevelt Special Hospital District, D'Agostino said.

Working with the State of New Mexico as well as the federal agencies D'Agostino thinks the process will be completed soon.

The board also discussed going to the voters to approve a 20-year extension of bonds that will off the hospital debt.

"If the voters approved this extension it would be the best option for RGH," D'Agostino said. "The hospital would be free and clear."

The board is looking to the bond option in order to move forward with expansion plans while retiring the original debt.
The bonds would be paid back with its half cent dedication from gross receipts taxes.

"Every time that someone buys something in Roosevelt County a half a cent of the sale goes towards the hospital building," D'Agostino.

Other items before the board included:

--Trying to work on decreasing the cost of equipment needed at RGH. One suggestion was to switch to Kodak (NYSE:EK) who will provide a phosphorus cartridge that will translate a digital image of the scan which can be transmitted or put on a disk for patient records.

--Introduction of new Covenant Health Services representative David Shaw.

--Recruitment of new family physicians for RGH. The hospital and CHS will discuss splitting the cost of recruitment of new physicians for the area.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0245-23895791