Health Board Looks at 2015 Budget
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jordan Fouts-
The 2014 budget was approved at $751,113, an increase of $15,755 over last year, and the 2015 numbers are expected to be “not identical, but darn close,” department Administrator Bob Weaver remarked. The department typically has little control over roughly 87 percent of its allocations, the portion devoted to employee issues like compensation and insurance, accounting for $652,041 this year, he told the board.
“Thirteen percent of the budget is all we can keep back,” he said, noting they’ve kept costs like supplies steady for the last six years. “I think this shows we’ve toed the line and kept our costs low with the items we do have control over.”
The finalized budget will be presented to the county sometime before the board’s September quarterly meeting.
The board also discussed the move to full time by Helen Brown, a healthcare worker responsible for Medicaid reimbursement, approved in April by the Kosciusko County Council. Her $24,800 salary is offset by the money she helps bring to the department, the board heard.
Health Officer William Remington Jr. recalled that the last time the department added a full-time position was after the last major tuberculosis outbreak. Before that, about 10 to 15 years ago, the department added a position to service children’s special healthcare needs but the grant funding covering it disappeared unexpectedly, he said.
“It was painful,” he remarked, and it prompted the council to urge the department to take a cautious approach to employment. “We’ve not been in an expansionist mode – to do so would require line-item income from other sources.”[[In-content Ad]]
The 2014 budget was approved at $751,113, an increase of $15,755 over last year, and the 2015 numbers are expected to be “not identical, but darn close,” department Administrator Bob Weaver remarked. The department typically has little control over roughly 87 percent of its allocations, the portion devoted to employee issues like compensation and insurance, accounting for $652,041 this year, he told the board.
“Thirteen percent of the budget is all we can keep back,” he said, noting they’ve kept costs like supplies steady for the last six years. “I think this shows we’ve toed the line and kept our costs low with the items we do have control over.”
The finalized budget will be presented to the county sometime before the board’s September quarterly meeting.
The board also discussed the move to full time by Helen Brown, a healthcare worker responsible for Medicaid reimbursement, approved in April by the Kosciusko County Council. Her $24,800 salary is offset by the money she helps bring to the department, the board heard.
Health Officer William Remington Jr. recalled that the last time the department added a full-time position was after the last major tuberculosis outbreak. Before that, about 10 to 15 years ago, the department added a position to service children’s special healthcare needs but the grant funding covering it disappeared unexpectedly, he said.
“It was painful,” he remarked, and it prompted the council to urge the department to take a cautious approach to employment. “We’ve not been in an expansionist mode – to do so would require line-item income from other sources.”[[In-content Ad]]
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