Pen Bay Healthcare reports $1M net loss

Pen Bay Healthcare has reported a net loss of more than $1 million for the first nine months of the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1, 2011.

The Bangor Daily News reported a sharp increase in charity care provided to people without insurance was a key contributor to Pen Bay's budget deficit. Free care ballooned to $3.25 million for the nine-month period ending June 30 -- $837,000 more than the same period a year ago, according to the BDN.

Megan Williams, director of communications for Pen Bay Healthcare, told the BDN that the increase is due to both fewer people being covered by the MaineCare program as well as fewer people receiving health care coverage through their work. Overall, Williams reported that Pen Bay Healthcare having an operating loss of more than $2.9 million through the first nine months of the fiscal year. Nonoperating revenues were used to offset some of the losses, resulting in the overall net loss of slightly more than $1 million through June 30. Pen Bay's overall expenses for that period were about $111 million.

Pen Bay Healthcare is the parent company for Pen Bay Medical Center, a hospital located in Rockport, the Quarry Hill retirement center in Camden, the Knox Center for Long Term Care in Rockland and the Kno-Wal-Lin home health care and hospice.

Its announcement follows similar reports by other Maine hospitals, notably Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, which is posting losses of $2.3 million in fiscal year 2012 despite recent layoffs and cost-cutting measures, and the report earlier this month that St. Andrews Hospital and Healthcare Center in Boothbay Harbor plans to close its emergency room next year in a cost-cutting step.