Knox County Hospital bounces employees' checks; blames old, bad debt and late Medicaid payments

Debt inherited from previous management and late Medicaid payments caused some Knox County Hospital checks to bounce. Most of the facility's employees could not cash their checks last Friday afternoon.

"It was more of an accounting issue than anything and had we known that this was going to happen, we would have put personal money into it and this wouldn't have happened," said Dr. Satya Chatterjee, a management owner. Hospital CEO Craig Morgan said, "That money is starting to come; it's just not coming fast enough, so hopefully we're past the worst of it." Morgan said he "takes the blame for the billing issue and actually had all people in administration hold their checks so other employees were paid as soon as possible," Jerrika Insco reports for WYMT-TV.

It is not the first time the hospital has bounced checks, . "Ever since Medicaid was implemented, the CEO says the hospital has struggled financially," Insco reports.

Presumably, she means managed care for Medicaid, which has prompted many complaints from health-care providers. Since the legislative session began, lawmakers have heard gripes about the state's three new managed-care companies, who took over Kentucky's Medicaid program outside the Louisville region Nov. 1. The companies have been too slow to reimburse providers and require burdensome pre-authorizations before treatment can be provided, critics say. State Auditor Adam Edelen said the companies are sitting on "north of a quarter billion dollars of taxpayer dollars. That's something that requires an explanation to the people of Kentucky." (Read more)