MEEKER | The Eastern Rio Blanco Health Service District Board and Pioneers Medical Center Board met last week at Pioneers Medical Center, 315 Sixth St., to discuss the hospital’s financial performance, technology investments, staffing and governance.
Vice President Regas Halandras, Secretary/Treasurer Sherri Halandras and board members Wade Bradfield, Jean Gianinetti, Dr. Albert Krueger and Danette Coulter attended the meeting in person. Board President Mark Schryver participated via Zoom.
The board began by hearing the May 2026 financial report from Interim Chief Financial Officer Mike Reynolds.
Cash reserves increased during the month because of tax revenue, while adjustments to several accounts receivable also strengthened the hospital’s financial position.
“We had seven accounts that total $356,000 that were in self-pay,” Reynolds said. “They got insurance, so they may not be self-pay.”
Reynolds said the accounts had previously been fully reserved as bad debt. After insurance information was received, the hospital was able to reverse those reserves, resulting in a negative bad debt entry on the income statement.
“You’ll see when you look at the income statement, bad debt is negative,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the negative bad debt reflects the reversal of reserves after staff determined the accounts had insurance coverage.
Revenue Cycle Director Taylor Thrailkill then presented an overview of the hospital’s revenue cycle, explaining how patient registration, insurance verification, authorizations, coding, billing and collections affect reimbursement.
She discussed several initiatives aimed at improving the process, including strengthening front-end registration, improving documentation and coding accuracy, using artificial intelligence to assist with insurance authorizations and bringing additional billing functions back under the hospital’s control. She also discussed efforts to improve communication with patients while working through older billing accounts.
Following the financial presentation, the board approved credentialing for two providers before turning to governance changes. Board members unanimously approved asking the Rio Blanco County commissioners to consider amending the hospital’s service plan to allow board compensation under state law.
“When I came on the board, I tried to get that implemented, so that we get compensation just for the fact that we are all out of work here doing this volunteer,” Regas Halandras said. “Different boards that I’ve been on, we implemented that to actually improve our ability to get people to stand up and try to get on the board.”
Interim CEO Steve Hannah said compensation should not discourage community members from serving.
“One thing that was discussed with the work committee is that we didn’t want that to be a barrier for people running for the board,” Hannah said. “With a seven-member board, we didn’t want the lack of compensation to be the barrier.”
Following the discussion, the board voted to ask the county commissioners to amend the service plan before unanimously approving the remaining bylaw revisions. The revisions expand the board from five members to seven members, separate the secretary and treasurer positions, and establish January as the annual month for board evaluations. The compensation language will remain on hold pending the county’s decision.
During his CEO report, Hannah updated board members on the hospital’s electronic medical record evaluation.
“We have received three proposals,” Hannah said. “We’re going to proceed with Ovation because they were the most cost-effective, and we felt like it would meet our needs to assess Meditech and Athena.”
At the same time, the hospital has begun discussions with Aspen Valley Health about the possibility of eventually transitioning to the Epic electronic medical record platform.
“That decision process will take at least six months to a year,” Hannah said.
He added that another hospital estimated an 8% increase in revenue after converting to Epic, but said, “That analysis for us is yet to be completed.”
The board also discussed the future of hospital-owned housing. Preliminary estimates valued the Third Street house between the low $300,000s and low $400,000s, but board members agreed additional discussion is needed before deciding whether to sell the property.
“I think we need a deeper discussion on Third Street before we decide that we’re going to sell,” Regas Halandras said.
The hospital will continue pursuing grant funding for predevelopment work on land near the Shults Apartments.
Hannah also reviewed the hospital’s continued growth since moving into its current facility in 2015, noting net operating revenue has increased from approximately $12 million to about $65 million.
“The main point in this graph is just to see the growth trend,” Hannah said. “We’ve grown a lot. We’re probably going to continue to grow.”
He said that growth has prompted discussions about eventually creating a chief medical officer position.
The board also approved a new independent contractor agreement for emergency physician Dr. Jennifer Craig, who will transition from employee status to a 1099 agreement while continuing to provide full-time emergency department coverage. Members also authorized Hanna to continue negotiating an employment agreement with family nurse practitioner Andrea Hazelton within board-approved parameters.
Chief Clinical Officer Janelle Borchard reported Walbridge Wing currently has 29 of its 30 licensed beds occupied and announced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the hospital’s annual smoke compartment waiver.
“We can’t just brush it over the road,” Borchard said while discussing the need for a permanent solution because the long-term care facility was built with only one smoke compartment.
Borchard also announced the hospital will transition from in-hospital sleep studies to home sleep studies because of declining patient volumes, staffing challenges and insurance requirements.
“We’re keeping our sleep program very much alive within our clinic,” Borchard said.
She also reported five traveling employees are in the process of becoming permanent staff members while three international nurses have already received visa approval.
“We are just getting more and more travelers that want to stay permanently,” Borchard said.
Borchard highlighted the launch of the hospital’s new Patient and Family Advisory Council, which held its first meeting in May.
“It worked so well,” Borchard said. “We can really be that bridge in the community and communication.”
Marketing Director Erika Wyld reported continued community outreach efforts, including participation in Meeker Palooza, preparations for the Community Care Classic golf tournament on July 18 benefiting the Pioneers Healthcare Foundation and expanded marketing efforts into the Grand Junction region.
After receiving administrative updates, the board entered executive session to discuss the interim CEO’s engagement pursuant to C.R.S. 24-6-402(4)(f)(I), provider contract standardization and compliance improvements pursuant to C.R.S. 24-6-402(4)(e)(I), and a report concerning a quality issue pursuant to C.R.S. 24-6-402(4)(b).
Following executive session, the board reconvened in open session and announced it expects to finalize the interim CEO arrangement at its July meeting. No final action regarding the interim CEO arrangement was taken. The board also approved moving its regular meetings to the third Tuesday of each month. The next meeting is scheduled for July 21 at 9:30 a.m. at Pioneers Medical Center, 315 Sixth St.