Published: June 05, 2008 10:53 pm            

Health dept. feeling economic crunch

The Whitfield County Health Department isn’t immune to the slowdown of the national economy and its trickle down effect on the local floorcovering industry.

Health department officials say they were forced to tighten their belts as they prepared the fiscal year 2009 budget this spring with a “worst case scenario” in mind. On Thursday, the Whitfield County Board of Health voted unanimously to pass the department’s $5.21 million budget.

The 2009 budget is $330,000 less than the 2008 budget and does not include an increase in funding from the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners. The county will contribute about $1.2 million to the health department for fiscal year 2009. The health department’s fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30.

“In these times, as always in public health, we are tight on money,” board chairman Bruce Broadrick said.

Despite the cloudy financial outlook, North Georgia Health District administrator Lamar Hamill said the health department is “very secure that things are going to better financially than we projected.”

How things go will also hinge on the economy’s health.

Hamill said the health department doesn’t refuse anyone for services, regardless of whether they are able to pay or not. During tough economic times as people lose their jobs and drop their health insurance, more are having difficulty paying, he said. Some patients who in the past were able to pay $25 aren’t paying anything now, while those able to pay more are now paying less.

“We don’t know the extent of what’s going to happen,” Hamill said.

District health director Harold Pitts put in place a hiring freeze with no vacancies being filled or hires made as of March 1. Only positions deemed “critical” by Pitts may be filled. Hamill said the department’s 5 percent yearly attrition rate will help ease costs and hopefully avoid staff reductions. Also, there are no promotions budgeted for 2009. Hamill said commissioners asked there be no negative impact on the Medical Access Clinic or MedBank, which provides prescription drug assistance.

“As we lose employees to attrition, it’s going to save us money,” Hamill said. “One of the things we have to balance is we don’t want to compromise our level of service.”

Salaries and benefits for 2009 total $3.83 million, or about 74 percent of the budget. The state Legislature budgeted a 2.5 percent salary increase for health department employees effective Jan. 1, 2009.

“We provide services through people so we are very labor intensive,” Hamill said.

A drop in building construction means permits and fees are down, which has been another blow to the health department’s revenue stream, Hamill said. The environmental health department collected $14,490 in fees through April of this year, compared to $20,372 during the same period in 2007. Septic tank permits are down from 67 in 2007 to 56 during the same period in 2008.

Hamill said health department officials plan to reduce the 2010 fiscal year budget. He said “nothing is off the table” when looking to cut costs, even joking that expensive lawn maintenance may be replaced by “a goat and a rope.”

        

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