Question:
Need some clarification on our Sports Medicine Center. There has been disagreement on how to document this clinical service in our report this year.
Any revenue we receive comes from the school districts directly. They pay us to provide sports physicals and athletic trainer coverage at their sports games. The athletic trainers can provide medical care in the event of an injury or other medical emergency during a game. The amount the districts pay us is never enough to cover the full expense of the services we provide though. And we don't bill patient families for these services. And in the event an injury did occur during a game and it required more intensive medical care, our athletic trainers would call an ambulance. But we do not market or encourage a patient family to go to our emergency department over another hospital. In those instances, it is always up to the family to decide where they would like to take their child.
Recommendation:
Since this is not a billed service it would not be a considered a subsidized service. However, we think it fits in A2, community-based clinical services category and recommend that the proportion of the cost that is marketing be subtracted from what the hospital has to contribute.
For the marketing component, I would make sure that any marketing costs deducted be "hard costs" and not a cost assigned to something like name recognition or goodwill. For example, they could deduct the cost of a marketing banner display or the cost of an ad in the athletic program.
(May 2022)