NATCHEZ — When Natchez Regional Medical Center’s budget year comes to a close at the end of the month, the facility will be marking a bit of a milestone.

For the first time in five years, the hospital will be ending the fiscal year with a profit.

This year’s profit is expected to exceed $746, 000

“It’s the first time in a long time,” Natchez Regional Chief Administrating Officer Bruce Buchanan said. “This hospital has overcome some major financial problems.”

In May 2008, Buchanan’s firm, Healthcare Management Partners, was hired by Natchez Regional’s Board of Trustees in the face of Regional’s dire financial situation.

Tuesday, the Adams County Board of Supervisors ratified the facility’s budget, which showed the profit.

In more than a year of running Natchez Regional, HMP has ordered cost- saving measures throughout the facility, laid off employees and declared bankruptcy as a means of financially restructuring the hospital.

“This board had to make a lot of very difficult decisions,” Natchez Regional Board Chairman Dan Bland said. “But we’re starting to see the benefit.”

And that benefit is expected to manifest in the upcoming financial year also.

Natchez Regional CFO Charles Mock told the supervisors he is expecting a profit of approximately $794,000 for the 2009-2010 budget year.

But even as the hospital shows signs of financial recovery, there are still challenges to be faced.

In the 2008-2009 budget year the hospital has projected $12.2 million in bad debt, essentially unpaid hospital bills.

That figure is expected to rise to $12.5 million in 2010, Mock said.

Buchanan said those bills are generated when patients either did not have insurance and did not pay for their hospital visit, did not have enough insurance to cover their expenses and did not pay the difference or had adequate insurance and simply failed to pay their co-pays or other fees.

While most supervisors were surprised by the amount of bad debt, it’s part of running a hospital in today’s society, Buchanan said.

“It’s a reality we have to deal with,” Buchanan said.

Bland and Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter said they believe Regional has such high amounts of bad debt is because many in the county and surrounding area think Natchez Regional is a charity hospital.

“They just think they can skip out on the bill and the county will take care of it,” Bland said. “That’s wrong, this is not a charity hospital.”

While the supervisors briefly discussed the hospital’s use of a collection agency to collect unpaid bills, some in the community simply don’t have the means to pay, Mock said.

“When it comes to paying a hospital bill or feeding your family, you’re going to feed your family,” Buchanan said.