Hospital system OKs $2 billion budget

Trustees for Greenville Health System passed a $2 billion operating revenue budget. While the budget calls for a jobs increase, it does not call for a price increase—-meaning that, for the second straight year, room rates at GHS hospitals such as Oconee will remain unchanged. Oconee Medical Center will join GHS tomorrow under the name of Oconee Memorial Hospital, and it already figures into the financial calculations for the regional hospital system for the next year. Charity care and bad debt are budgeted at about $524 million in 2014-15. And the addition of the Oconee Medical Campus contributed to nearly $44 million of the increase over projection.