Nurse practitioner coming to health center

A nurse practitioner, Kathryn Harshman, will join the staff of the Cowlitz Family Health Center in Cathlamet, agency officials announced this week.

Harshman will arrive in Cathlamet late this month, clinic manager Julie Nye said this week. She and her family are moving from Spokane; she will spend a week in the Longview clinic and then begin regular duties in Cathlamet with clinic physician Dr. Del Gardner.

Harshman worked many years as a registered nurse and became nurse practitioner a few years ago. She is licensed to care for all ages, Nye said.

Nye added that Dr. Gardner, who has been living in Cathlamet, moved to a new residence. People saw him moving and jumped to the conclusion he was leaving the clinic and started that rumor, Nye said.

"He is not leaving the clinic," she said.

The health center is facing sharp cuts in revenues from the state of Washington, Director Dian Cooper said Tuesday, but there are no plans to close any of the agency's clinics.

Cooper said the state is imposing a 14 percent cut in revenues to the agency, which will have to suspend some maternity support services, which had been a revenue generator for the center.

"At this time, there are no closures of clinics planned or a reduction in hours," Cooper said. "We will have to do some layoffs. We're working through that."

Clinics statewide are struggling with a state agency's implementation of a new program, Provider One, Cooper said. Staff are having to input data several times to make claims for payment, and the state is very slowly making the payments, she said.

"It's basically frozen," she said. "We've had a real lag in revenues."

Overall, financial predictions show the Cathlamet clinic on track to be $100,000 in the hole this year, Cooper said. The loss is close to agency projections. "Our goal is to have it at zero," she added.

Crystal Stanley is continuing to handle billing and payments for the health center's predecessor, the Wahkiakum Family Health Clinic. She agreed that Provider One was time consuming and slowing payments.

She added that the remaining accounts receivable total around $18,670. "Those are the tough ones," she said.

"Most of the money is due from insurance companies."