By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Despite writing off nearly $500,000 in bad debt, Massena Memorial Hospital finished November with a $717,833 net loss from operations, which was covered from their cash reserves.

Massena Memorial Hospital’s new CEO Robert Wollebin said the number, which is higher than average, is because several outstanding accounts had been overlooked for months and were all figured in at once.

“They were accounts that had been sitting that were all written off this month,” Wollebin said.

He said that despite the hospital being owed nearly half a million from people who aren’t paying their bills, their recovery rate, 2.7 percent, exceeds other area hospitals.

“We’re tracking 2014 to end a couple of percentage points better than 2013,” Wollebin said. “We’re well ahead most of the industry standards in upstate New York.”

Year-to-date, the MMH has reported a $4,165,855 net loss, which comes out of their cash onhand.

MMH CFO James Smith told the board last month that the hospital is eligible for about $4 million in settlement money and federal assistance.

On Monday, he reported that they are eligible for the full amount.

This will replenish MMH’s cash reserves, which have been dwindling to pay off their negative monthly net loss.

He said they will receive $193,000 from a Medicaid audit statement, $196,000 from the Rural Floor Budget Neutrality agreement and $3.9 million from the Interim Access Assurance Fund (IAAF).

The IAAF is a federal program to assist hospitals that only have enough cash on-hand to operate for 15 days or less.

The payment will help them make their yearly payment to the state pension system. They owe about $4 million by Dec. 10.

In addition to that, the state recently agreed to let the hospital adjust its books after several years of incorrectly coding Medicaid payments, meaning they are off the hook from owing Albany $2.5 million.