Decatur, AL – Decatur General Hospital has announced it won't be able to fund its employee pension plan for a year after reporting a more than $8 million annual loss.
It is the largest one-year loss in the hospital's history.
Decatur General has funded the employee retirement program every year since it began in 1977.
The hospital has about 1,100 employees. The cost of funding their pensions would have been about $1.4 million. The hospital contributes 5 percent of each employee's gross pay to the pension, but will not not make those payments this fiscal year.
Hospital officials said about $26 million in charity or bad debt was the reason for the $8 million budget deficit.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)