The Valley Signal

Health & Safety

Teton Valley Health Care Ahead of Budget Six Months Into Recovery Year

Teton Valley Health Care posted a $13,000 operating margin in the first half of fiscal 2026, CEO Leianne Everett told county commissioners on May 11.

By The Valley Signal Editorial Board ·

DRIGGS — Teton Valley Health Care CEO Leianne Everett told Teton County commissioners May 11 that the hospital is running ahead of budget six months into fiscal 2026, posting a $13,000 operating margin against a forecast loss of $478,000.

Everett took the CEO role in September after serving as CFO. The figures she presented show TVHC has cleared the immediate cash crisis that triggered January's 26-position cuts and the closure of its infusion clinic. The longer question, whether the hospital remains independent, joins a larger system, or pursues a taxing district, is still open.

How TVHC closed the gap

Per-pay-period payroll has come down from roughly $800,000 at the time of the January cuts to between $550,000 and $600,000, Everett said. She told commissioners that some key positions could be restored as the hospital's cash position improves.

The hospital engaged Intelihub, a billing and coding partner, on March 17 to shorten the billing cycle. The team assigned to TVHC has grown from three coders to thirty. Patient receivables totaled $8 million as of Everett's presentation; the hospital expects billing results within 90 days of the March 17 start.

TVHC delivered the first-half numbers despite three drags on revenue. The hospital closed its operating room for ten days in March and April to replace the floor to current infection-control standards, scheduling the work around the surgeon's vacation. A flood closed the Driggs clinic for a stretch in the same window. April is the hospital's lowest-revenue month.

Teton Valley Health Care recognized a little over $1 million in Employee Retention Credit on its 2025 balance sheet. The IRS has paid out $570,000, and roughly $1.3 million remains outstanding. The hospital repaid $1.2 million under a separate cost-report adjustment in October and expects to receive $720,000 of that back. The Teton Ridge Ranch Foundation sent a separate $2 million gift in April, designated for hospital operations.

The fiscal 2025 audit, for the year ending September 30, 2025, shows TVHC cleared $1.8 million in profit. Cash on hand stood at $3.8 million at year's end and at $3.4 million on March 31, roughly 32 days of operating cash.

Everett's presentation did not break down the composition of the roughly $491,000 swing from the budgeted first-half loss to the reported operating margin: how much came from January's payroll cuts, how much from Employee Retention Credit recognition or the cost-report adjustment, and how much from non-operating items like the Teton Ridge Ranch Foundation gift. Each component carries different implications for whether the trend can hold once one-time effects roll off.

What's still unresolved

Everett said TVHC is in talks with three larger health systems and expects the process to take twelve months. Possible outcomes range from a merger or partnership to affiliation agreements that would give a partner a right of first refusal on specific service lines.

Stroudwater, a healthcare consulting firm, is scheduled on site June 4 and 5 to conduct a strategic operational and financial assessment, with a report to the TVHC board to follow. The hospital cited an eight-week review window in its April 15 community update.

The hospital has tabled the question of seeking voter approval for a hospital taxing district while those talks and the consultant's review continue. The taxing-district question could return in 2027.

Teton Valley Health Care presented the August 2025 proposal to convert the hospital's 99-year lease into ownership over ten years, but the topic did not come up in Everett's May 11 remarks. The earlier proposal paired the request with a commissioner-ordered property appraisal. That appraisal remains unpublished, and the question is on hold while the partnership talks and the Stroudwater review proceeds.

A new general surgeon will begin practicing at TVHC on October 1. The orthopedic surgeon's practice at the hospital is growing, Everett said. She also planned to meet this week with Commissioner Dan Powers and Dr. William Nibley about reintroducing infusion clinic services, which the hospital closed as part of the January cuts.

"These are normal things that happen in critical-access hospitals with governmental payers," Everett said. "However, you have to have cash balances on hand to ride out the storm, and we are coming out of the storm."

What to watch: Stroudwater's strategic review on June 4 and 5 and the consultant's report to the TVHC board are the next public milestones. The Signal will check the May 11 BOCC minutes against this account when they post to eScribe.

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