Edward-Elmhurst Health Finds $92 Million Accounting Error

ELMHURST, IL — Edward-Elmhurst Health recently found an error in their accounts receivable, in which accounts had been overstated by $92 million. The organization said in a a release that the error had accumulated over six years.

The organization said in a release that $42 million of the error occurred before July 2013 when Edward and Elmhurst hospitals merged. After a review of accounting practices, changes have already begun at the organization.

"These accounting changes will reduce our operating income for the first six months of fiscal year 2018 by $10.4 million," the statement from the hospital read. "One of the changes involved adjusting our bad debt reserve policy to fully reserve for those accounts older than 365 days, an appropriate response to the rise in
bad debt in the industry."

According to a release, the organization said the cash position and balance sheet of the hospital remains strong.

"This is an unfortunate situation but one that we’re aggressively addressing and resolving," the statement read. "We understand the causes of the error and have addressed them. We have updated our accounting practices to ensure reliable financial statements going forward and have the right people in place to make the needed corrections."

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