Palmer Lutheran Health Center Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Palmer lutheran health center is a 25-licensed bed critical access hospital. The only hospital in west union, Iowa, and employs about 220 employees. Palmer lutheran health center also has three rural health clinics in the communities of west union, fayette and postville, a home care department, hospice department, and home medical equipment department, which have offices in both west union and oelwein. In addition, palmer operates a same day clinic, open after-hours and on weekends, allowing patients to be seen 7 days a week in this setting. This is offered to specifically meet community health needs of working families. Annually, palmer has about 400 admissions, 90 live births; over 3,600 emergency center visits, about 20,750 patient visits in the clinics and performs over 600 surgeries (including ambulatory). Accomplishments: when renovated, the hospital was designed to achieve three goals - create a healing environment that welcomes and supports patients/families, design work areas to better accommodate current and future technologies, systems and approaches to care, and to comply more fully with hipaa regulations. Palmer lutheran health center leads delivery of healthcare to its region through over 225 associates (including 2 physicians, 3 physicians assistants, 7 nurse practitioners and 5 behavioral health providers) which coordinate care to deliver patient care as an integrated unit. Palmer lutheran health center and its affiliates also work seamlessly to meet the needs of the communities they serve. Requirements of the IRS community benefit standards for tax-exempt organizations are integral to palmer lutheran health center's larger charitable mission of improving health and quality of life. Specifically, palmer lutheran health center is governed by a board that includes 3 independent board members who are community leaders, consumer representatives, business experts, and clinical healthcare experts. The board has a history of commitment to acting with the highest of integrity for the benefit of the community. Palmer lutheran health center also makes medical care accessible to the entire community it serves. Palmer operates a full-time emergency room and provides emergency care regardless of ability to pay. Palmer provides clinical services needed to operate the emergency center and provides on-site emergency medical, rescue and medical transportation services. In addition, palmer lutheran health center, through its integrated network of providers, provides non-emergency services to the community it serves. It makes these services accessible to the community through participation in government programs like medicare and medicaid and by helping through palmer's charity care policy, and social services department. Palmer lutheran health center utilizes technology that provides a complete electronic medical record. Our electronic health record is connected to emplify health, which allows us to share test results and other patient information. This enhances the patient care at our facility, as well as other gundersen entities throughout the region. The health center does not pursue collection of amounts determined to qualify for charity care, they are not reported as revenue. The amounts of charges foregone for services provided under the health center's charity care policy were $2,469,496 for the year ended september 30, 2025. The estimated costs of the charges foregone, based upon an overall cost-to-charge ratio calculation were $2,040,664. The health center also commits significant time and resources to endeavors and critical services which meet otherwise unfulfilled community needs. Many of these activities are sponsored with the knowledge that they will not be self-supporting or financially viable. Palmer lutheran health center takes its mission to improve health and quality of life of the people it services a step further by reaching out to meet the broad health needs of the community. It strives to identify community

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 78%; rating input score 78
• Program expense ratio: 84.1%; rating input score 84
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 12th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 33.3%; rating input score 33; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Fail
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 7.3%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.86; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 2.9%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings