I am writing to share some positive news with you about UTMB’s financial status. For the month of October, UTMB performed better than budget. In fact, our budget called for a positive margin of $3.9 million, but our actual margin for the month was $12.9 million, or $9 million better than expected.

These financial results are outstanding, especially amid a global pandemic. I am grateful to all who have worked so hard to keep our mission work on course while managing through one of the most challenging times our institution—and our nation—has ever faced.

Because of this achievement, I am very pleased to announce that all UTMB employees will receive a one-time “thank you” gift of $250 (after taxes) during the month of December in recognition of this impressive achievement. (The gift will be made through a separate check from the usual paycheck.) The executive leadership team and I felt it was vitally important to acknowledge and show our gratitude for your commitment and your efforts to navigate through many months of great uncertainty.

October’s excellent results are also providing us the opportunity to take action that we’ve talked about for a long time at UTMB. Of the $9M surplus earnings in October, we will set aside $7M in the newly-created UTMB Extraordinary Events Fund, or EEF. This fund allows us to reserve money when the institution is doing better than expected to help us cover those times when we are performing below budget. This is the first of several steps we intend to take over the next year to stabilize our month-to-month financial performance. It is important to note that any EEF funds not used will be returned to our General Budget before year end.

UTMB, along with most industries across the country, learned an important lesson from the Covid-19 outbreak.  We build our budgets each year, trying our best to anticipate what we need to earn so we can spend appropriate amounts on patient care, research and education. But nothing could have prepared any of us for the health catastrophe that Covid-19 brought us and the corresponding financial pressures that this pandemic has caused. This is the second time in a dozen years—the other being Hurricane Ike—that UTMB has found itself in a financially precarious position. The EEF will not protect us from these unforeseen calamities, but it will help us manage through them with some breathing room.

UTMB’s financial stability and future growth hinge on our most important asset: you, our valued employees. While other health centers are in real trouble, UTMB is stable because of you. Thank you for caring so much about this institution and for seeing it—and each other—through these uncertain times.

Sincerely,

Ben G. Raimer, MD, MA, FAAP
President ad interim