Dear Editor:

In an otherwise excellent column, Mary Brewer revealed that she, like many others, believes that St. Andrews loses money.

St. Andrews is profitable. It does not lose money, as the Boothbay Register printed on August 22, 2012, in a front page headline on March 13, 2013, and in Mary Brewer’s July 18 column.

MaineHealth and Lincoln County Healthcare never cite the true bottom line shown in St. Andrews audited financial statements. They slyly pass off some other line as its “bottom line,” some line that on average is deep in the red, when in fact St. Andrews’ true bottom line shows it to be in the black. The Register goes along and prints misinformation on “losses” supplied by LCH. On the contrary, St. Andrews is profitable, as is proven by its own audited financial statements.

It’s as simple as ABC. Line A, the bottom line, is found at the bottom of the St. Andrews audited financials. It is never cited by LCH. Instead LCH cites either Line B or Line C, both of which show the phony “losses” reported in the newspaper.

But neither Line B nor Line C is the bottom line. How is a non-CPA to know where to find the bottom line? Simple. It’s the line at the bottom of the audited financials. Line A is always there. Lines B and C never are.

In its St. Andrews 2012 Annual Report, LCH masquerades Line C, the “operating profit,” as though it was the bottom line. It’s not. In its White Paper for St. Andrews mailed to everyone this spring, LCH used Line B as the bottom line, showing that St. Andrews “lost” $2 million over the past 12 years. It didn’t. Its audited financials show a profit of over $5 million for the period.

The puzzle is why the Register, and the Portland Press Herald on July 28, report that St. Andrews loses money as though it is a fact. It’s not. According to its own audited financials, St. Andrews is profitable.

Tom Hagan
Boothbay