Schneider Regional requests $112.2M ceiling for FY2026; asks $4.8M to restart cancer center

Schneider Regional Medical Center (SRMC) told the Senate Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance on Aug. 11 that its proposed fiscal year 2026 operating budget should total $112,200,000 to fund operations of Roy L. Schneider Hospital, the Myra Keating Smith Community Health Clinic and the Charlotte Kimmelman Cancer Institute as it reopens.

The request, presented by Chief Executive Officer Tina Commission, would cover operating costs, the local Medicaid match and an estimated $36.2 million in uncompensated care SRMC projects for FY2026. Commission said the hospital has included a $4.8 million line-item request to bridge CKCI’s first-year gap while patient volume and billing ramp up.

SRMC said the territory’s payer mix and persistent underpayment by public programs drive most of the shortfall. “Sixty percent of the patients that we serve are either covered by Medicare or Medicaid,” Commission told senators. She added that self-pay accounts represent roughly 15% of encounters and that those cases produced about $21.8 million in billed charges in FY2024, most of which went unpaid.

Why it matters: SRMC described an operating environment where rising national health‑care costs, a high uninsured rate and low local reimbursement create a structural deficit. The hospital said it is taking steps—recruiting clinicians, expanding profitable service lines such as GI and dialysis, and engaging a revenue‑cycle firm on contingency—to increase collections while asking the legislature for targeted support to stabilize operations and reopen CKCI.

Key budget details and requests - SRMC presented a conservative FY2026 operating budget ceiling of $112,200,000 (RLSH +…