Hartford Business Journal

14 Hartford Business Journal • April 13, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com Historic Shuttle Meadow preserves golf, nature By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com B erlin's Shuttle Meadow Country Club has all the trappings of a successful golf course: Rolling, tree-lined fairways and greens that are challenging but playable. When not on the greens, members and their families enjoy the pool and tennis courts, or the clubhouse restaurant and its grill-tavern. But 150-acre Shuttle Meadow, one of Connecticut's oldest golf courses, also bears a sartorial pedigree stemming from its design by renowned Scottish golfer and course architect Willie Park Jr. for the enjoy- ment of early members, including the found- ers of The Stanley Works and Corbin Russ- win in New Britain, and other Farmington Valley industrialists and entrepreneurs. The club, too, is one of the dozen found- ing members of what today is the Connecti- cut State Golf Association. Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen are among golf's greats who have played 98-year-old Shuttle Meadow's links. That plus its expansive, bucolic layout framed by the Metacomet Ridge on its back nine, has earned it the rare distinction of being named one of the "Best Classic Courses in America" by Golfweek magazine two years running. Its No. 182 rank for 2015 places Shuttle Meadow among the top 3 percent of the more than 6,000 historic U.S. courses, said club member Dennis Buden. "It's among the best courses in Connect- icut,'' Golfweek Editor Brad Klein wrote recently. Among its virtues, Klein and Shuttle Mead- ow officials say, is that it is a major land and nature preserve in central Connecticut. Nes- tled amid its 18 greens and fairways and an adjoining 250-acre wooded parcel are centu- ry-old stands of oak and other trees, including the state's oldest certified black cherry tree. Bear, deer, fox and waterfowl are among crea- tures that regularly roam its acreage. No matter the pedigree, running and maintaining a golf course is expensive. So, Shuttle Meadow has joined the ranks of U.S. courses that are searching for ways to build membership enough to take up the slack in its capacity and accommodate hundreds more rounds of golf per week, officials say. With more than 300 members today, Shuttle Meadow, like many aging American golf clubs, seeks new and younger players to join its membership roster. Revenues from dues, greens and cart fees, and golf-shop and food and beverage sales, and catered events sustain the clubs' budget for course mainte- nance, staff salaries and capital investments for improvements and upgrades. Saddled with minimal debt from a mort- gage taken on its clubhouse some years back for course improvements and working capital, Shuttle Meadow's revenues so far are enough to cover overhead, although the club's leadership declined to disclose numbers. "This is a challenging time for golf, but we've managed to do well financially,'' said club President Edmund Kindelan, a Berlin resident and 20-year member. Long term, he said, Shuttle Meadow's members must decide whether to retain its undeveloped 250 acres. "But we aren't forced into any other options today,'' said Kindelan, a CPA and office managing partner for accounting-tax advisor CohnReznick in Hartford. n A bed of pansies overlooking the first fairway awaits golfers at Shuttle Meadow, ranked in 2015 for the sec- ond straight year as one of the Best Classic Courses in America by Golfweek Magazine. The par-3, sixth hole at Berlin's Shuttle Meadow Country Club features a left-side bunker sporting a grass circle surrounded by sand, a playful tribute by course architect Willie Park Jr., to a similar feature at Sunningdale in England, another Park layout. P H O T O S | D E N N I S B U D E N In the short term, declining Medicare reimbursement rates and the threat of state funding cuts and higher taxes could derail Bristol's pledge to maintain local ownership. Long term, Bristol Hospital faces continued pressure to align with growing systems that are expected to lead the charge in moving away from fee-for-service towards popula- tion health payer arrangements. Despite the challenges, Barwis said many opportunities exist for the hospital to remain financially viable without the help of a larger capital partner. "The bottom line is we are not out in a pro- cess of seeking partners," Barwis said. Performing under pressure Bristol was among the quintet of Con- necticut hospitals seeking to be acquired by Texas-based Tenet Healthcare, until the for- profit hospital company abruptly abandoned its deals earlier this year over concerns about the state's regulatory and oversight demands. Besides its arrangement with Yale, it will be crucial for Bristol Hospital to continue to deliver relatively low-cost and high-quality services, Barwis said. The hospital will also have to rely more heavily on its foundation. Tenet promised to offer Bristol $45 million for capital improve- ments; in some years the hospital struggles to allocate $5 million for facility, technology and other upgrades. Bristol's foundation currently has about $18 million in total assets, but Barwis said manage- ment hopes to grow it through a new fundrais- ing campaign. "It's going to have to play much more of a central role in helping us achieve our capital needs and organizations goals," Barwis said. Already, the foundation is raising money to pay for a recently purchased da Vinci sur- gical robot, which a Yale physician will use to perform urological surgeries at Bristol, as part of the hospital's partnership agreement. Fundraising wouldn't necessarily be aimed at growing the foun- dation's endowment, which is invested in the market, but at specific commu- nity needs that could show a stronger financial return, such as revamped medi- cal surgical units and inpatient rooms, Bar- wis said. Bristol board chairman John Leone said the hospital is talking with fund- raising consultants about revamping the foundation's board. Leone is hope- ful about a renewed fundraising effort, but he said he is also realistic about his expectations. "I'm not going to say we're going to raise the kind of money that Tenet could have done," Leone said. A new ACO Bristol's partnership with Yale, for which it pays an undisclosed fee, currently includes col- laboration on certain clinical service lines — like urology and cancer — as well as supply purchas- ing, but it could evolve into something larger. Yale New Haven Health System is current- ly developing an accountable care organiza- tion (ACO) called Total Health. Thought of as an alternative to fee-for- service health care, ACOs are designed to improve health outcomes and lower health- care costs by incentivizing doctors to keep patients healthy rather than simply provide sick care. ACOs contract with insurers to financially reward doctors and hospitals for hitting performance metrics. Barwis hopes that being a part of an ACO with a prestigious healthcare institution like Yale will improve both Bristol's quality of care and bring in more revenue than it costs to be a member. "We hope it grows our bottom line," he said. Vincent Petrini, Yale New Haven Health's senior vice president for public affairs, said the network, which could launch in the next 12 to 18 months, would seek to forge agreements with commercial and government payers, but he declined to give specifics on which hospitals and other providers might be a part of it. "We're still having those conversations," Petrini said. "We expect the network would be broad." Yale has various relationships with hos- pitals around the state, ranging from staff- ing in local cancer centers to full ownership of hospitals in New Haven, Bridgeport and Greenwich. Barwis said Yale's acceptance of Bristol as a network partner reflects well on the hospital's financial management and qual- ity of care. Bristol Hospital has delivered modest but steady margins over the past five years and recently saw a sizable spike in patient revenue. It curtailed its employee pension program in 2008, which lowered its unfunded pension liability to approximately $27 million, Barwis said. As a result, he said markets have been receptive to refinancing and offering addition- al debt for capital projects, though the timeline for such initiatives will move at a slower pace without Tenet's financial support. He said the hospital could refinance its $35 million in debt and borrow another $15 million at any point, but it's waiting to see — and actively trying to influence — how the state budget shakes out. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed Med- icaid reimbursement cuts and a hospital tax increase that Barwis said would equate to an $11 million hit to Bristol over a two-year period. It's enough to make the hospital default on its bond covenants and face the risk of clo- sure within five years, Barwis said. If the legislature's budget removes the cuts and tax increase, Bristol will move ahead with its borrowing plan. But if the cuts go through, all bets are off, he said. Combined with federal Medicare reimburse- ment cuts set to hit in October, the impact will simply be too steep to manage, Barwis said. "Also remember that I have to provide safe care," he added. That's something Bristol has been pretty good at in recent years — and at a relatively low cost. The hospital's number of serious safety events — mistakes or deviations from care standards that lead to harm or death — has fallen steadily since Oct. 2013. Bristol also has one of the lowest Medicaid reimburse- ments per case in the state. That's why Barwis and Leone are puzzled that the proposed state budget cuts would hit Bristol hardest of any hospital — nearly 4 percent of its operating budget. "The goal is to make [lawmakers] aware that they've gone too far," Leone said. "This hospital is a great facility. Where are the peo- ple in this area going to go to the hospital if this place shuts down?" n from page 1 Tough road for independent hospital Besides an expanded relationship with Yale New Haven Health System, Leone and Barwis say Bristol Hospital hopes to rely more heavily on foundation fundraising. P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D

• Cover