A decline in revenue and an increase in operation costs have left UW-Eau Claire’s Health Services with a $36,000 deficit and students with additional fees.

“It is not a matter of us spending money we shouldn’t be,” Director Laura Chellman said. “They were unforeseen costs, and they all happened at the end of the (fiscal) year.”

For the 2002-2003 year, Health Services received $10,000 less in total revenue than estimated. It also had an increase of more than $28,000 in fringe benefits for its employees, which includes health insurance.

To help reduce the deficit, students will be charged fees for services, such as lab work, that were previously free.

A one-time fee of $5 will be charged for any lab work, Chellman said, such as throat cultures or blood work. This fee will help fund supplies used for the work, such as needles.

There also are new charges for specific care, she said. For example, wound care will cost $5.

“Basically when we use materials and run the sterilizing machine, (fees will be charged),” she said.

In addition, the cost of some items Health Services sells to students – some medication andcontraceptives – have been increased to help with last year’s shortfall.

Eau Claire, however, is doing better than other UW System health services, Chellman said. Some universities had to raise fees years before Eau Claire did, she said.

When determining the fee increase, Health Services did look at other universities.

“We are not out of line … on what we’re charging,” she said.

While coping with the deficit, Chellman said they will continue working on the goals of educating students on health care and keeping students healthy.

Business Services Director Dave Gessner sympathizes with the challenge Health Services is facing.

Part of the problem comes from staffing the office, he said. Providing health insurance to Health Services employees is important, but it is a driving cost factor, he said.

Many of the employees are part time but still eligible for benefits. Health Services ends up paying for two benefit packages to fill the hours of one full-time employee, Gessner said. And it is hard to keep full-time employees. There is not a consistent pattern of when staff is needed because of student breaks, he said.

The problem is tricky, Gessner said, but both Health Services and the Senate Finance Commission, which allocates funding to the organization, must work together.

The organizations must work to meet revenue goals and contain costs, while the Finance Commission must give them an adequate amount of segregated fees, he said.

Matt Flaten, a student senator and the former Finance director, said there is one solution to prevent organizations from going into debt in the future. He would like to have in-depth studies done on organizations like Health Services to ensure it is meeting students’ needs.

“We need to look at the structure of Health Services,” he said.

Flaten, however, said he would never want to tell an organization how it should be managed.

“The Finance Commission needs to come up with some plan (to prevent deficits),” he said, “with the cooperation (between the commission and organizations).”

Fixing Health Services’ current deficit is another issue, Flaten said, but every idea to fix it should be explored.

“We can’t have groups with no money to pay the bills,” he said.