Why is it being left to elected County Board members, who have no more or less expertise at running a nursing home than any other citizen, to brainstorm ideas on how to make the Champaign County Nursing Home less of a financial disaster for the County.
Nursing home administrator Andrew Buffenbarger estimated that the nursing home could need to borrow another $400,000 to $500,000 from the county by June.
But Debra Busey, the county's finance administrator, said that if the nursing home has to borrow from the general corporate fund, that fund will have to borrow from yet another county fund, such as the county's pension funds.
And those funds could well be short, since property taxes only begin to come in June.
Closing or privatizing the home was only tangentially discussed.
The county's $24 million nursing home was hit with an unexpected $600,000 shortfall in Medicaid funds last month, as well as an increase in contract nursing costs.
Board Chairman C. Pius Weibel, a Champaign Democrat, said the meeting was about coming up with ideas, not debating, and he called it a "good-natured session." Among the ideas to cut costs were using county accounting services rather than the nursing home's in-house system, using energy-efficient bulbs and appliances, asking unionized workers to come up with suggestions in cost-cutting and cutting non-nursing employees.
To cut costs, Buffenbarger said, the home could cut staff and stop admitting new clients.
He suggested two areas where new revenues might be found: long-term care for honorably discharged veterans, and a younger population for rehabilitation services.
Why this being allowed to continue to get worse, and worse, and worse? At what point will it be so bad the County has no options? Are we at that point now?
It's sort of like electing local people to run a school when they have no knowledge of how to do so. We're seeing the results of that failed ideology in Champaign and Urbana now.
The point is clear: Local yokels who don't know anything about education, spending or long-range planning shouldn't be trying to run schools.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the County Nursing Home is meant to be a public service, not unlike street maintenance, the library, police, sewer, health department, etc. They're not expected to turn a profit but are expected to provide a needed service for county residents. Were the nursing home required to turn a profit (or even break even, given today's economy), prices would have to be raised substantially and then many of the residents would no longer be able to afford to live there? If they can't live there, where are they to go? How many old, infirm seniors wandering the streets or living in homeless shelters in Champaign County are acceptable?
But we must turn a profit, after all. It's all about the money, isn't it?
This is exactly why government has no business being in business. Yes, it would be nice if the county could afford to keep this going no matter the cost, but the county is broke (do you read the paper). I don't buy the garbage that they are going to put poor people out in the street, this isn't the "poor farm" anymore. You're wrong to say "the only way they can break even is to raise the prices substantially". The cost of doing business is not equal to a private home. Labor costs, etc. are double that of a private home. Again, this is why government should stay out of the business sector.
Privatize, for the record. The county taxpayers already subsidized the nursing home for 2.4 million last year on property taxes. To minimize the concerns of taxpayers who already voted once to raise taxes to support the home is unfair. When you combine the extra money we are paying for the cost over runs and the operational overruns, our subsidy looks to be closer to $4 million a year. That people don't want to make that $5 million hardly qualifies them as stooges.
By the way, the nursing home also accepts donations. Right now would be a good time for you to send in yours.
So I suppose the Federal government should run everything then? No, the problem isn’t with “local yokels” running their own government. It is the wrong “local yokels” running the government.
If your argument stands why even have a democracy because obviously the average person is too stupid to know how to participate in government.
The leadership of the county board has failed us and continues to fail to act. Instead of turning everything over to state or federal government or to bureaucrats let's elect some people who will take responsibility for the running of the county instead of wringing their hands and pretending that they had no clue that there were any problems.
I don’t know which is worse not acting on knowledge they had or them just having no clue as to what the problem was.
I blame it all on Shelden. He has been a watchdog throughout and has let this happen. He blogs here but doesn't go on TV, go in the paper, go on radio to tell the citizens what has happened. He has kept it under the radar except among a few bloggers.
If Shelden knows so much and knew so much before why didn't he do more?
I would like to clear one thing up,,many people have been giving the state a hard time over the loss of the $600,000. Well, to be blunt the CCNH deserved to lose this money. They have been running a shell game for years,and the state finally had enough and caught up them. The CCNH for public, and taxpayer comsumption have been touting themselves as a full service Skilled Nursing Facility, and after a fashion they are. But, they have also been running an assisted living center at the same time. People that do not actually qualify as needing skilled care,,,but for what ever reason,,,,,kids not wanting to bother to take care of them at home,,,,or no one to take of them,,,what ever the reason. Simply put, to qualify for state payments for skilled care you need to maintain a certain number of people on the books that actually "need" skilled care. I guess it is kind of an example of wanting your cake, and eating it too. They could either drop all pretense, and admit to the public what they have been doing and convert the home into a full scale assisted living center,,which would of course end their county relationship. Or they could go back to their original mission and become a 100% Skilled Nursing Facilty. I am afraid it is too late for either option at this point. It is kind of hard to convince the state that a true skilled care resident has any use for Internet up hooks in their rooms. Again, if the county board really wants help,,I might be interested in helping them out of this mess, but the policy has to change,and maybe some of the current personnel while we are at it.
"The point is clear: Local yokels who don't know anything about education, spending or long-range planning shouldn't be trying to run schools."
This is why I keep deleting your comments - you've posted almost the exact same thing as above in three different threads in the past few hours.
Once is enough. If it sparks discussion, great. If you keep posting it in multiple threads, I'm going to keep deleting it, as not only are you incapable of posting it without insults (dumb; local yokels) but you keep posting the same damn thing.
Give it a rest, or go start your own blog.
"I blame it all on Shelden. He has been a watchdog throughout and has let this happen. He blogs here but doesn't go on TV, go in the paper, go on radio to tell the citizens what has happened. He has kept it under the radar except among a few bloggers.
If Shelden knows so much and knew so much before why didn't he do more?"
Boggle.
Gordy excuse me for this! It is a crock of crap to blame Mark Shelden for any of this,,,,,for months and months he has been the only, and I mean only county official to speak up and take on the county board, he has been called about everything Beckett and company could think of. If Mark had not kept at this, it would never have come out, What else did you expect Mark to do? After all it is the county board that has the ultimate responsibilty for the nursing home,Mark became concerned and spoke out often and loudly. Anon, with no due respect at all, you dont know beans about this, Mark thanks for the hard work,,,,,and I know the abuse you took, but heck you stood tall and said what needed to be said.
Do what you want, W.J., but as long as the local citizenry's inability to govern is part of the discussion, I'm going to keep posting that information.
"Do what you want, W.J., but as long as the local citizenry's inability to govern is part of the discussion, I'm going to keep posting that information."
And I'll keep deleting it as long as you do so in an insulting and/or repetitive manner. And if you don't like it, you can go elsewhere.
Try being constructive. You might actually persuade someone to agree with you. As it is, nobody is listening to you. I think you generated only one or two responses - both disagreeing - since you started commenting here.
Who is W.J.?
W.J. is IP. Stands for "Wimpy Jordy" or some sorta thing. I wondered about this too and finally found a reference in one of the other 4598701936410 comments containing it.
PS, regarding using the county accounting services,,,accounting for nursing homes is more complicated than usual accounting. It requires daily attention, a residents status changes constantly,,,are they on medicare days? If so, what level,,,,have they met their public aid requirements? If so what level? It is a complicated business,and it requires someone with those set of skills to do it correctly,,and even then it is not an exact science. It requires much give and take between the nursing home bookeeping staff and the local caseworker at the public aid/DHS office. I do not think the county itself is prepared for this,and would only make a rough job worse.
To be fair, Shelden isn't the only county official to take on the county board regarding the Nursing Home. Tony Fabri has gone before the board and the media several times, warning about CCNH spending and finances. Like Shelden, he took a lot of heat for telling the truth when the board didn't want to hear it. For some reason, board members believe everything Inman & Buffenbarger tell them, ignoring anyone who questions their wisdom.
Thankyou Clara,,,,,I am sorry for the ommission. Well, I would hope that at least now the board is doubting their wisdom,,,,
"Tony Fabri has gone before the board and the media several times, warning about CCNH spending and finances."
LOL, Tony Fabri lost all credibility a long time ago.
Well, he was right about contract nursing costs bleeding the Nursing Home dry. And he was right about the Nursing Home losing money last year, when Buffenbarger insisted they were "turning the corner".
Fabri, If your going to post your self-aggrandizing posts on this site, at least have the guts to post under your own name instead of "Clara". Really hard to see through that one. Tell us, just how have you "taken on" the county board?
I haven't been following Fabri closely, but it seems like he's been making a decent effort.
It seems to me the administrator in in way over his head. I am sure a lot of the financial problems are out of his control, but he does not seem to have a handle on making even small changes that would help. His answer is always to approach the County Board for more money. I am not one who expects the Nursing Home to be a profitable venture. I think it needs to be available for elderly County residents who do not have long-term care insurance or deep pockets. However, it does not need to bleed money at the recent rate. I'm not sure any skilled nursing homes are making much money these days. The parent company of a local home recently filed bankruptcy, another was sold, and rumor has it that Carle is trying to ditch theirs.
"Fabri, If your going to post your self-aggrandizing posts on this site, at least have the guts to post under your own name instead of "Clara". Really hard to see through that one."
Since you have no idea if this was Tony Fabri posting or not, and since you are posting anonymously yourself, I'd suggest you drop the accusations and attempt to deal with their arguments if you disagree with them.
I blame it all on Shelden.
This must be tongue in cheek as Mark has been the one person who has done the investigations and taken the heat. Remember all those "why beat a dead horse” comments? As far as the media, they are fully aware of this blog and Mark's concerns.
Before the nursing home went to the voters for a tax increase, a few board members suggested potentially selling the nursing home (or at least discussing it frankly). That was consistently met with implied or stated “we don’t care about old people.” There was definitely no honest assessment of the issue. With the issue going to the voters for approval, it now becomes almost impossible to extricate the county. However, everything should be on the table without the same emotional baggage and dialogue.