From today's News-Gazette:
The Champaign County Board will look at ways to rescue county finances from deficit-spending on its nursing home Thursday night – including the possibilities of raising taxes or even selling the facility.
The finance committee meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the Brookens Administration Center, 1776 E. Washington St., U.
The nursing home lost $600,000 in Medicaid funding this spring, faces higher costs for agency nurses because it has had difficulty finding full-time nurses, has already borrowed from the county and expects to borrow more next month.
Finance committee Chairman Brendan McGinty said the committee's discussions would include a possible question on the November ballot to raise taxes to help fund nursing home operations, an idea raised by union members at the nursing home, which had layoffs this week.
On the other extreme, the committee will start the process of looking for a buyer of the $24 million facility, which opened last year.
That process is one "we don't have to execute, if we fix things in the interim," the Urbana Democrat said.
I'm amused, however, to notice media coverage of concern about the massive legal fees owed by the County related to the Nursing Home. If I remember correctly, someone correctly predicted exactly this problem and was ignored.
Of course, this isn't the only nursing home-related issue on which Mark has been both prescient and ignored, so we should probably be used to it...
Remember when a poster wondered why Mark was beating a dead horse on the legal issues? Quite the contrary. The legal fees issue is relevant, important and ongoing. And he's the only one with the guts to address it. A few board members (ie John Jay) seem concerned/outspoken as well. Oversight...where's the oversight?
And the audio of Rietz' defense of the bill was enlightening. She sounded really p.o'd that anyone would question the bills or billing practices of Phebus. After all, he was working for the county to recover funds for that taxpayers.
(WDWS just had snippets - I'd love a reaction from someone who witnessed it.)
Aren't we still paying the tax that was created to pay for the building itself? The quarter-cent public safety tax? It's not like they removed that tax once the building was built. So if they need more taxes for the nursing home, how about starting with that one instead of asking us to pass a new one?
Aren't we still paying the tax that was created to pay for the building itself? The quarter-cent public safety tax? It's not like they removed that tax once the building was built. So if they need more taxes for the nursing home, how about starting with that one instead of asking us to pass a new one?
I'm afraid that you've combined several projects into this statement. The nursing home construction was financed by a bond referendum in 2002 that will take somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years to pay off. Those bonds are paid for with property tax revenue and that tax money can only be used for the bonds the voters approved. This tax is retired when the bonds are retired.
The nursing home is also supported by an operational tax - also a property tax that was passed at the same time as the building bonds. Those funds may only be used to supplement the operation of the nursing home. I believe that they were originally supposed to be used for IMRF payments. This tax never ends.
The quarter cent public safety tax built the new jail, courthouse, youth detention center and the Steve Beckett Clocktower (guaranteed correct time twice a day). That money must be used for public safety related matters - construction, crime prevention, etc. I don't remember if that money can be used for Sheriff's Deputy salaries. This tax never ends.
As far as the Nursing Home goes, I'm not sure any amount of tax dollars thrown at it can make up for the arrogance and incompetence of the people (both elected and appointed) who run it.
Well said John,,,,,very well said:) I would have only added: arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence,it sings!
Thanks for clearing that up John. There are so many local taxes it's sometimes hard to keep track.
From what I've read it seems there are (at least) two large problems causing the nursing home financial problems: nursing shortages (leading to contract nursing) and medicare. The latter is hard to solve, although it seems they could supplement their residents with non-medicare ones given they have empty beds. But the former can be solved. I'd start with the management. There's obviously enough nurses out there since the home can fill their shortages with contract nurses from somewhere. Why don't those nurses just come work for CCNH? It's a researched fact that one of the most important factors in job satisfaction is one's boss. This rates higher than pay, benefits, vacation, etc. for many. If the nursing home had a great nursing manager then more nurses would want to work there. So why hasn't the nursing manager been replaced? That leads to the nursing home administrator I expect. Perhaps he doesn't create an environment that attracts the best candidates for such a position? Seems like replacing these two would be a good place to start.
It is not Medicare,,which is for discharges to hospitals, and back to the nursing home, which is a temp status, it is Medicaid that they do not treat well. Medicaid is thru the state,,and its level of payment is based on the level of care per resident receiving assistance. If the resident does not have enough "points" per se,,,,,for the higher level of care, then they receive the lower level. For many years, even in the old home,,they have had a tendency to cherry pick their medicaid residents,,,they could get away with this,,,,with only a small help from the county because of being in the old home,,,,,building new,,,and all the gadgets etc, they became even more particular about the level of resident they wanted,,and Medicaid acted correctly,,,I was the group care worker for public aid at one time,,,so contrary to what some of the county experts think of me, I know their operation better than they do.
Local NBC news just said that the county board is considering raising property taxes to help the nursing home.