Nursing Home Reality Debate

The News-Gazette all but called Democrats' continued support for the nursing home delusional as it mocked their moral superiority and accused them of being do-gooder die-hards unbowed by facts. It's pretty harsh. Click here to jump directly to Democratic County Board Member Kyle Patterson's rebuttal.

Incredible divide on nursing home

The Champaign County Board's handling of the nursing home controversy is taking on other-wordly features.

Those who are conflicted in their view or have no opinion on the future viability of the county nursing home need only look at the latest budgetary contortions the board has put itself through.

Last week, in what can only be described as an act of desperation, the board voted 13-8 to fund the financially beleaguered nursing home for six months. The board's majority opted for that questionable course as a means of avoiding a decision on how to cut $1.4 million in spending needed to support the county's statutorily mandated programs so it could continue to fund the purely optional nursing home.

If this isn't a case of the tail wagging the dog, it's darn close.

Further, there appears to be a widespread consensus among board members that this proposal is being held together with bailing wire and chewing gum and might fly apart with the slightest of nudges.

There's the little matter of a $500,000 loan repayment the nursing home is supposed to make to the county's general fund in December. The nursing home's cash balance is down to $19,000, according to county administrator Rick Snider, so how good are the nursing home's chances of meeting that obligation?

Perhaps that's why there has been discussion about the need to issue tax anticipation warrants — a bank loan to be repaid when eventual revenue generated by property tax payments comes in.

The nursing home has all the earmarks of a failing enterprise. Yet to hear some board members talk, the idea of selling or closing the nursing home is unthinkable.

"In my mind, (the county's obligation) never ends because care for the elderly and the people in the nursing home, it never ends. We can talk all we want about kicking the can down the road, but in my mind, there's no can to kick. It's about care for folks who need care, and that's something that's not going to end in this county," said Democratic board member Josh Hartke.

Hartke's words are sincere, but misguided.

If the county nursing home was the only such facility in Champaign County or beyond, there might be some merit to that holier-than-thou position. But there are plenty of private facilities, where current county nursing home residents can go.

Indeed, if there wasn't strong competition from the private sector, the county wouldn't have encountered the seemingly endless problem of not having enough nursing home patients needed to generate the revenue necessary to keep it financially afloat.

So what, in fact, is the county board doing other than playing financial Russian roulette regarding an optional service for which there is limited demand but back-breaking costs...

The article continues here.

Democratic County Board Member Kyle Patterson laid out a step-by-step rebuttal:

Lots to unpack here. Let’s do this chronologically:

The $500K “loan” the republicans blocked the renewal of as a political move to sabotage with no reasonable explanation other than to further manufacture the financial “crisis” at the County Nursing Home. Ask yourself: how can the County “loan” money to itself? Because it is technically an “enterprise” entity, the county cannot simply do a budget transfer to the nursing home the way in which other departments are replenished when they have financial shortfalls, which the county board does for multiple departments every month. There is no running record of “debt” for the other departments that need extra money because of unexpected costs the way the Nursing Home does. This is a red headed step child situation. As Josh Hartke, who they call misguided, once said so well: there are boilers at the nursing home they are failing because the county board chose the architects, approved and funded the construction of the nursing home which has a structural flaw that places the laundry machines too close to the boilers and the boilers acquire debris, so now the county board “loans” money to the nursing home to fix the boilers that failed because of the decision made by the county board, then when if we sell the nursing home, the county will then get paid twice for selling those boilers. Both from the returned loan and then from selling the home. It’s nonsense.

The only reason there is “discussion” of using Tax Anticipation warrants is because the republicans, in a move to sabotage the finances of the home, blocked the county acquiring those rather routine loans. For no motivation other than to hurt he Nursing Home. They are trying to force democrats to sell the home by dooming the Home to financial ruin. They are preventing the home from paying its bills.

Two huge examples of the editors missing the point:

1. we support the Champaign County Nursing Home NOT because there are no private homes, but because we believe in the foundational progressive principal of PUBLIC HEALTH CARE. For profit homes provide worse care than public nonprofit nursing homes and there is plenty of data to back that up. For profit corporations reduce services, cut wages and reduce staffing levels, choosing profits over people. This isn’t news nor is it unique to nursing home care. For profits corrupt access to healthcare across the board. Without a large, quality nursing home that places no restrictions on access for Medicaid patients, many low income individuals will have no where to go in CU.

2. The Champaign County Nursing Home is a SERVICE, NOT a BUSINESS. They only say it’s not financially viable because it can’t sustain itself financially, which, NEWS FLASH, neither does any county department! It’s not supposed to be a 100% self sustaining business like a private home, and it was never intended to be. The home has a bit of a tax levy that some would characterize as a “subsidy”, which is designed to fund the nursing home with revenues generated outside of the services compensated at the home. In the structure, it has never been considered a self sufficient entity. The nursing home provides a SERVICE in which the private industry cannot provide, and that’s universal access for Medicaid patients. Private homes limit access from Medicaid patients because the state is inconsistent with timely compensation for Medicaid patients, which has caused the majority of CCNH’s pain. Our county has always recognized the need to fund a service that offers an outlet for Medicaid nursing home patients by funding the home in a way that the private industry cannot.

And lastly, the editors refer to their not being a “demand” for the nursing home. Let’s get two more things clear:

1. The nursing home cannot fill enough beds right now because...... THE NEWS GAZETTE AND REPUBLICANS KEEP BASHING THE PLACE AND CALLING FOR ITS IMMEDIATE SALE! Our census is low because people are afraid to put their parents in a home that they think is going to be sold soon. You want to place your loved ones in a home that will be consistent for years and not have to possibly move them once they are in nursing home care. The drum beat from the news gazette has caused a low census and the departure of many good staff members that are afraid that once it’s sold, the new for profit company will have mass layoffs, exactly how they did when Vermillion County privatized their home.

2. Look up census data and understand that the demand for nursing homes is going to skyrocket over the next 5-10 years as the baby boomers generation is now becoming nursing home aged. Once that happens, we will have countless residents covered by Medicaid that will need somewhere to go in this community. The pain of sending a loved one to a nursing home, which I personally know well, is very intense, but to have to send them off to another community because of a lack of Medicaid beds in CU, and not being able to visit them regularly is deplorable.

This is about access to healthcare and public healthcare institutions, plain and simple. There’s a reason why Republicans are ravenous to close this thing and make no mistake: the News Gazette editorial board is our very own local Fox News.

This is not about an unprofitable business, this is about an underfunded healthcare institution.