Nursing Home Sale Delay Update

WCIA had a blurb confirming that the State board who needed to approve the most recent delay in the sale of the Nursing Home did so last week:

The Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted to extend the ownership permit for the Champaign County Nursing Home for another month.

It means the sale is still pending. The nursing home was supposed to be sold in November.

The county has spent millions of dollars to keep it afloat and get the sale through.

The extension gives the county ownership until April 1. 

Article here (including a video segment restating this information). The big question is: "Now what?" From the News-Gazette article explaining the reason for this vote extending the sale deadline:

One factor that had been holding up the sale has been addressed.

As of Jan. 23, the county nursing home had corrected the deficiencies related to a Jan. 3 state Department of Public Health inspection, according to the letter from Chicago attorney Anne Cooper to the state board.

"The applicants are diligently working to transfer the existing contracts and to obtain a new license for the skilled nursing facility," the letter said.

That included the state approving plans of correction and the nursing home clearing all of the deficiencies.

A separate communication to the state board from Cooper said the buyer is waiting for a new license to be issued before filing for a change of ownership with Medicaid and Medicare. Under Medicare rules, the owner must file for the change of ownership within 60 days of completing the sale, she said.

So, as long as nothing goes wrong, it sounds like the Nursing Home will officially belong to the new owners under their new names on April 1st. How likely that is, I cannot say. No matter what side of the issue people were on about selling the home, the budget ramifications appear to only get more complicated with each delay.

For folks hoping for a clear "will it" or "won't it" be sold, I'm afraid all I've got is "sounds likes" and "appears." I suppose we'll know if it sold or not on April Fool's Day. I might avoid posting that day and wait until April 2nd to confirm any news.