One of the few people who follow Valley Hi Nursing Home finances is Susan Handelsman.
She wrote the following in a comment, which I think deserves broader readership:
Valley Hi has 3 problems
1. Ongoing difficulty finding sufficient CNAs and nurses for staffing needs.
Valley Hi Nursing Home.
2. Centegra, source of most Medicare referrals, is building its own poshy LTC facility, 98 beds.
3. $40 million surplus subject to dispersal to large property taxpayers claiming ( rightfully) excess accumulation.
Same with levy; the levy is more than 275% of predictable annual expenses.
Solution:
Reduce VH capacity to 80 Medicaid beds.
Period.
Current residents grandfathered, but phase out the 38% of capacity representing private pay and Medicare.
There are ample LTC Medicare and private pay beds in the county and soon 98 more, and Centegra will never send another lucrative Medicare referral to VH when they can self -refer to their own new facility.
This solves problem of chronic staffing shortages, staff can be cut by 1/3.
At $70 per day loss per Medicaid patient, an 80 bed facility would cost $2 million a year.
There is $40 million surplus earning little or no interest, and additionally at risk in excess of FDIC coverage.
Solution:
VH enterprise fund loans the $40 million to another government entity or school.
At 4% interest, the surplus could fund $1.6 million annual VH expenses.
The levy could be cut down to $500,000.
And VH would retain its surplus for decades as it self-funds through a combination of earned interest and spending down surplus capital.
At some point in the future, the will of the voters may offer different referendum guidance.
= = = = =
The County Board will put its Fiscal Year 2016 budget on file at tonight’s meeting, complete with $3 million more in taxes for the nursing home, which has over $40 million in the bank.
If I were on the County Board, I would make a motion to amend that budget to eliminate that $3 million and lowering the county’s tax take next year to about $76 million.
If you would like to call or email your county board members to express your views on whether they should levy the $3 millions or not, you can find their phone numbers and email addresses here.
Wow, an analysis of what is needed NOW and solutions – thanks Cal.
I don’t think anyone has done this where I could read it.
Just think, there is competition out there that wasn’t in existence when this tax first went through.
In other words times have changed even as our leaders want to hold on tightly to the past.
how long would VH last if Illinois funding were to cease?
Not that it would ever happen being as strong a state were in of course.
Susan Handelsman rocks.
Give us a tax break; McHenry county low paying jobs and high property taxes.
Republican run.
If the day rate VH charges is thought to be ‘break even’ , then in order to fully fund VH absent any Medicaid ( or any other) reimbursements :
$240 X (number of beds, currently 128) X 365 days= $11,212,800.
Remember, private ltc facilities cannot theoretically get certificates for need issued by Illinois unless they agree to some conditions of Medicaid acceptance….unless, maybe, a County home is there to take all their transfers when the patient goes from $450/day Medicare reimbursement status to $175/day Medicaid status.
Facilities cannot discharge ‘to the street’.
Before people leap to conclusions about abandoning needy patients, it should be considered that Centegra and other profitable LTC providers in the county would have to step up and serve more needy patients were it not for the taxpayer funded County home..