Only around 1/2 the counties in Ny have government run nursing homes (County Homes). Several have been sold in the past and several more are under consideration to be sold now. Chaut County is not taking any unprecedented steps, nor are they alone in doing what is increasingly becoming a no brainer, the proper fiscal choice, and a reflection of responsible and proper governance.
Inside Politics: Another nursing home battle
By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist Updated 11:20 pm, Sunday, May 12, 2013
If you thought the freakout over the federal fiscal cliff was ugly stuff, just wait for the looming game of chicken (turkey?) over the Albany County Nursing Home.
Yeah… Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on a Monday morning, but as lawmakers are poised to once again delay a vote on County Executive Dan McCoy‘s nursing home privatization plan tonight, there’s yet another battle looming.
Call it the fiscal tiff.
Basically, the nursing home is budgeted to run out of money around the end of June. That’s because in their bid to solve a budget impasse over McCoy’s pitch to privatize the 250-bed Colonie facility, he and the County Legislature came to a short-term compromise (sound familiar?) to fund it for just half the year.
Money to either run the facility for the rest of the year or pay the county’s financial obligations in the privatization deal was stashed in a contingency account.
That plan works only so long as he and the legislature come to terms on privatizing the facility — or some other solution. Which, of course, they haven’t.
Now, no matter what the lawmakers decide on the nursing home — be it McCoy’s plan or an alternative they’re exploring to privatize only its management — it virtually guarantees the next 45 days won’t be enough time. That could require the transfer of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of dollars to keep the nursing home open beyond that.
Problem is, McCoy has strongly signaled he might not allow that to happen. On multiple occasions since floating his privatization plan in October, McCoy has suggested he could veto any transfer by the legislature to continue the money-losing status quo.
“I’m going to go the distance,” McCoy obliquely told Insider late last month. “I’ve got no choice.”
But what if lawmakers call his bluff? Would McCoy, who has rejected the idea of outright closing the facility, follow through with a threat to cut off funding? And what would happen if he did and the closely divided legislature could not muster the votes to override him?
Closing a nursing home requires considerably more planning than flipping off a light switch on the way out. The executive’s office could not say for certain Friday what would happen next, though it has speculated on the possibility of a state-appointed receiver. (State Health Department officials could not immediately say Friday, either.)
Politically, the stakes for McCoy are high. The nursing home privatization is the marquee initiative of his first 18 months in office. A defeat now would portend a difficult two years ahead.
Ontario County Board of Supervisors declares nursing home as surplus
By Erinn Cain, staff writer Messenger Post Posted Apr 18, 2013 @ 10:09 PM
Canandaigua, N.Y. — The evening before the deadline to submit bids for the sale of Ontario County’s 98-bed nursing home in Hopewell, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to declare the facility, as well as the approximately seven acres of land it is situated on, as surplus.
The resolution was approved by the board at Thursday’s meeting by a weighted vote of 3,771 in favor of the resolution to 377 against, with 348 absent. Canandaigua City Supervisor David Baker and Geneva City Supervisor Donald Ninestine both opposed the resolution.
The resolution on the Ontario County Health Facility, which was laid over at the previous meeting March 28 by Geneva City Supervisor Charles Evangelista, states that the board must determine that the property is no longer necessary for public use prior to any possible transfer to the private sector.
In December, the board hired brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services to market the sale of the health facility. The facility went on the market in March, with bids being accepted until Friday.
Flo Tripi, western region president of the Civil Service Employees Association, called the county’s pursuit of selling the facility “wrong, cold and heartless.” She said the county can’t depend on a private company to provide a high level of care to the facility’s residents.
“How can you declare the home of no public use?” she asked. “What happens to the residents?”
The county is requiring that potential buyers operate the facility as a skilled nursing facility for 10 years after purchase. Potential buyers would also be required to follow the same federal and state standards for care that the county follows, give preference in admission to Ontario County residents and retain current union employees following interviews, background checks and any other such testing.
“I understand that it’s not an easy decision,” said Baker. “At the end of the day, we’re dealing with people’s lives. … Once we move tonight, we start going down a slippery slope.”
East Bloomfield Supervisor Dorothy Huber said the future of the health facility has been discussed since the 1980s.
“It is a dollars and cents issue,” she said. “We can’t afford to make it up.”
She added, “in order to continue to serve that segment of the population … I feel very strongly that we need to take that step.”
The resolution states that the cost of operating the facility annually exceeds Medicaid, Medicare and private payer reimbursement by $3 million to $4 million dollars, a burden that is placed on the taxpayers of Ontario County. According to the notice of request for bids for the facility, the minimum acceptable purchase price is $2 million.
Margaret Hilton, Hopewell supervisor and chair of the health and medical services committee, said that if the county were to sell the health facility, that would allow additional funding to be put toward other types of services for the elderly.
Once the county receives bids for the facility, the bids would be screened by the brokerage firm, and a subcommittee of the health and medical services committee would likely be formed to review them before bringing a recommendation to the full board, said Ontario County Administrator John Garvey. If the county accepts a bid, he said, the buyer would then apply for a license from the state, a process that could take between nine and 18 months.
Officials: Tentative deal on Foley nursing home
Newsday Originally published: April 3, 2013 By PAUL LAROCCO
A tentative deal has been reached to stop the closing of Suffolk County’s John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility and allow it to be leased to private operators.
The Association of Municipal Employees, which represents Foley’s 180 workers, would drop its lawsuit against County Executive Steve Bellone and his $23 million sale of the Yaphank nursing home to Israel and Samuel Sherman, union and…
Final public hearing before Albany County Nursing Home privatization vote
ALBANY, N.Y.—Dozens of people stood up before the Albany County Legislature Tuesday night to voice their opinion about the privatization of the 250 bed Albany County Nursing Home.
“I hope they can really take this seriously, and I hope it really shows what kind of people we have working for us at the nursing home,” says Renee Barchitta, a member of the Albany County Nursing Home Family Core Council.
Barchitta says the legislature voted the privatization down in a previous administration and can do it again.
“It’s in your hands, it’s not in his hands,” says Barchitta. “You stopped Breslin, you can stop Danny.”
Barchitta is referring to Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, who is in support and pushing for the privatization to help ease economic problems in the county.
But it was not all opposition during the public comment period.
Dorlisa Kruger says her Amsterdam-based nursing home is also run by Upstate Service Group, the same firm that would lease the Albany County Nursing home if it’s agreed upon.
“If Upstate takes over, are you telling me you’re going to stop saying please and thank you?” asked Kruger. “Are you going to stop? No. The quality of care comes from us, and quite frankly, Upstate gives us that ability.”
Many said they would rather take a tax hike than have the nursing home privatized.
“It’s about the dollar,” said one Albany County resident. “I’m not putting anyone down from USG. I’ve met with some of their staff, they’re really good people. But it’s not going to turn out good for us.”
The county’s audit and finance committee will take a vote Friday evening and if it passes, the full legislature will vote on Monday.
Warren County reviewing three proposals for nursing home
QUEENSBURY — Warren County has narrowed its search for a company to purchase or privatize Westmount Health Facility to three potential operators, companies that have proposed paying the county $2.2 to $3.5 million for the nursing home.
County supervisors will not initially meet with the low bidder, but will instead bring the three highest bidders to town for public meetings to discuss their proposals.
County Administrator Paul Dusek said the move does not mean the fourth company is being ruled out, but the county wants to meet first with the other three before deciding whether to talk with the low bidder.
Matt Sokol, chairman of the county board’s Health Services Committee, which oversees Westmount, said the meetings will be held later this month, with dates to be determined based on the companies’ availability.
The companies’ full proposals have not been released as the county negotiates with them.
The three companies to be brought in for public meetings and their proposed purchase prices are:
* LTC Midwest WC LLC, a western-New York based entity — $3.5 million.
* Fort Hudson Health System of Fort Edward — $2.2 million.
* Centers for Specialty Care Group of New York City — $2.2 million. This company is buying county-run nursing homes in Washington and Essex counties.
The fourth company, Affinity Skilled Living Rehabilitation Center, has offered $1.6 million.
Dusek said the county has made clear that the purchaser will be required to continue to operate the nursing home, take Medicaid and Medicare patients and keep existing employees as well as consider expansion on the property.
“Warren County is not looking just to sell it and walk away,” Dusek said.
Sokol said one of the companies has proposed expanding the 80-bed home.
Dusek said the highest price won’t be the only criteria supervisors will consider when making a decision.
Dusek said the county is setting up a negotiating team as well as a “resource team” to guide the transition of Westmount to private hands.
Queensbury 3rd Ward Councilman John Strough, who is running for town supervisor, has proposed that the county look to subdivide the piece of property behind the nursing home where the former county Department of Social Services building sat.
He said he had spoken to a local developer about whether there would be interest in the land, and was told there would be. Strough said he believed the land could be worth up to $1 million.
Sokol said Strough discussed the idea with him, and it will be reviewed.
“That is something we are going to look into,” Sokol said.
The county received some other good news about the nursing home recently.
An appeal initiated by Saratoga County related to Medicaid reimbursement rates for the cogeneration project at Maplewood Manor was successful, which means Warren County will receive $210,000 in unpaid Medicaid reimbursement in 2007 and 2008 and can seek reimbursement for subsequent years.
Westmount has an on-site gas cogeneration plant.
- Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said he might veto an adjusted budget if it doesn’t include privatizing the county nursing home. (Times Union)
Onondaga County lawmakers to hold public hearing tonight on transfer of Van Duyn nursing home
By Rick Moriarty, The Post-Standard on November 26, 2012 The Post-Standard
The Onondaga County Legislature will hold a public hearing at 7 tonight on whether to transfer ownership of Van Duyn Home & Hospital to a county-created development corporation. The hearing will be held in the Legislature’s chambers in the county Court House at 401 Montgomery Street.
Transferring the nursing home to the nonprofit Onondaga Civic Development Corp. would be an interim step toward selling the 513-bed facility to a private operator. The county is negotiating to sell the nursing home to Upstate Services Group, of Rockland County.
County officials hope to complete the sale of Van Duyn to Upstate Services by the end of November. County officials have been eager to sell Van Duyn because financial losses at the nursing home are projected to total $115 million from 2013 to 2022. The losses must be covered by county taxpayers.
The Civil Service Employees Association, the union that represents 500 of Van Duyn’s 559 employees, opposes selling the facility to a private operator. (of course)
Vote puts Saratoga County’s nursing home, Maplewood Manor, on path to privatization
Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012
By CAITLIN MORRIS cmorris@saratogian.com Twitter.com/CMsaratogian
BALLSTON SPA — A landmark vote by the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved the creation of a Local Development Corporation to manage the sale of the county-owned nursing home, Maplewood Manor.
Of those on the 23-member Board of Supervisors, six voted against the resolution. Two supervisors, Jean Raymond of Edinburg and Thomas Richardson of Mechanicville, did not attend the board meeting.
The six dissenters were Preston L. Jenkins Jr. of Moreau, Patricia Southworth of Ballston, Richard B. Lucia of Corinth, Dan Lewza of Milton, Mary Ann Johnson of Day and Joanne Dittes Yepsen of Saratoga Springs.
Jenkins requested a separate vote on this issue — typically, the supervisors approve all their monthly resolutions en masse — citing his financial concerns about the procedure.
Declining Medicare reimbursements and rising operational costs have led public assets like nursing homes to be frequent targets for privatization in recent years.
Maplewood Manor has a $27 million annual operating budget. County Administrator Spencer Hellwig estimates the county will spend $10 million on Maplewood Manor in 2012, and even though that number will likely be reduced by state subsidies, Hellwig said rising expenses are insurmountable. The biggest costs associated with Maplewood Manor are tied to employee salaries and benefits, which make up 85 percent of the nursing home’s operating budget — $21.6 million.
A seven-member board was also named to manage the newly-created Maplewood Manor LDC. That board includes five supervisors — Chairman of the Board Thomas Wood, Willard H. Peck of Northumberland, Ed Kinowski of Stillwater, Tom Richardson of Mechanicville and Arthur “Mo” Wright of Hadley. The two other members are Helen Endres, who served for 34 years in the Saratoga County Public Health Nursing Service, and Dave Meager, a former Malta supervisor.
Fourteen people signed up in advance to make a five-minute-or-less comment to the Board of Supervisors prior to the vote. Of the 14 speakers, 12 spoke about Maplewood Manor, and of those 11 were against privatizing the facility.
The one person who spoke in support of privatization said he supports the change because the deficit is so large, but he also wonders what other county services are at risk of getting cut if the county keeps experiencing fiscal dilemmas.
“This is a very painful, in a lot of ways, example of loss of local control and local government due to state unfunded mandates,” he said.
(footnote: of course Capital Region CSEA President Kathy Garrison receives applause from Maplewood Manor employees as she returns to her seat after speaking on behalf of CSEA members to the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors after objecting to sale of the home)
Nursing home model touted
Company seeking to run Albany County facility cites record of success
By Cathleen F. Crowley Friday, October 12, 2012
ALBANY — The company that hopes to run Albany County Nursing Home says it will continue the tradition of serving the county’s poor and hard-to-place residents.
“We can demonstrate that we can make it work,” said David Camerota, a partner with Upstate Services Group who cited the company’s leadership at a troubled Syracuse nursing home.
When unveiling the proposed county budget for 2013 on Wednesday, County Executive Daniel McCoy announced a plan to turn over the nursing home to Upstate Services, an alternative the county pursued when it became clear the state would not approve a plan to build a new facility.
On Thursday, a state panel again rejected the construction plan — as expected.
Upstate Services, a private for-profit company based in Rockland County, owns 11 nursing homes in the state including Hudson Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Albany, which it purchased in 2011.
Upstate Services has been on a buying spree of struggling nursing homes and is gaining a reputation for turning them around. The company bought eight facilities in 2011 and 2012, and served as receiver for at least three of them. Receivership is granted when an independent third party takes control of a property that has severe financial or quality problems.
The state appointed Upstate Services as receiver of Vivian Teal Howard Nursing Home in Syracuse in 2008. The facility, which was renamed Central Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, had been a “Special Focus Facility,” a federal designation for a nursing home with serious quality problems.
Central Park was on the verge of defaulting on its mortgage and being cut from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement because of quality concerns when USG bought it. Under the new owners, Central Park graduated from the Special Focus list.
“It’s been a real success story for us,” Camerota said.
Central Park still takes some of the city’s toughest residents, he said. The three Syracuse hospitals keep a list of the most difficult patients to place, and 53 percent of Central Park’s residents are on that list. About 65 percent of the home’s residents are on Medicaid, the government program for the poor.
“We would continue that model in Albany County as being a safety-net type of facility,” he said.
Upstate Services was receiver for Mt. Loretto Nursing Home in Amsterdam and bought it earlier this year. Mt. Loretto, which is now named Capstone Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Services, recently was removed from the federal Special Focus list.
The company is currently in negotiations with leaders in Syracuse to buy Onondaga County nursing home, which is also on the Special Focus list. The Syracuse Post-Standard reported last month that Upstate Services tentatively agreed to purchase the 513-bed home for $8 million to $10 million.
Renee Barchitta, a member of Albany County Nursing Home Core Family Council, said she is taking a wait-and-see attitude to the company’s overtures. “My first reaction is I don’t like it,” Barchitta said. “A county nursing home’s mission is to take care of people. Private facilities, they take care of people, but their other mission is to make a profit.”
Upstate Services is owned by Efraim Steif, a nursing home administrator who has been CEO of Pine Valley Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Rockland County for seven years.
“We have a passion for this,” Camerota said. “We understand the business of taking care of people and providing quality in an environment where residents come first and the staff come a very close second.”
10/04/2012 10:52 PM By: Web Staff YNN
ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. — Van Duyn Nursing Home continues to be a sore spot financially for Onondaga County. The legislature discussed the nursing home’s future at their budget hearing Thursday night.
The county’s Ways and Means Committee has approved funding for Van Duyn through next year, but their goal is to privatize it by selling it to nursing home operator, Upstate Services Group.
According to legislators, part of the problem has been state funding. They say the funding formula hasn’t been updated in over a decade. They’ve been filling the gap using a rainy day fund, but that money has now run out.
Officials say plans must move forward or eventually it would bankrupt the entire county.
“Our goal is to keep these beds in Onondaga County, to keep these employees employed. Our understanding is that both those things will happen, but we still have some homework to do still,” said Onondaga County Legislature Chairman Ryan McMahon.
Two union officials did speak out against the committee’s proposal over concerns about what privatization would mean for the future of Van Duyn’s 500 jobs.
Future of Valley View, government center remain unclear |
Oct 5, 2012 HEAR today’s news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley’s only Internet radio news report.GOSHEN – The Orange County Legislature’s monthly session passed on Thursday with no action taken on either the Valley View nursing home or government center decision. While a consent resolution request was proposed to be put on the agenda to establish a two-year reprieve from being able to sell or close the nursing home by Legislator Roxanne Donnery, it was denied by Chairman Michael Pillmeier.He turned down the request, he said, because decisions on the future of Valley View would need to wait until they completed their budget discussions for 2013. A vote to overturn his decision failed 9-11.”Starting the 15th of this month we have budget hearings for all the different departments. On the 16th, Valley View will be discussed. At that time, the oversight committee will discuss whether they’re going to prepare a budget for Valley View beyond the January funding that’s in the budget now,” said Pillmeier.The other issue on which the legislature is essentially split down the middle is the future of the county government center. The chairman said they would be awaiting the results of a $75,000 study on the roof, foundation, veneer and other parts of the building. They have set a 60-day timeline for the report, and the RFP is set to go out in the next couple of days.”When that comes back, then we’ll be looking at that and hopefully the legislators will make a decision,” said Pillmeier.The legislature was also set to vote on a bond resolution for the purchase of two properties in the City of Newburgh: the Woolworth Building and the Newburgh Armory, for a combined $5 million. They sent the decision back to committees for the next month, with some saying the conditions of the buildings would need to be inspected further. |
Broome County budget hearing: Sales tax, nursing home, bus fares
Preston’s budget plan includes privatizing the rehabilitation unit at the county-owned Willow Point Nursing Home. / File Photo
Bus fares
Under the proposed budget, B.C. Transit would eliminate 31-day, unlimited-ride bus fares that currently cost $52.50, or $33 for students, seniors and people with disabilities. Those packages would be replaced by 30-ride passes that cost $53, along with less expensive 10- and 20-ride packages.
Kevin McBride, a Broome Community College student, noted that there would be no discounted options for the elderly, disabled and full-time students.
“If a deal cannot be reached where these classes of people get monthly passes,” he said, “then there should be at least a discounted 10-, 20- and 30-ride pass for these class of people that use B.C. Transit.”
Single-ride fares during peak hours would increase from $1.50 to $2.
“I think it’s very important for this community, if it’s going to rebuild and thrive, to have a viable bus system,” said Anne Osby, of Binghamton. “I rely on it to work, I rely on it to shop. The 31-day pass has been very important to me.”
Maureen Lee, of Endicott, said she is disabled and lives on Social Security income, and uses B.C. Transit for three rides per week.
“I really need for the 31-day bus passes to stay the same,” Lee said. “I ask that the bus pass system remain the same as it was.”
Darlene Dickenson, of Binghamton, who works with the Southern Tier Independence Center, said the proposed changes would mean certain people would be unable to afford to travel for social and entertainment, taking money out of the local economy.
“Whatever happens with public transportation is like throwing a stone in a pond,” she said. “It has an ever-widening effect on all citizens of the county. People who have cars don’t really think about that.”
Nursing home
Five people spoke in opposition to a plan to privatize the rehabilitation unit at the county-owned Willow Point Nursing Home, which currently includes 11 full-time employees.
“There is a fundamental lack of involvement with the professional staff that is in place at the nursing home,” said Willow Point employee Steve Hill.
“I’ve been doing this in Broome County for 10 years, and I’ve never been blindsided like we were this time,” said Joanne Mastronardi, a labor relations specialist for CSEA. “We were never given a chance to fix it for you. We were never given a chance to make it right.”
Preston administration officials have said the plans call for privatizing the unit in a way that county employees would be offered private-sector jobs.
However, those who spoke against the plan said the therapy provided by a private contractor would be inferior to the current level of care.
“Willow Point has one of the best therapy programs of most of the nursing homes,” said Barbara Travis, coordinator of Broome’s CASA program. “I think it’s a great disservice to all of the residents not to have what we currently have at Willow Point.”
Tarik Abdelazim, the Democratic candidate for Broome County executive, also spoke, focusing his comments on the bus rate changes and changes at Willow Point.
“I think it’s incredibly important that you just take the time to listen to the employees,” he said. “It’s about the care and the quality of care that they provide to our seniors and our aging loved ones.”
Sales tax
Two public officials and the president of Binghamton’s firefighters union spoke to protest the formula used to split sales tax revenue between the county and its local governments.
Under the budget proposal, the county would begin to increase the amount of sales tax revenue it shares with local governments in a phased process, but would not immediately return to a distribution formula that was in place until 2009 under which most of the revenue was split evenly.
“You got your tax levy to zero, but the residents of Vestal are facing a hike,” said Vestal Town Supervisor John Schaffer, who said the town would gain $549,000 if the even split was restored.
County executives from Ulster, Orange, Dutchess air concerns about nursing homes, jails
By Mid-Hudson News Network February 22, 2012
Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, left, speaks at Tuesday’s Pattern for Progress event as Orange County Executive Edward Diana, center, and Ulster County Executive Michael Hein look on. (Photo by Daniel Torres)
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — The county executives from Ulster, Dutchess and Orange discussed the concept of regionalism on Tuesday before a packed house of public officials, policy makers and business and community leaders.
The setting was Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress’ annual Presidents Day Breakfast in Poughkeepsie.
Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, Orange County Executive Edward Diana and Ulster County Executive Michael Hein discussed several issues that mutually affect respective counties.
Getting out of the county nursing home business and regionalizing county jails were among the event’s central issues.
“Certainly the key phrases of ‘regionalism, shared services, consolidation, dissolution coordination, collaboration’ now are more than just words,” Molinaro said.
Government at all levels is being “stressed and overwhelmed by the complexities are perhaps a new normal,” he said. “It’s up to us in this state to confront what is a government structure that all too often is antiquated and outmoded.”
The three executives agreed unfunded state mandates, such as Medicaid costs, desperately need to be reformed. Diana paraphrased Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying: “Until the state can print money, they will not take over Medicaid. The state’s simply broke.”
“We can collectively work together,” Hein said. “That’s why this regionalism concept works. This is one of those issues where you’re going to run out of money — so if we’re going to fix it, everybody has to come together.”
County-owned nursing homes have, in particular, become albatrosses around counties’ necks, the officials said.
As such, Ulster County has created a Local Development Corp. to run the Golden Hill Health Care Center and ultimately sell it; and Orange County will defund its Valley View Nursing Home on July 1 in hopes of finding a private operator to buy it.
Dutchess County closed its nursing home more than a decade ago.
“We all realize that this is a business that government should be out of,” Diana said.
“If we’re going to deal with tough issues, then we’re going to have to step forward and find creative ways,” Hein said.
Molinaro, whose county has been plagued by jail overcrowding for years, discussed the expansion of such facilities.
“We’re engaged in a review of the criminal justice system (to) understand the very systemic problems,” he said. “This is an area where state government … is antiquated and outmoded. There’s been no real shift in allowing regional access to jail expansion. It’s a burden, but we want our communities safe.”
Diana sympathized, noting the difficulty of building a new jail when hamstrung by costly state requirements.
“The state has to get on board with us,” he said.
Hein said Ulster County’s new Law Enforcement Center has extra jail capacity that Dutchess County can use and that Ulster’s old jail could be put back online with minimal cost.
“We have one heck of a bargain,” Hein offered. “We stand ready, willing and able” if the state would allow such an arrangement.
County executives share Medicaid concerns, other issues, and again defend their respective moves to privatize their counties’ nursing homes
By Michael Randall Times Herald-Record Published: 2:00 AM – 02/22/12
POUGHKEEPSIE — Ask the Orange, Ulster and Dutchess county executives what they want most to fix and the answer was unanimous Tuesday — Medicaid.
County executives Ed Diana of Orange, Mike Hein of Ulster and Marcus Molinaro of Dutchess made their pitches during a discussion of how government can save money through collaboration or other reforms. The discussion was part of Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress’ annual Presidents’ Day breakfast at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel.
Hein said Medicaid is a clear example of the state dumping an expense on localities. Counties in New York pay a total of $7 billion toward Medicaid costs, but have no control regarding what still is a state program, he said.
Executives’ suggestions
Here are some other steps mentioned by area county executives at the Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress breakfast that they’ve taken, or say should be taken, to spur growth or cut local government expenses:
• Orange County is taking on an increasing responsibility to dispatch emergency services as towns and villages seek to cut costs.
• Ulster County’s tourism office put increased focus on New York City metro-area tourists, who don’t tend to see county or municipal boundaries up here.
• Dutchess County formed a cabinet of staff and offices whose work touches on economic development, to smooth the way for growth.
• Orange’s business incubator has 19 start-ups and a waiting list, and graduated its first tenant, Continental Organics.
• Executives suggest counties should take on some or all assessment responsibilities.
Diana concurred, but was skeptical about seeing any action in Albany during an election year because counties can’t wait too long. Medicaid reform, along with pension reform, must happen, Diana said, “or you will bankrupt every county in the state.”
Molinaro, a Republican who previously served in the state Assembly, predicted that body’s Democratic majority will be the most difficult to get on board with Medicaid reform.
Diana and Hein got a chance to again defend their respective moves to privatize their counties’ nursing homes. Diana cited Dutchess, which got out of the nursing-home business several years ago, as a successful precedent for his county’s course of action.
Diana, who only funded Valley View nursing home for half a year in Orange County’s 2012 budget, said he never wanted to close the facility. Yet, he said it’s because he took the initiative that a process to seek proposals from potential operators is under way.
Hein pushed for a local development corporation to sell the Golden Hill nursing home. He said it makes sense — there are others besides government who are better able to provide care. Then he added, that money can “go back to taxpayers.
Saratoga County supervisors weigh options for Maplewood Manor
Published: Monday, February 13, 2012 By MICHAEL CIGNOLI mcignoli@saratogian.com / Twitter.com/MCSaratogian
BALLSTON SPA — It will likely be another five to seven months at least before Saratoga County supervisors determine the future of the county-owned Maplewood Manor nursing home.
Hadley Supervisor Mo Wright, who chairs the county’s Public Health Committee, said supervisors are looking to hire a consultant to help them identify ways to deal with rising costs and shortfalls in Medicaid revenue at the facility, which is projected to lose $9.5 million this year. Bids for the consulting job will go out by the end of the week, Wright said.
Supervisors hope to hire a consultant by mid-March to begin preparing a report. But a report typically takes between four to six months to prepare, Wright said, meaning it’ll be summer before supervisors see the results.
The supervisors will then need to review the options outlined in the report and decide how to proceed. It could be another 18 to 24 months before a final decision is reached, Wright said.
“This is a huge decision,” said Edinburg Supervisor Jean Raymond, a 25-year veteran of the board of supervisors. “Probably the biggest I’ve ever made as a supervisor.”
The oft-lamented facility has received $35 million in county subsidies since 2004 because Medicaid payments, Maplewood Manor’s largest source of revenue, don’t come close to covering the facility’s payroll and supply costs. As they struggled last year to balance their most difficult budget in recent memory, which included the county’s first property tax increase since 2003, multiple supervisors said something needed to be done to address Maplewood Manor’s finances.
“If there’s any way for us to save money between now and when the decision is made,” Wright said, “we’ll do it.”
A subcommittee consisting of supervisors and county officials was formed at the start of the year and they’ve spent 2012 researching what other counties have done with their nursing homes. Some have elected to stay in the nursing home business, Wright said, while others have decided to get out.
The consultant will help Saratoga County determine where it falls on that spectrum.
Possible options for Saratoga County include selling or leasing the facility, Wright said, though he noted it could eventually elect to maintain the status quo. The consultant will provide supervisors with definitive costs associated with each measure while also outlining other cost-cutting options. Continued…
More info from mandate relief to privitization efforts can be found at MandateReliefNY: