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Not so fast, says Executive John Brown. He agrees that Gracedale has only used $3.8 million of the $5.8 million set aside for the nursing home, but it's too soon to say whether it was actually revenue neutral in the last quarter. He believes that won't be known for another 90 days, but does predict that it will come somewhere within $500,000 of the County contribution.
Executive Brown told Council that the scalding water problem last year cost the County $400,000 to fix. It also failed to realize $1.1 million in revenue from the sale of beds. On the other hand, aggressive marketing has led to a census in the 670 range. This means more money in Medicaid reimbursements.
Gracedale's most recent problem is a heating system failure, the kind of thing that always happens when the weather gets cold The County has set aside $7.7 million for the nursing home this year. .
17 comments:
Think you mean Medicare reimbursements.
I think I mean both Medicare and Medicaid
no Medicaid is correct also called medical assistance....funds about 85 per cent of the patients up there
Gracedale is surviving but just barley. The sabotage of the eight years of Stoffa/Angle almost destroyed it but it is hanging on.
God Bless the guardians.
Gracedale is a financial black hole. It's why NorCo employees and taxpayers can't have nice things and won't be getting anything but benefit cuts and tax increases for the foreseeable future.
dump the white elephant and thus the union so called workers with their OT and ridiculous benefits
Werner is engaged in misleading political spin. After Q3 Gracedale was showing county contribution (losses) of $3.8 million of a budgeted $5.8 million loss. By telling saying it's under budget, what he really means is it's on pace to lose less than that budgeted $5.8 million. That's still a big loss.
The facts are that since Werner was elected, the county contribution has not significantly decreased and it's poised to increase next year to $7.7 million. Meanwhile more counties continue to get out of the nursing home business because of the reimbursement formula.
Medicare is where the dollars are. Higher the census, the higher the Medicare patients. Better revenue source for the bottom line.
6:48 When you join the workforce then you can comment about "so called workers"! Those "so called workers" actually contribute to the tax base unlike you. You are a sponge sucking up all the gov't assistance you can get your hands on.
Medicare only covers the first 100 days in a skilled nursing facility. After that it's either private pay or Medicaid for low income. Reimbursement rates are higher for private and nonprofit SNF's.
It's clear that Werner is lying. That's not a good way to start a re-election campaign. He'd earn more points as a straight shooter. He flat out lied.
Gracedale is necessary as we will see in the future. To dump it is shortsighted. Private homes turn away most of the very poor and medically needy people.
Change the formula
5:01 Agree change the formula! This has been the problem for some time and again, the real problem is the fact that our government is being run by those who have the money to buy it! Those who have the dollars to buy the votes that have laws created and changed needs to stop!
You don't have the clout in Harrisburg to change the formula back. Meanwhile Pat Browne can slip a line into the fiscal code to make JB Reilly obscenely rich while doing nothing about the line in the welfare code causing massive fiscal hemorrhaging at Cedarbrook and Gracedale. Enjoy your hockey.
Sadly there is no one in Brown's Admisntration or on county council who really understands the ins and outs of the Nursing Home business and that hurts.
McClure and Werner say nice things but in reality are clueless. They just pander for votes.
What's to understand? Reimbursements are higher for privates. Period. The federal government wants counties out of the nursing home business and most counties have done so. The federal government always uses the power of money to compel or dissuade behavior. They pick winners and losers every day. Don't hate the players. Hate the game. Again, what's to understand?
"What's to understand?"
Quite a bit actually. Anon 5:01 touches on some of it. If you are only looking at dollars and cents, then it may seem simple at the moment. However, there is more to be considered in the long run. If it is only about dollars and cents, why have most of the county services. In fact privatize the prison and save a another boatload of money.
Point is, we need to go beyond sound bite thinking.
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