MAYVILLE - The County Home is becoming a growing concern for county lawmakers.
Or at least it should be, according to Chuck Nazzaro, D-Jamestown, who told the OBSERVER on Wednesday that the publicly owned nursing home is running out of money.
Both Tim Hellwig, County Home administrator, and Colleen Wright, finance director, attended the regular June meeting of the Audit and Control Committee last month. At that meeting, the pair presented legislators with the County Home's audited 2010 financial statements.
As predicted, the County Home had to deplete part of its fund balance to make up a loss of $1,788,542 in 2010. In October of last year, during the legislature's budget process, Nazzaro said that without a county contribution to receive federal matching funds, the County Home would begin operating at a deficit.
In 2009, the County Home had a positive bottom line of $2,254,750. That surplus, however, happened only because the County Home received $3,810,522 in IGT funding, called Intergovern-mental Transfers.
From 1995 to 2005, the County Home received $10.5 million in state IGT funding. Then, in 2006 and 2007, there was no IGT funding paid to the County Home. Beginning in 2008, the state IGT was replaced with federal IGT, which saw a local contribution from the county of $2.1 million in 2008 and $1.9 million in 2009.
Essentially, for every dollar put into the County Home by the county those years, the County Home received matching sums in IGT funding. In 2009, according to Nazzaro, the match was around $62 for every $38 put in by the county.
"So they received in 2009 over $3.8 million which they did not receive in 2010 because of the tight county finances," Nazzaro said. "It was decided by the legislature that we could not continue to offer to match the IGTs."
Without the funding in 2010, the County Home ran at a deficit of $1,788,542. As a result of the operating loss, the County Home saw its fund balance drop from just under $7 million at the end of 2009 to around $5.2 million at the close of 2010.
The situation should be a concern to lawmakers, Nazzaro said, because, without a county contribution for IGT funding, the County Home is only going to continue eating up its fund balance.
"The County Home is needed in Dunkirk, I don't question that," Nazzaro said. "But if we continue like this, the fund balance will be depleted in the next two or three years and then the county will be responsible for the deficit because, even though it is a separate enterprise fund, it is owned by Chautauqua County.
"And that is no reflection on the ability of the management and the staff of the County Home," Nazzaro continued. "They run a very fine facility. However, right now, if we don't continue to fund the IGTs and if anticipated reimbursements from Medicaid and Medicare continue to decrease, the County Home is going to be losing upward of $2 million a year from operations."
THE NEXT STEP
The next step is not to close the County Home, according to Nazzaro.
"I think we need to seriously look at the possibility of either privatizing the County Home or possibly leasing out a portion of it to a non-public, private facility which could offer assisted living. A lot of your private homes offer less skilled nursing and offer more rehabilitative services and more assisted living. It is my understanding that a public home cannot offer assisted living, so, one thing we could look at is partnering with a private, non-public entity to maybe offer assisted living because we need to change our model of operation."
Nazzaro continued on to say that he is somewhat disappointed that the county did not begin working on such a partnership or privatization effort years back. In 2009, Nazzaro chaired an ad-hoc committee which evaluated the County Home and made a number of recommendations regarding the facility to the county.
"I presented this two years ago to the full County Legislature and, yes, some of the recommendations made have been incorporated," Nazzaro said. "That has been very positive. However, I feel that the bigger picture has been ignored. Looking at the 2010 financials and projecting where the 2011 and 2012 are going to be, I think we need to go that next step."
Nazzaro said he intends to ask Legislature Chairman Fred Croscut, R-Sherman, to resurrect the ad-hoc commission on the County Home. Additionally, Nazzaro spoke of the county maybe having to hire a consultant familiar with the type of situation the County Home is in to help transition the facility into either privatization or a private partnership.
"Although the County Home provides the highest level of patient care, county taxpayers can no longer afford to subsidize it," Nazzaro said. "The County Home must stand on its own if it is too continue as a county asset."
Or at least it should be, according to Chuck Nazzaro, D-Jamestown, who told the OBSERVER on Wednesday that the publicly owned nursing home is running out of money.
Both Tim Hellwig, County Home administrator, and Colleen Wright, finance director, attended the regular June meeting of the Audit and Control Committee last month. At that meeting, the pair presented legislators with the County Home's audited 2010 financial statements.
As predicted, the County Home had to deplete part of its fund balance to make up a loss of $1,788,542 in 2010. In October of last year, during the legislature's budget process, Nazzaro said that without a county contribution to receive federal matching funds, the County Home would begin operating at a deficit.
In 2009, the County Home had a positive bottom line of $2,254,750. That surplus, however, happened only because the County Home received $3,810,522 in IGT funding, called Intergovern-mental Transfers.
From 1995 to 2005, the County Home received $10.5 million in state IGT funding. Then, in 2006 and 2007, there was no IGT funding paid to the County Home. Beginning in 2008, the state IGT was replaced with federal IGT, which saw a local contribution from the county of $2.1 million in 2008 and $1.9 million in 2009.
Essentially, for every dollar put into the County Home by the county those years, the County Home received matching sums in IGT funding. In 2009, according to Nazzaro, the match was around $62 for every $38 put in by the county.
"So they received in 2009 over $3.8 million which they did not receive in 2010 because of the tight county finances," Nazzaro said. "It was decided by the legislature that we could not continue to offer to match the IGTs."
Without the funding in 2010, the County Home ran at a deficit of $1,788,542. As a result of the operating loss, the County Home saw its fund balance drop from just under $7 million at the end of 2009 to around $5.2 million at the close of 2010.
The situation should be a concern to lawmakers, Nazzaro said, because, without a county contribution for IGT funding, the County Home is only going to continue eating up its fund balance.
"The County Home is needed in Dunkirk, I don't question that," Nazzaro said. "But if we continue like this, the fund balance will be depleted in the next two or three years and then the county will be responsible for the deficit because, even though it is a separate enterprise fund, it is owned by Chautauqua County.
"And that is no reflection on the ability of the management and the staff of the County Home," Nazzaro continued. "They run a very fine facility. However, right now, if we don't continue to fund the IGTs and if anticipated reimbursements from Medicaid and Medicare continue to decrease, the County Home is going to be losing upward of $2 million a year from operations."
THE NEXT STEP
The next step is not to close the County Home, according to Nazzaro.
"I think we need to seriously look at the possibility of either privatizing the County Home or possibly leasing out a portion of it to a non-public, private facility which could offer assisted living. A lot of your private homes offer less skilled nursing and offer more rehabilitative services and more assisted living. It is my understanding that a public home cannot offer assisted living, so, one thing we could look at is partnering with a private, non-public entity to maybe offer assisted living because we need to change our model of operation."
Nazzaro continued on to say that he is somewhat disappointed that the county did not begin working on such a partnership or privatization effort years back. In 2009, Nazzaro chaired an ad-hoc committee which evaluated the County Home and made a number of recommendations regarding the facility to the county.
"I presented this two years ago to the full County Legislature and, yes, some of the recommendations made have been incorporated," Nazzaro said. "That has been very positive. However, I feel that the bigger picture has been ignored. Looking at the 2010 financials and projecting where the 2011 and 2012 are going to be, I think we need to go that next step."
Nazzaro said he intends to ask Legislature Chairman Fred Croscut, R-Sherman, to resurrect the ad-hoc commission on the County Home. Additionally, Nazzaro spoke of the county maybe having to hire a consultant familiar with the type of situation the County Home is in to help transition the facility into either privatization or a private partnership.
"Although the County Home provides the highest level of patient care, county taxpayers can no longer afford to subsidize it," Nazzaro said. "The County Home must stand on its own if it is too continue as a county asset."
Accounting Outsourcing Services
ReplyDeletehttp://accountingoutsourcingservices.com/
Our accounting and bookkeeping service not only reduces your cost but also enables you to get error free completed work on time for delivery to your clients.