Nursing Home Administrator Les Parks says the number of residents for January and February has been up, which means more revenue for J. F. Hawkins and Springfield Place.
“Today we have the highest census we have had since the facility was built,” said Parks.
Parks said the high census should continue as the county nursing homes start an “aggressive” marketing campaign.
But the facility is still dealing with more than $500,000 in Medicaid cuts.
Parks said he hopes the state will take some money being paid back to the Medicaid program for overages by other nursing homes and distribute it to facilities like Newberry that were charging under the Medicaid cap for residents. If this happens, the amount the nursing homes will see from Medicaid residents will increase about 8 percent with a start date reverting to Jan. 1.
Secondly, the national stimulus plan is set to increase the federal Medicaid matching money from two-to-one to three-to-one. But how much that matching money comes to depends on the actions of the governor and legislature, and to what level the state funds Medicaid.
“If this drags out three to four months, we could have a cash problem,” said Parks, of the hopeful increases.
To combat the cash flow problem, nursing home administrators say the facility may need a loan. Due to the home being owned by the county, no lines of credit can be issued, according to County Administrator Wayne Adams.
Adams says the only choice for the nursing home is to borrow money from the county’s savings account.
In the event that such a loan does occur, Adams says the nursing home must have a system to pay the county back and he reminded the nursing home administrators that the county is already owed more than $250,000 from the facility.
Adams said to pay back that loan, the nursing home would have to pay $6,000 a month for four years if the loan had a 6 percent interest rate.
Adams also told Parks that he only wants to do one well-planned loan to the nursing home, not several stopgap measures.
Parks questioned the nursing home borrowing more than it needs and having to pay back interest on the full amount.
Adams responded that pursuing that option was the cost of doing business.
If the nursing home does take a loan from county coffers, the entire county council must approve the deal.
The nursing home has also made cutbacks in staff and salaries at the facilities, while keeping direct care staff such as nurses intact. When asked if the facilities could continue to operate with reduced staff, Parks affirmed they could.
With the increased revenues expected, the nursing home is projecting a profit of $301,000 by June 30.
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