Election 2022: Maple Lawn Medical Care Facility millage on November ballot

By a 3-2 vote Tuesday, Branch County Commissioners put on the November ballot a proposal to assess 0.99 mills on county property for five years to pay for the operation, maintenance and capital costs for the Maple Lawn Medical Care Facility.

The county-owned facility saw its patient census down and faced higher operating costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commissioner Randall Hazelbaker suggested cutting the millage request from 10 to five years. The tax would raise $1.656 million per year.

Administrator Jane Sabaitis also asked for $1 million from the county's American Rescue Plan funds to cover cash flow issues after the state reconciled Medicaid payments for 2019, 2020, and 202. It overpaid Maple Lawn $874,976 and began the money in three payments of $291,650 in July.

Sabaitis said Monday she negotiated new repayments with the state. The August payments will be refunded. The state will take $145,830 monthly for six months starting in January from Medicaid payments.

Sabaitis said the nursing home was not operating at a deficit with a $1.1 million fund balance. If the state had withheld all three overpayments, it would have exhausted reserves.

Hazelbaker suggested and the commission approved to pay $250,000 now and another $750,000 after the millage vote. It was not clear if the additional money was fully committed and if it was a loan.

Millage funds would not come to county coffers until April.

Chairman Tim Stoll, who operates the not-for-profit Thurston Woods nursing home in Sturgis, said, "I think the problems are problems everybody faced. I think that they have to work through it. For us to bail them out, I think, is a mistake. It's just you have to operate more efficiently."

Commission Tom Matthew urged the commissioner to take time to review Maple Lawn's books more closely.

"I urge my colleagues to check the books and see how much we need to come up with," he said.

Commissioner Leonard Kolcz, who praised the Maple Lawn operation, said Sabaitis answered a long list of questions from the commission.

Matthew read a list of federal and state funds Maple Lawn received during COVID-19. It receives $874,126 in COVID-19 relief funds in 2020-21; another $365,921 in American Recuse Plan funds in November 2021; $646,501 in 2020 to reimburse for supplies; a Direct Care Workers grant of $1.6 million in 2021 and $162,072 this year; $50054 in 2020 for PPE equipment; and $2.35 an hour supplement pay for care workers.

Sabates said Maple Lawn got its letter in late June requiring the Medicaid recovery and took it to its board in July. Matthew, the commission liaison, was absent from that meeting due to a conflict.

Accountants Plant Moran is working on refiling tax returns that should bring in Employee Retention Credits from the federal government for the first three-quarters of 2021 of approximately $3.2 million. It was not until this year the firm learned county-owned facilities were eligible for the ERC.

Sabaitis said that it would still take several weeks. Receipt of the money could take up to a year.

Hillsdale and Jackson county homes have already applied and received some funding under the ERC.

Of 34 county-owned nursing homes in Michigan, only two, Branch and Sanilac counties, are known to face financial issues.

Merle Donbrock, whose wife is on the board, former Maple Lawn controller Sara Roper, and Helen Castle, who ran the Career Center medical services student program, spoke in support of the millage vote and Maple Lawn.

Dennis Sikorski spoke over ZOOM opposed to the millage.

"Money should have been set aside. It's too easy to ask the county voters to bail them out," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Reporter: Maple Lawn millage on Nov. 8 ballot in Branch County