Maple Lawn plans campaign for November millage amid financial challenge

Maple Lawn Medical Care Facility will plan a campaign to pass a 0.99 mill tax assessment on the Nov. 8 ballot, after county commission approval Aug. 15.

Maple Lawn board member Paul Winbigler told the facility board Tuesday, "We passed a major hurdle. The real work is yet ahead of us, and we don't have a lot of time."

There are fewer than 83 days to convince voters to approve the tax.

The county-owned nursing home wants the $1.656 million a year to shore up its financial problems compounded by the pandemic. The county commission cut the millage from the requested 10 years to five years.

2nd Story Marketing will work with the board to promote the millage passage. Administrator Jayne Sabaitis said a bank and several members of the community, several of whom spoke at the Monday commission meeting, offered help. State law prohibits the use of public funds to promote ballot issues.

Staffing remains an issue. Board chair Bob Montgomery said, "If we had the staff available, we could go up to 114 (maximum patients), and our revenues would increase."

The facility listed 22 spaces as unavailable to maintain the 85% occupancy needed to remain Medicaid. June occupancy was 91%, with those 22 beds not available.

"That plan expired on June 30," Sabaitis said. "So you'll see in July's report, we're back down."

The census for July was 73%. There were 85 patients in Maple Lawn as of Monday.

If they can't fill staff openings, "we have 60 days to go back and take any of those open offline. We will open them up when we can staff the service," Sabaitis said.

Maple Lawn had clinical classes from Kellogg and Glen Oaks community colleges at the nursing home this summer. All graduates in the certified nursing assistant program were offered job applications.

Kellogg will not offer the class this fall because the teacher is on medical leave. Currently, Maple Lawn employs 71 CNAs, 14 LPNs, and 23 RNs.

Sabaitis offered CNA jobs to some housing-keeping staff that had been CNAs but dropped their certification.

"CNAs are critical. It's hard work," she said.

The year-to-date revenues are $7,250,993, but the expenditures are $8,753,209. That shows a loss for the year of $1,502,297. At the end of July, the cash on hand was $801,616.

Medicaid overpaid Maple Lawn for 2019, 2020, and 2021 by $874,976.96 based on passed occupancy during COVID-19. With fewer patients, the state wanted that paid back in three payments of $291,659 starting in July.

Sabaitis negotiated for the last two payments to be refunded starting in January. The state will take $145,830 monthly for six months.

In June, the board took $200,000 from memorials given to Maple Lawn and used that for operating funds. Sabaitis told the county commission this was proper.

Now that county nursing homes are eligible, Sabaitis expects Employee Retention Credits from the federal government for the first three-quarters of 2021 by mid-2023. ERC payments would be approximately $3.2 million. Applications are in process.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Reporter: Maple Lawn Facility plans for November millage attempt