CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — Despite hearing the impassioned pleas of nursing home employees, worried family members and a veterans advocate, County Commissioners turned a deaf ear and issued a statement explaining their desire to privatize the county-owned Crest Haven Nursing Home will continue.
At an Aug. 22 meeting, the Cape May County Board of Commissioners listened to an hour and 15 minutes of pleas not to issue a request for proposals to privatize Crest Haven, but 30 minutes after the meeting issued a news release from Commission Director Len Desiderio stating it would seek proposals for privatization.
Desiderio stated the county found that from 2018 through 2021, the nursing home operated at a total taxpayer-covered deficit of more than $26 million.
During public comment, employees and customers of the nursing home said bills were issued to patients haphazardly, often not for months at a time and the billing department was often unstaffed.
“The Board of Commissioners’ responsibility is to all the taxpayers, and it is clear that the long-term care facilities in Cape May County are able to provide the care that is needed in our community,” Desiderio stated. “It is no longer feasible for taxpayers to shoulder the amount it costs to operate Crest Haven. As so many other New Jersey county governments have concluded, the operation of long-term care facilities is best left to the private sector.”
He stated a contract would be awarded only to a company that has the dedication and ability to continue to provide the best care to Crest Haven residents. No resident will be turned out and the county will assist every family throughout any facility transition, he stated.
“The employees of Crest Haven are also of paramount concern to the Board of Commissioners. With that in mind, any contract will have to include a commitment to retain as many current employees as possible,” Desiderio stated. “The county is also retaining a substantial number of employees and moving them laterally within the county workforce. The county is committed to ensuring that no one will lose their job.”
At the start of the meeting, county legal counsel Jeff Lindsay advised commissioners not to answer questions or comment on the privatization of the facility.
He said the county assured Crest Haven residents that they would not be displaced and every employee who wants employment with the new operator would have a job that offers a retirement savings and health benefits plans.
Lindsay the nursing home is operating at a deficit of more than $30 million in the past year.
During public comment, Jeff Trout, whose grandmother had worked as a nurse at Crest Haven and later became a patient, said union jobs that offer good pay, benefits and a retirement plan produce employees who care, creating an environment in which “the staff goes above and beyond.”
“When a service or business privatizes, we all know what happens; they cut staff, they pay less, they offer less benefits,” he said.
Trout noted Crest Haven workers prepare Meals on Wheels as well as feed cadets in the county police academy, saying they will suffer under privatization.
Nicole Hebron, a county employee of 23 years, said half the nursing home’s private pay billing has not been compiled since the facility lacks a billing employee. She said the facility has more than $10 million in bad debt and asked who was overseeing unpaid balances.
County Commission denied a $15,000 request for computers for Crest Haven, Hebron said, adding that private pay rates have not been raised in years at the facility.
Meg Fitzmaurice said Crest Haven employees showed up for work day after day during the COVID pandemic. She said the county zoo charges no admission fee and suggested a $5-per-car parking fee there to raise revenue for the county.
“One hundred and 20 employees could possibly lose their jobs. You all have your seats up there because of them,” Fitzmaurice said.
David Beckett, an attorney for the AFSCME Council 63, which represents Crest Haven employees, said he negotiated their contract two months ago and nothing was said about a $30 million loss or a budgetary problem.
“From our perspective, this is an incredibly rushed decision that has had no public vetting whatsoever before you issued an RFP (request for proposals),” Becket said, adding the manner in which private operators of nursing homes make money is by cutting costs. He said such operators offer bare-bones health benefits, a catastrophic plan that costs the employee hundreds of dollars per paycheck. Retirement benefits from corporate nursing homes offer a contribution 401K rather than a defined benefit pension plan, he said.
The nursing home under new ownership will develop a largely transient workforce because they will pay as little as possible, which will affect care of patients at the facility, Beckett said.
“That certainly should not be a legacy that everybody sitting up where you are want to hold, but you took what was a very good nursing home that got people through COVID safely at tremendous cost to the employees and trade that in for a private model where people will lose,” he said.
Beckett said the county has not presented any study of privatizing Crest Haven and billing issues should be addressed before considering a private operator of the home.
Roseann Regruto said her 94-year-old mother has lived at Crest Haven for almost seven years. She said the staff has taken good care of her mother, especially during the COVID pandemic.
“You really need to think about the quality of what Crest Haven is in comparison to privately owned, and I know there will be such a drop in the way it will be handled,” Regruto said.
Veterans advocate Joe Griffies, who hosts a national radio show, said if there are empty beds in Crest Haven, 25 percent of beds should be designated by the federal government as a Veterans Affairs nursing home. He said Veterans Affairs pays “top dollar.”
“Instead of investing in the zoo, why not invest in the nursing home?” Crest Haven employee Steve White said.
He said he has never seen any of the county commissioners visit Crest Haven, including Commissioner Jeffrey Pierson who oversees the facility for the board. “Maybe there needs to be someone in the financial office to better run the finances,” White said. “You guys are not doing a good job if it’s a $30 million deficit.”
Employee Melinda Hassler asked why Crest Haven’s business office was shut down. She said the county let the only in-house biller go and did not offer her additional pay to stay but instead decided to outsource the billing department to a firm charging about $80 per hour.
“We go six plus months sometimes without sending out private pay bills,” she said. “How can we collect money if we don’t send out bills?”
Hassler said the daily rate of $247 for private patients was lower than the $266 daily Medicaid rate. She said Crest Haven has brought in $4.9 million this year with $10 million in uncollected debt.
“Why did we let it get to $10 million?” Hassler asked.
By JACK FICHTER/Sentinel staff