Unexpected Payments Help County Nursing Home Avoid Asking For Another Loan

The Champaign County Nursing Home got a much-needed break Tuesday. The surprise arrival of some payments allowed it to cancel its request for what would have been its second emergency loan from the county. 

The money from some of the home’s private-pay clients --- plus money from another payor -- gave the nursing home enough money to meet payroll and pay other bills this week. 

County Administrator Rick Snider the nursing home could see some improvements in its financial pictures, thanks to the new state budget, which could ensure more timely delivery of Medicaid funding to the facility.

In addition, the nursing home has been under new management since July 1st. Snider says SAK Management Services has identified potential savings in a review of nursing  home contracts.

But Snider says the county nursing home continues to have cash-flow problems, and that a new financial crisis has only been postponed, not eliminated.

“There will be likely the need to do additional loans within the near future”, said Snider. “I don’t see how we’ll get through September at this point without some additional funds. That’s been our projection for the last six or seven months.”

The nursing home’s long-term problems will be discussed at a special Champaign County Board study session, set for next Tuesday at 6 PM at the county’s Brookens Administrative Center in Urbana. 

Snider says all options will be discussed --- from working with local healthcare organizations to set the nursing home up as a private, non-profit institution, to selling the facility to a private, and likely for-profit, operator.

The county board voted in June to hire the firm of Marcus and Millichap to broker a possible nursing home sale. That action came after county voters in April rejected a tax increase to help fund the nursing home, while authorizing the county board to consider a possible sale.