City Council wants update from Taunton Nursing Home

Nov. 01--TAUNTON -- The City Council made it clear Tuesday night that they eagerly await a financial progress report from the fiscally beleaguered Taunton Nursing Home.

Administrators and board members of the city-owned nursing facility told the council in April that they would return in six months with an update.

The 101-bed Taunton Nursing Home on Norton Avenue has run up an operating deficit of nearly $2.3 million during the previous fiscal years.

Mayor Thomas Hoye told the council that the current deficit stands at $965,000.

The only other municipal nursing home in Massachusetts is on Nantucket.

Hoye on Tuesday night reiterated his position that the time has come for the city to sever its ownership of the nursing home.

"I've said before that cities and towns should not be in the medical or nursing home business," Hoye said.

"It's a losing proposition," he added. "And if it wasn't then the city of Boston would have 10 of them."

The city's nursing home -- which has 55 full-time union and 15 part-time workers -- operates as an enterprise fund, meaning that it depends on revenue from federal Medicare and Medicaid programs and, to a lesser extent, private-pay residents.

The council voted 7-to-2 in April to allow the facility's administration to formulate and enact a three-year plan to improve the nursing home's finances, with the understanding that administrators check in every six months with a status report.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue in December 2017 sent an email to the mayor, the city auditor and board of assessors indicating that the nursing home had a deficit of nearly $860,000 in FY2018.

The deficits adversely affect the amount of "free cash," which are unrestricted funds from the previous year that are made available to the city.

The Department of Revenue in its letter also indicated that feasibility was to be conducted so that the city could within 12 months' time either sell or close the home.

Hoye later said it wasn't clear why the DOR was under the impression that the nursing home would be dissolved or sold within a year.

The DOR, in its letter, also warned that if the city failed to present "a definitive plan as such time that the FY2019 tax rate is to be set, the Bureau (DOR) will require that any revenue estimate that cannot be reasonably supported will not be allowed, and that a budget subsidy will be necessary prior to setting of that tax rate."

The City Council last week approved the citywide property tax rates for fiscal 2019.

Taunton Budget Director Gil. E. Enos said for now at least there is no problem in terms of the city's budget as it relates to the nursing home's deficit.

Enos noted that the city's fiscal 2019 budget won't be finalized until next month. But he acknowledged that "there will be an additional subsidy" as result of the nursing home that will have to be taken into account.

He said the city will be in contact with the state's revenue department in order to resolve the issue.

"Hopefully it will be an amicable discussion," Enos said.

Earlier this month the city and the union that includes nursing home workers signed a new three-year contract that guarantees cost-of-living raises to everyone except Taunton Nursing Home employees.

Councilor Deborah Carr, after Tuesday's meeting, reiterated her earlier request that the nursing home pursue an explanation from John Paul Thomas Law Office, the Taunton law firm previously hired to act as its collections attorney.

Taunton Nursing Home board member Joseph Martin confirmed that the Thomas law firm had been hired to handle collections due from residents, who either left or died leaving behind an outstanding residency debt.

Representatives of the nursing home previously said that calls left with the Taunton law office were not being returned.

Both Carr and Martin said that the nursing home at one point had been informed by Thomas that records pertaining to those collections had been destroyed as result of flooding.

A call left seeking comment for Thomas was not immediately returned.

Martin said Wednesday that representatives of Joint Commission, a nationwide nonprofit formerly known as Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, conducted an inspection and review two weeks ago of the nursing home.

A final report, Martin, said, has yet to be issued.

If accredited by Joint Commission, the Taunton facility would then be eligible to accept "managed care" patients covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield and other private insurers.

Most patients residing in the nursing home traditionally have been covered by the federal Medicaid program.

Councilor Estele Borges said she has been in touch with Taunton Nursing Home administrator Michelle Mercado as to occupancy rates.

Those rates since May have fluctuated from 71 to the most current number of 80, according to information provided to Borges by Mercado.

Borges and David Pottier were the only councilors last April who voted against the motion to give the nursing home's administration a chance to formulate a three-year recovery plan.

City Council President Gerald Croteau said he would try to schedule the status-review meeting on Nov. 27. He said it makes sense to wait until the midterm elections are over.

Croteau said waiting until that night will ensure that enough time is available to thoroughly discuss the matter at hand.

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