Kissinger: “unexplainable to the general public”

KINGSTON – “County-owned nursing homes are in state of transition,” said Stephen Acquario, executive director of the New York State Association of Counties.

The association conducted a county nursing home summit in Kingston Tuesday.

NYSAC and its member counties renewed their call to the state to partner with them to address that healthcare program.

“We need a commitment from the state to support the county homes, or a strategy to help counties provide the care our residents need and deserve.”

Currently, 36 counties, including Ulster, operate 38 nursing facilities across the state. A number of counties have closed or sold their nursing homes in the last 10 years. Other counties are currently weighing the costs and benefits of maintaining these long term care facility services.

Orange County is headed toward hiring a company to study the benefits of retaining or selling its facility.

“We have a nursing home reimbursement system that is unexplainable to the general public,” said Mark Kissinger, deputy commissioner of the Office of Long Term Care in the state Department of Health, who noted they are still waiting for a reimbursement rate approval for the fiscal year that started April 1, 2009, more than a year ago.

The fiscal plight of the county nursing homes is a policy issue that has been exacerbated by the increasing population of New Yorkers over 65 years of age, the unsustainable growth of the state’s Medicaid program, the unceasing growth of property taxes to pay for public programs, the annual state budget battles in Albany, and county budget deficits brought on by the recession, according to NYSAC.