Hmmmmm! State to consider new nursing homes - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register

Proposals for two new Springfield nursing homes that would give Sangamon County more beds for low-income residents — as well as more private rooms and housing options for senior citizens — will be considered Tuesday and Wednesday by the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.

The board’s staff, in its non-binding analysis of the proposals, questioned whether either facility is needed because of low occupancy rates at many nursing homes in the county.

But Charles Foley, a Springfield-based consultant working with groups seeking approval for Concordia Village nursing home and Springfield Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, said there is a state-documented need for 246 more nursing home beds in the area.

Concordia Village would provide 64 beds and cost $9.9 million. Springfield Nursing and Rehabilitation would cost $12.2 million and have 75 beds.

The staff’s analysis fails to take into account that some of nursing homes with low occupancy rates don’t admit low-income residents whose care is paid by Medicaid, he said.

Moreover, some of the homes don’t provide the intensity of nursing care — known as “skilled care” — that both of the new facilities would provide, he said.

Both Concordia Village, 4101 W. Iles Ave., and Springfield Nursing and Rehabilitation, 3089 Old Jacksonville Road, would serve Medicaid residents, as well as those who pay privately or have their care paid for by Medicare, Foley said.

More than 90 percent of Springfield Nursing and Rehabilitation’s beds would be in private rooms, he said.

The new facilities “will open up access to continued quality service and access to more Medicaid beds,” he said.

Officials associated with both proposals will make those arguments to the planning board at its two-day meeting in Chicago.

The Concordia project, proposed by St. Louis-based Lutheran Senior Services, would be connected to a $35 million complex of independent-living and assisted-living units that could be completed by August.
The current Concordia facility consists of 33 independent-living apartments built 12 years ago.

Paul Ogier, chief financial officer for Lutheran Senior Services, said the nursing home would provide a “continuum of care” for senior citizens at the complex, regardless of their health condition or financial means. The nursing home would admit residents from outside the complex, he said, but residents from other parts of the complex would have priority.

The only objection to either nursing home proposal was filed by Bloomington-based Heritage Enterprises, a for-profit chain that operates nursing homes in central Illinois and the Chicago area. Heritage Manor-Springfield, 900 Rutledge St., is jointly owned and operated by Heritage and Memorial Health System.

Anne Cooper, a Chicago lawyer representing Heritage, told the state board in a letter that Concordia Village wouldn’t do much to expand nursing-home access for low-income people because only six of its 64 beds would be set aside for Medicaid patients.

Daniel Maher, a Springfield lawyer representing Concordia Village, wrote in response that there isn’t a shortage of beds for Medicaid patients in the Springfield area. Springfield Nursing and Rehab potentially could fill all of its beds with Medicaid patients, he said.

He also said Concordia wouldn’t evict a resident who exhausted his or her assets, even if a Medicaid bed was unavailable.

Cooper, in her objection to Springfield Nursing and Rehab, questioned whether the Chicago-area businessmen behind the project are fit to operate the new facility.

She wrote that the businessmen held the nursing home license for Ashford Court Care Centre, formerly at 2800 W. Lawrence Ave., when that nursing home closed in May without giving its residents the state-mandated 90 days’ written notice.

Ashford Court, also known as Helia Healthcare and Sangamon Care Center, later was fined $35,500 by the state for the infraction. The fine hasn’t been paid.

It’s unclear whether the unpaid fine is owed by the Chicago-area businessmen — who do business as Platinum Healthcare and operate Springfield’s Capitol Care nursing home — or by York Management Associates, a Morton Grove-based business owned by Skokie businessman Shael Bellows.

York was operating 170-bed Ashford Court when it closed, but didn’t hold the facility’s license.

Ben Klein, an investor in Springfield Nursing and Rehab, told the planning board in a letter that York Management took over operating the nursing home from another group without the permission of him and the other license holders.

York also closed the home without notifying or getting permission from the license holders, Klein said. Klein and his associates surrendered the license to the state in October. The nursing home, owned by Bellows, remains closed.