County considers sale of nursing home

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jun 18, 1998

The Monroe County Board will meet Friday to discuss the possible sale of Rolling Hills Rehabilitation Center and Special Care home in Sparta to a private, for-profit group.

The board's asking price for the facility is $4 million, but actual bid amounts have not been released. The county holds the option to include any surrounding land in the deal, a decision that would be made within 150 days of the sale.

Rolling Hills, which opened under county ownership in 1948, is operating at nearly full capacity with 138 of 150 beds in use. But concerns about whether government subsidies -- including federally sponsored Medicare and Medicaid -- will continue to flow in forced the county to consider the sale.

"We haven't had any clear-cut indication that the funds are going to dry up," Rolling Hills administrator Gene Schwarze said. "It's just a general feeling that this can't last forever."

In February, the County Board instructed a Rolling Hills Operating Committee to return in June with recommendations and figures on three options: sell, remodel and upgrade, or build a new facility. Those options were discussed on June 3 with no conclusion or further action.

But the committee had prior authorization of the board to enlist the services of a broker, which they did in March.

The broker, West Allis-based Robert LeClaire of S.I. Wangard Inc., put Rolling Hills on the market and received three offers. The highest bid came from Robert and Jean VanDenBrink of Glendale, Wis., who own a large, for-profit facility in the Milwaukee suburb.

The full board will consider their offer in a closed session Friday morning. The board may act on the offer or consider other options, including a public referendum.

A 12-person contingent from the county board visited the Glendale facility and met with its owners June 12 Board chairman LaVern Betthauser was part of that group.

"It was a real nice facility, very clean," Betthauser said. "It's a typical nursing home facility, and the people who own it seem very nice and very interested in their patients. I couldn't see anything wrong with it."

Schwarze also made the trip, but he said there is a wide range of opinions on the couple and their facility. He said some people, including workers at the nursing home, are worried about a decline in the quality of care provided at Rolling Hills.

"There are questions being asked," Schwarze said. "No one can accurately predict how a new owner would operate. But I honestly don't know enough about these people personally or professionally to make a judgment. I guess time will tell."

It's unclear how the potential sale would affect the status of the 125 full-time and 60 part-time employees, with one exception.

Rolling Hills employees are members of the Wisconsin Retirement Fund for municipal employees. If ownership of the facility changes to a private, for-profit status, contributions into that fund would cease. But because past contributions are vested, employees wouldn't forfeit what they've paid in so far.

Still, Schwarze said employees have their concerns.

"They have some fears of losing those fringe benefits - not only their retirement, but also other accumulated benefits like wage changes and sick leave or vacation time in the bank," Schwarze said. "They're concerned about anything that might be wiped back to point zero, and that's only natural at a time when a business is for sale."

Dan Pfeifer, union representative for the employees, said he believes the sale is moving too fast and that the board is not doing enough to inform the public of its actions.

Rolling Hills' deficit over the last five years has averaged more than $900,000 per year, Schwarze said. In the past, if a county home ran a deficit of $850,000 or less, the government made up 100 percent of the deficit. Any deficit over $850,000 was reimbursed at a two-thirds rate.

But changes at the state and federal levels could make it more difficult for health care providers like Rolling Hills to break even in the future.