Comments on Advance Indiana™: Someone In The News Media Is Catching On To The HHC

Thank you, Mr. Lee, for trying to be a journalist....

2009-09-11T20:34:18.556-05:00

Thank you, Mr. Lee, for trying to be a journalist. It appears to be a dying art, little appreciated, probably paying little, nearly as arcane as trying to find someone to perform limestone carving on buildings downtown. It's refreshing to see- for as long as your permitted to practice it.

I'd just like to make sure the legal language ...

2009-09-10T21:40:38.702-05:00

I'd just like to make sure the legal language of the referendum bubbles into this exchange.

I don't see that the language will legally bind H&H to build any building, or restrict its bond amount to -oh, say- any amount, or not use tax moneys if any other revenues of H&H dries up. The bonds would be secured by their revenues -- no restrictions on only profits from nursing homes.

Anyway - wanted to inject this thought into the mix.

Paul, The fundamental question here is whether thi...

2009-09-09T22:53:50.589-05:00

Paul, The fundamental question here is whether this arrangement is a thinly-veiled attempt to make what is otherwise for-profit nursing homes appear to be nonprofit, county-owned nursing homes. The upper income limit payments are only supposed to be made to county-run facilities that are providing disproportionate care to indigents. The facilities wind up getting reimbursed well above their actual costs for providing these services. The state approves the higher reimbursement rates to these facilities as a way of getting more matching funds from the federal government for Medicaid. These facilities rob other Medicaid-dependent facilities of these additional monies. These nursing homes have nothing to do with providing indigent care; it's just a scam to allow HHC to get more than its fair share of Medicaid dollars. It's one thing to do this with Wishard, which actually provides disproportionate care, but it is quite another to take what is essentially a for-profit nursing home and make it appear to be a county-run facility in order to skim additional Medicaid dollars without providing any different care than what competing nursing homes provide. Gutwein boasts that HHC provides better care at these nursing homes. The only one providing the care is ASC; Wishard closed Lockefield Village only a decade after it was built and opened. It received the lowest possible rating by the government (1 out of 5) for quality of care.

Wow, it sounds like Dan Lee really knew his stuff ...

2009-09-09T22:36:04.957-05:00

Wow, it sounds like Dan Lee really knew his stuff going into the interview. I was impressed by his questioning.

I think we really have to sort out exactly what HHC owns relative to those nursing homes. I too don't understand why they would, apparently voluntarily, be paying property tax for those nursing homes. I would note that one of us speculated that they might have been taking the properties off the tax rolls. Sounds like a response to that.

As far as HHC's ownership of American Senior Communities, the fact that Ed or anyone else that works at ASC, might not have known what HHC owns doesn't surprise me. Ownership issues in many businesses are very complicated, especially when you're talking holding type companies which is essentially what HHC is when it comes to owning those nursing homes. DI is exactly right in his observation that there probably isn't the name HHC on anything where Ed works. I think the fact that some part of Ed's employer might be owned by HHC essentially as a holding company probably is too tenuous to be a conflict. Ed is a nurse where he works and not part of management.

Ed's place of employment is probably awash in ...

2009-09-09T17:56:10.538-05:00

Ed's place of employment is probably awash in signage, paychecks, paperwork and other things proclaiming 'This is an American Senior Community' so I would think it easy to have the wrong conclusion.

Not that I dispute he SHOULD be better informed, being a councillor.