The Monmouth County Board of Freeholders has the opportunity to put the county on a more stable financial footing.
Since 2007, the county health care facilities — John L. Montgomery, Freehold Township, and Geraldine L. Thompson, Wall Township — have ensued losses of more than $40 million of taxpayers money.
This financial hole deepens and widens as the federal health care law draws money from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Medicaid is the primary source of funding for both facilities.
Both facilities have served county citizens well by providing professional health care to those most in need. The staff of both facilities have been exceptionally generous in union negotiations and are applauded for their exceptional caring and nurturing compassion for the residents.
Thompson and Montgomery are both Medicaid-based, and with the federal health care act in full thrust, Medicaid payments that already were dwindling will continue to decline with no end in sight.
The burden of deficit will now be thrown on the backs of county taxpayers. The health care industry has evolved into a comprehensive health care system with private corporations leading the way.
This advanced care is supplied through a myriad of pay systems inclusive of Medicaid and it is now the private sector that provides state-of-the-art health care with greater efficiency. Medicaid patients make up a large percentage of the private healthcare resident facility population.
The Board of Freeholders will use $43 million of reserves in the 2014 budget to bring in a flat tax rate and hope that fees from a stimulated economy will regenerate this crucial aspect of budgeting.
The county’s AAA bond rating is dependent upon sound financial management because the AAA bond rating provides a conduit for municipalities and school boards to borrow at a vast savings to their respective constituencies. Successful transitions are not foreign to New Jersey with Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Essex, Mercer, Salem, Sussex and Hudson counties all successfully privatizing.
The Union County freeholders have recently voted to sell the county’s long-term health facility and are presently reviewing responses for its request from potential buyers.
Any agreement between Monmouth County and a private health care company should stipulate equal or better care for our residents and guaranteed employment for our existing health care staff. The quality of health services would be undisturbed, the employees protected and the financial burden lifted from the taxpayers. An 18-month operations review was sanctioned by the freeholders and now, two years later, it has been determined that Montgomery and Thompson will never generate enough revenue to keep up with today’s rapidly escalating costs.
In an attempt to develop a marketing strategy and to seek additional revenue sources, discussions started long before the federal health care act became a reality and included a cost benefit analysis for creating a senior day-stay program. A final analysis determined this potential use to be cost-ineffective, further plunging the facilities into deeper debt.
With operating costs at Geraldine L. Thompson at approximately $11.1 million and John L. Montgomery at approximately $12.7 million, and with the escalating cost of facility maintenance, these costs are exclusive of other indirect costs that would make the operational budget even larger. It is time for Monmouth County to provide a 21st-century commitment to health care. It is time to get government out of the nursing home business and allow the private sector to provide this service.
John P. Curley is a member of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders.