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  1. #1
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Deadbeat (illegals) Cost County Home Nearly 1 Mil

    http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnew ... 102630.xml


    Deadbeats cost county home $817,000
    Unpaid bills at home blamed for county debt

    Tuesday, May 17, 2005
    BY JACK SHERZER
    Of The Patriot-News

    In the worst case, a man lived at Dauphin County's nursing home twice -- from September 1997 to April 1998 and from October 1998 until his eviction in August -- without paying, leaving taxpayers with a $378,590 bill.

    Another former resident was an illegal alien but was able to rack up a $115,119 bill at the home from June 2002 to December 2003. The man eventually was deported.

    In all, officials at the Spring Creek Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Swatara Twp. say they have found about $817,000 in uncollected bills dating to 1991, covering 241 mostly former residents.

    The chance of collecting most of that debt is slight. But the home's new management says that procedures are in place so such problems don't happen again.

    "I was shocked at the entire operation and how much breakdown had occurred," said Commissioner Nick DiFrancesco, who oversees the home. "When you find out that somebody has been living in the facility and hasn't paid anything and nobody has followed up is a shock. There is a reason that building has bled [financially] so much for so many years."

    When DiFrancesco and Commissioners Jeff Haste and George Hartwick III came into office last year, they warned the county faced a deficit of more than $12 million. In the past two years, they have raised county property taxes almost 40 percent to fix the problem.

    DiFrancesco says the home is responsible for at least half of the need for tax increases: From 1999 through 2003, the facility cost the county almost $14 million.

    Last year, the board axed the home's top managers and brought in a private management company, ZA Consulting, under an emergency six-month, $600,000 contract. ZA resolved some resident-care issues and helped renew the home's license.

    After ZA's contract ended, the board brought in the current management firm, Complete HealthCare Resources of Horsham, under a $24,000-a-month contract. CHR guaranteed it would save the county at least $2 million by the end of 2006 or refund all or part of its pay.

    Scott Burford, the home's assistant administrator, said a review of the facility's operation uncovered many of the billing issues.

    The resident who had run up the $378,590 was asked last year to begin making payments. When he refused, administrators worked to have him discharged.

    That case pointed up one of the major problems the new management team found: After the resident's medical assistance application was rejected because he had too much money, the former administration failed to discharge him or collect payments, Burford said.

    JACK SHERZER: 255-8263 or jsherzer@patriot-news.com
    RIP Butterbean! We miss you and hope you are well in heaven.-- Your ALIPAC friends

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  2. #2
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    And the tab just keeps going up. EXCELLENT POST BB!!!
    FAR BEYOND DRIVEN

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