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However the county pays for renovations to the jail, funds won’t be taken from the Houghton County Medical Care Facility without a fight.
The suggestion to use part of a 2016 voter-approved millage for the facility to pay part of a plan to build an addition at the county jail was discussed at a special meeting of the Houghton County Board of Commissioners last month.
After the meeting, Commissioner Tim Palosaari explained how half the money needed for the jail could come from the Medical Care Facility millage.
“Currently, the county medical care gets $2.54 million, I believe, and they could reduce their millage. It wouldn’t really affect them, they’d still have a good cash flow and I think it would help the voters,” said County Commissioner Vice Chairman Tim Palosaari. “The voters would have to come up with another $1 million. The big thing is raising taxes and I’m against it.”
Voters would have to approve this option first, a suggestion which is already being met with criticism from the county’s Department of Health and Human Services Board.
A statement put out by the DHHS called the option misguided and said it would place burden of a new jail on some of the community’s neediest citizens.
Houghton DHHS Board opposes reduction to county’s investments in long-term care
HANCOCK — Any attempt to alter a county millage funding long-term care for Houghton County residents would place burdens on some of the community’s neediest citizens and thwart the expressed will of local voters, members of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Board said today.
Board members Ed Jenich, Christy Hilgers and Gary Capello, responding to an idea by Houghton County Commissioner Tim Palosaari to take long-term care funds to bolster a county jail project, said any millage diversion would be misguided, for several reasons:
- County voters overwhelmingly approved the six-year renewal millage in 2016.
- The millage (2.55 mills) provides $2.2 million annually “to be used exclusively for the operation of the Houghton County Medical Care Facility.”
- Palosaari’s idea would mean the loss of $400,000 for Houghton residents with medically complex needs.
“More than 78 percent of the voters in Houghton County voted to approve our millage renewal in 2016,” noted Jenich, who leads the DHHS Board and is a former county commissioner. “At the same time, the voters have rejected millage requests to add to the jail on at least four occasions. There may be good reasons to improve the jail, but such work should not come at the expense of our elderly and disabled residents.”
The Houghton County Medical Care Facility provides skilled long-term nursing care, rehabilitation service, and post-hospital services at its 197-bed facility in Hancock, Michigan. It also provides specialized dementia and memory care at Woodland Haven, its two distinct 14-bed units. The facility employs approximately 300 employees.
The facility is one of 35 county-owned medical care facilities in Michigan. Unlike private nursing homes, county-owned nursing homes cannot turn people away based on payer source and must give preference to the poor. Almost 80 percent of residents in the facility have their care partly paid for through the federal-state Medicaid program.
“Current Medicaid payments do not come close to paying for the actual cost of providing care to Medicaid residents,” stated Tammi Lehto, administrator. “The millage money the facility receives allows us to provide a higher level of staffing, improve our physical facilities and offer additional services to our residents. $400,000 is roughly the cost of employing ten full time nurse aides for a year.”
Chairman Jenich emphasized: “The message Commissioner Palosaari is sending is that we don’t need the money. That is just plain wrong.”
