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Green County Board to discuss Pleasant View
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MONROE - The Green County Board of Supervisors will discuss the future of Pleasant View Nursing Home on Tuesday in light of increasing costs to operate the facility.

In 2008, Pleasant View Nursing Home had a deficit of about $900,000.

The board wants to learn more about how to cover the costs for the nursing home. It also wants to talk to state Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon, and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, about how the county can finance the home and how the 2 percent spending limit, imposed by the state on all municipalities, affects the nursing home and the county's future.

The board learned at its November budget hearing that the nursing home, like other public nursing homes across the state, doesn't make enough money to cover operating costs.

Brian Schoeneck, financial services director for the Wisconsin Association of Homes and Serves for the Aging, Davis and Erpenbach will attend Tuesday's board meeting to listen and discuss funding for the nursing home.

Schoeneck told the Pleasant View Nursing Home Committee in January that nursing homes bring in millions of dollars for the state every year from the federal government. However, the state doesn't reimburse the county homes as much as it should and uses the money for its Medicaid Trust Fund deficits.

Schoeneck told the committee the reason Pleasant View had a deficit was because nursing homes don't receive enough money from Medicaid patients. About 70 percent of Pleasant View's patients receive Medicaid. About 20 percent of the nursing home's residents are diagnosed with dementia, have complex medical needs and are Medicaid residents other nursing homes won't accept.

Schoeneck told the committee that in 2006-07, the latest statistics available, 96 percent of all public nursing homes in the state suffered Medicaid losses and the average 100-bed nursing home lost about $34.50 per resident every day. In addition, Pleasant View loses another $13 a day in support services, such as fuel and utilities, dietary services and environmental costs.

The Green County Board of Supervisors meets at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Green County Courthouse.