Lehigh County expecting bigger dividends at Cedarbrook thanks to federal funding program

Dec. 14--Lehigh County commissioners readily agreed Wednesday night to participate in a federal funding program expected to ring in millions of dollars to the county-owned nursing home.

For the past three years, the Lehigh Valley's two county-owned nursing homes have benefited from the return of the intergovernmental transfer, or IGT. Under the program, county-owned nursing homes send money to the state. That cash is then pooled and matched against federal dollars. The larger pool is then divvied up among the counties.

Commissioners unanimously voted to commit $12.6 million to the program on behalf of Cedarbrook, the county nursing home with campuses in Fountain Hill and South Whitehall Township. By the time the money returns to county coffers, Cedarbrook should net an extra $4.1 million.

If the proposal moves as expected, Lehigh County would see far more cash from IGT than in recent years. Lehigh County received $1.3 million from the program last year and about $2 million the year before. Executive Tom Muller chalked up the higher returns to the dwindling number of county-owned homes.

"I'm assuming the reason we're doing better is there's fewer of us sharing the pot. We have to put up more, but we get more in the long term," Muller said.

Even with the IGT money, Cedarbrook is still expected to operate at a loss of about $1.4 million in 2018. Muller originally projected the nursing home would need $5.5 million in local tax dollars next year in his budget, but he did not offset that estimate with projected IGT revenue.

Northampton County, which runs its Gracedale nursing home in Upper Nazareth Township, is expected to vote on its own IGT resolution Thursday. It was not immediately clear how much money Gracedale would receive, but it will likely be more than Cedarbrook's share since Gracedale serves more patients and will commit $13 million to the program.

Cedarbrook and Gracedale are two of the largest county-owned nursing homes in the state with 670 and 688 beds. In the past decade, counties have struggled to keep nursing homes running since the state's funding formula gives higher Medicaid reimbursements to privately owned nursing homes.

The inequity of the policy has been a double whammy for county-owned homes. Private nursing homes generally prefer patients with Medicare or private insurance because they offer higher payments. As a result, nursing homes like Cedarbrook and Gracedale are seeing greater demand from Medicaid patients who cannot pay as well for their care.

As a result, the IGT has been a blessing for the Lehigh Valley's two county nursing homes. Gracedale closed 2016 in the black for the first time in about a decade because of the $2 million it received through the IGT program.

In other news, Muller unveiled a new rendering of the $68 million Cedarbrook renovation approved by commissioners earlier this year. While commissioners had seen floor plans and designs for the building, an image of the facility's planned outside had not been released.

tshortell@mcall.com

610-820-6168

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