NORRISTOWN Montgomery County on Thursday sold the Parkhouse
nursing-home complex - which officials said was eating up millions of taxpayer
dollars annually - to a private operator.
Mid-Atlantic Health Care, a Maryland company, bought the
227-acre Royersford facility for $41 million. Under the agreement, some of the
county-owned land in the vicinity will be preserved as open space.
The transaction was effective as soon as officials for both
sides signed papers during a two-hour break in the county commissioners'
meeting. Before the recess, commissioners passed several resolutions about
public access to the land.
They began looking at what to do with the facility in
February 2013, and voted unanimously in October to privatize the complex, which
includes three buildings that house independent-living apartments, short-term
and long-term care, and day services for the county's elderly poor. It has 500
residents and 530 full-time and 145 part-time employees.
Uri Z. Monson, the county's chief financial officer, said in
October that Parkhouse was $8 million in debt. Running it cost the county from
$2 million to $7 million a year, he said.
Rather than continued losses, Commissioners Chairman Josh
Shapiro said, the sale will net the county a $28.6 million profit. About $20
million of that will go into the reserve fund, he said, bringing the balance to
just over $40 million.
Many counties in Pennsylvania have sold nursing homes they
owned and operated for the elderly poor, as stagnant Medicare and Medicaid
reimbursement rates have failed to keep up with rising expenses.
A group of residents protested the property's sale and asked
commissioners to keep and preserve the undeveloped land surrounding the
buildings. The county responded Thursday by arranging to have Upper Schuylkill
Valley Park, across State Route 113 from the complex in Upper Providence
Township, placed under a restricted deed and permanently preserved as open
space. The park will get about $460,000 in renovations, with half of that
coming from a state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant.
The Parkhouse agreement also requires Mid-Atlantic to let
the public use part of the facility's land for recreational purposes for at
least five years. After that, Mid-Atlantic would have to get approval from
Upper Providence to develop it. In the meantime, Mid-Atlantic will need the
township's permission to make any aesthetic changes to the property, such as
cutting down trees or shrubs.
Shapiro said the deal addressed public concerns. "We
heard loud and clear that local government officials and residents wanted to
have a say over the future of that facility," Shapiro said later Thursday.
Mid-Atlantic officials were pleased the deal was done.
"Mid-Atlantic Health Care is proud to welcome the residents, families, and
employees of the Parkhouse community to our own family of skilled care
centers," said its CEO, Scott Rifkin.
Not everyone was pleased, said one of the protest
organizers.
Shapiro "knows this isn't what we wanted. We wanted the
land to stay in public hands" and the county to keep operating Parkhouse,
said Barbara Flynn of Royersford. She owns a nearby stable that has used the
property for trail rides.
She said she did not know that the county planned to
finalize the sale during Thursday's meeting and called the process
"sneaky."
Apart from the protests, the proposed sale drew controversy
in February when County Controller Stewart J. Greenleaf Jr. issued a 15-page
audit. The report said that Elliot Menkowitz, an orthopedic surgeon who worked
at Parkhouse at the time, may have violated county ethics and procurement
policies by passing on inside information about the impending sale to
Mid-Atlantic.
The audit also determined that despite Menkowitz's
involvement, the sale legally could proceed.
County officials fired Menkowitz after the report's release
for violating the policies. Rifkin said Thursday that Menkowitz and the
development company he created "are no longer involved in the deal with
Mid-Atlantic."
Source: Philly.com
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