Manitowoc County residents mobilize to save Health Care Center
Bryan G. Pfeifer, 13.11.2007 08:48
Another reason why the opposition opposes the Health Dimensions Group
or any other for-profit is in regard to "flipping." This is where
"groups" or "consortiums" made up of investment bankers, insurance
interests etc. buy up companies or places like the HCC for fire sale
prices then turn around and make as much profit as possible by
stripping the center down to bare essentials, and busting the union
etc. Many times after most of the profit is made the company moves on
by selling or going bankrupt leaving a hollowed-out shell of what used
to be and leaving whole communities economically and socially
devastated for years to come. Witness the auto industry.
By Bryan G. Pfeifer
After a nearly nine month struggle, the Manitowoc County Board of
Supervisors will vote Nov. 20 whether to keep the county's health care
center public or sell it to a for-profit operator, the Health
Dimensions Group. With only a week to go for this meeting county residents are mobilizing in an attempt to keep the center publicly owned.
Since early April when County Executive Robert Zieglebauer submitted a
draft resolution to sell the county's Manitowoc County Health Care
Center (HCC) to a for-profit operator he has been met with creative
forms of resistance by county residents in this county of 83,000 90
minutes north of Milwaukee.
Ziegelbauer, a Wharton Business School graduate whose family money
originates in the liquor business, is also a Democratic Wisconsin
State Assemblyman and a business owner. He has strong ties to finance
capital interests nationwide and beyond.
Within days of Ziegelbauer's resolution submission, the
labor-community coalition Citizens Opposed to the Privatization/Sale
of the Health Care Center (COP/S) formed and began working with AFSCME
Local 1288, the union that represents 140 workers at the HCC. Both
organizations claim that the privatization scheme is fiscally
irresponsible, a manufactured crisis, a union-busing maneuver and one
that could have far-reaching catastrophic consequences locally,
statewide and beyond. They also say that when Zigelbauer-and his
backers-weren't able to at first steamroll his resolution through the
county board, he resorted to fear tactics based on inaccurate
information.
Since April AFSCME, COP/s and others have packed public county board
hearings, distributed literature, written dozens of letters to the
Gannett-owned local newspaper, initiated postcard campaigns, conducted
research, distributed over 1,000 green lawn signs county wide
declaring "Save Our Health Care Center: Call Your County Supervisor
Today," among other actions. A "Campaign to Recall Bob Z" created by
county residents, was also formed in late August but failed to get the
thousands of signatures needed by a mid-October deadline to recall the
county executive.
This resistance forced a debate within the County Board and initially
stopped Ziegelbauer's resolution from passing in May. At a July board
meeting the supervisors instead voted to charge Ziegelbauer with the
task of studying an array of options in regard to selling the HCC.
After the county executive vetoed this, the board then passed a
resolution calling for a referendum that would ask county residents if
they wanted to keep the HCC public but this was vetoed by Ziegelbauer
as well. Then Ziegelbauer built the sale of the HCC into his 2008
budget-only until March 1-putting the board into a position of having
to rewrite significant portions of the budget, a task the majority of
members refused to do. Thus, on Aug. 21, the board, after a full court
press campaign by Zieglebauer and his allies, voted to allow him to
seek bids from potential private operators for the HCC.
On October 26 the county received three bids from prospective buyers,
two for-profits and one non-profit. Zieglebauer recommended that the
County Board sell the HCC to the Minneapolis-based Health Dimensions
Group for $6 million. Many county residents are outraged over this as
the current HCC was just built in 2003 and is assessed at between
$13.5 and $15 million. And there is no crisis-the budget is fully
operational with minimal deficits contrary to what Zieglebauer claims.
During the week of Nov. 4 the executive committee of the county board
recommended to the full county board that it vote to sell the HCC. A
full vote is expected at the next full County Board meeting Nov. 20.
'Save Our Health Care Center'
As they have every step of the way, AFSCME Local 1288 and COP/s
members are fighting to keep their beloved 150 bed HCC which has a
stellar reputation for quality care, low worker turnover and over 123
years of top quality service to the county.
Fundamentally, says AFSCME Local 1288 and COP/S member Lynne Pfeifer,
this struggle is about human needs vs. profit hungry corporations from
Manitowoc County to internationally.
"The service we provide at the Health Care Center is just that a
service. Our county departments are not there for profit we are there
for service for the people. Manitowoc County has been providing care
for people for 123 years even through the Great Depression which
speaks highly of the people in Manitowoc County," said Pfeifer, a
27-year employee at the HCC.
Laundry and housekeeping at the HCC have already been outsourced and,
according to AFSCME, turnover is higher, wages are lower, benefits are
inferior to the still union dietary department and Certified Nursing
Assistants (CNA's). Reports from workers at facilities that Health
Dimension Group has bought in Wisconsin say these types of conditions
are commonplace now as opposed to when these facilities were publicly
owned.
In many other Wisconsin counties where public entities such as the HCC
have been privatized, quality care for patients and workers' standard
of living has plummeted and counties are often stuck with added costs
such as transporting safety net patients out of county that private
operators won't admit. These costs keep piling up at the same time
more and more tax money is going to fund the U.S. war on Iraq and the
manufacturing industry has been devastated.
Furthermore, for profit nursing homes have abysmal records nationwide
and are closing at alarming rates leaving misery and often death in
their wake. For-profit and increasingly non-profit operators are
almost never held accountable and made to pay for their destruction;
once a private operator is in business public accountability and
oversight decreases if not disappears. And for-profit corporations are
also notorious for only accepting patients that can make them a profit
and work to keep safety net patients-those with high care needs or who
are poor-from being admitted.
Health Dimensions Group has faced lawsuits for patient deaths and
negligent care.
Another reason why the opposition opposes the Health Dimensions Group
or any other for-profit is in regard to "flipping." This is where
"groups" or "consortiums" made up of investment bankers, insurance
interests etc. buy up companies or places like the HCC for fire sale
prices then turn around and make as much profit as possible by
stripping the center down to bare essentials, and busting the union
etc. Many times after most of the profit is made the company moves on
by selling or going bankrupt leaving a hollowed-out shell of what used
to be and leaving whole communities economically and socially
devastated for years to come. Witness the auto industry.
The struggle continues
Leading up to the Nov. 20 vote, AFSCME and COP/S are busy distributing
fact sheets, making phone calls and engaging in other mobilization
activities.
-----
Contact COP/S at PO Box 1362, Manitowoc, WI 54221;
920-629-1602;  cops.mchcc@gmail.com or kschuette@tds.net.
Contact Manitowoc County Board Supervisor Jim Brey at
920-682-9713 / jimbrey@co.manitowoc.wi.us. Tell him to keep the HCC publicly owned.
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Bryan G. Pfeifer, born and raised in Manitowoc County, is the son of
Lynne and Ralph Pfeifer. Their extended family has over 135 years of
union service at the Manitowoc County Health Care Center.
________________________________________________________________
Manitowoc County Health Care Center Fact Sheet
There is no crisis!
Facts/Questions about the
Manitowoc County Health Care Center
And the Health Dimensions Group (HDG)
________________________________________________________________
The county is in good financial condition
Unreserved fund balance of the General Fund in the 2007 budget is $8.9 million or 33 percent of General Fund Expenditures.
GFOA recommends a URFB of 10-15 percent of General Fund Expenditures.
____________________
The county budget is under less pressure going into 2008 than it has been in recent memory because of the $1 million-plus in savings from the new health insurance premiums that came online over the course of 2007.
____________________
The Health Care Center itself has eliminated its annual deficits in 2007 and is projected to come in under budget for 2008.
____________________
HCC has reduced its tax levy request for 2008 to $1.7 million-down from $2.9 million in 2006. Much of this is a result of the changes in the business plan and health insurance changes.
Of the $1.7 million requested levy, $1.5 million is to pay “the mortage.”
The union has offered to take concessions to eliminate approximately $200 thousand in operating expenses. The County Executive called it “too little, too late.”
____________________
We know there is new money coming to the HCC if it remains county-owned.
State budget increases reimbursement to county homes by 5 percent which begins coming to the counties in July 2008.
There is also a very real possibility that with new federal rules, Manitowoc County could see an additional $1 million in annual reimbursement.
These monies will significantly offset (and possibly eliminate) the need for the current level of tax levy funding for the HCC.
____________________
Selling to Health Dimensions Group (HDG) will remove the oversight and accountability the county currently has over the “safety net” population.
HDG’s submission to the county regarding the safety net population only states that it will “provide careful consideration” and “special consideration” to those with “financial difficulties and/or unique needs.” HDG in its proposal makes no attempt to agree in writing with legally binding language that it will in fact serve the safety net population.
In its proposal HDG claims it will commit 100 percent to the safety net population but will only do so for 10 years. The safety net population is not going to go away in a decade. In fact, that population is currently growing. We need a plan to care for those people in the most cost effective way much longer than just 10 years. Keeping the HCC public is the best way to ensure that care remains and is sustained well into the future.
____________________
Health Dimensions Group recently faced two lawsuits regarding care the patients received at the corporation’s Waukesha Springs Health and Rehabilitation Center. These lawsuits were settled before trial in 2007.
In one case the widow of a 55-year-old former resident of Waukesha Springs who choked to death filed a wrongful death suit charging the nursing home with letting the man eat a cookie and juice unsupervised in June 2003 despite diagnosing him with dementia and noting he had an increased potential for choking.
In another case a suit charged that employees at Waukesha Springs in 2002 failed to prevent or notice a large bed sore on a patient, who ultimately had to undergo surgery to remove the ulcer and infected portions of a bone.
Would this be the new trend at the HCC?
____________________
In HDG’s proposal it states its intent isn’t to “flip” the HCC. This is where “groups” or “consortiums” made up of investment bankers, insurance interests etc. buy up companies or places like the HCC for fire sale prices then turn around and make as much profit as possible by stripping the center down to bare essentials, and busting the union etc. Many times after most of the profit is made the company moves on by selling or going bankrupt leaving a hollowed-out shell of what used to be and leaving whole communities economically and socially devastated for years to come.
Is this the HDG plan?
What if the company does in fact go bankrupt? Where does this leave the county? The HDG proposal doesn’t address this.
If the now publicly-owned, unionized HCC is sold to HDG or another private for-profit operator what’s going to stop the private operator from shipping “non-profitable” safety net patients out of county or even the state and leaving taxpayers to foot the bill? As is happening in our county presently with those needing various services from social services, costs are increasing as those with critical needs are being transported out of the county for care.
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 e-mail:: kschuette@tds.net
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