COOPERSTOWN _ Otsego Manor will be operating in the black this year.
In a year of declining sales and bed-tax collections, the Otsego County Board of Representatives received this welcome news Wednesday at its monthly meeting.
Since opening in November 2004, the spacious nursing home _ almost twice the size of its predecessor at 144,000 square feet _ has required subsidies from county taxpayers to make it through the year.
From now on, however, thanks to an increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates, the Manor should be self-sufficient, according to Rep. Donald Lindberg, R-Worcester, chairman of the county's Otsego Manor Committee.
Last week, the Manor received word that its Medicaid reimbursement rate has been upped from $169 per resident per day to $201.
``We're going to be getting $32 per day more, and if you multiply that by, say 130 Medicaid residents on average, and 365 days a year, that's a big improvement,'' Lindberg said.
The numbers add up to a little more than $1.5 million, close to what the county has been paying out of its general fund to subsidize the Manor's budget in recent years, he noted.
The Manor also received a check from New York state for $5.1 million _ reimbursement for being underpaid for the last four years.
Although the accounting is complicated, the county may now be able to back-bill the Manor for subsidies paid in years past, Lindberg said, a welcome possibility in a year when sales-tax revenue is down more than 8 percent.
The good news doesn't stop there, as the Manor also will benefit from about $2.8 million in federal Intergovernmental Transfer money. The county has had to match this revenue, but it makes the Manor's bottom line look even better, he said.
Rep. Sam Dubben, R-Middlefield, former Otsego Manor Committee chairman, hailed the good news, noting that county boards in years past had anticipated a day when the nursing home would be self-sustaining.
``We knew that someday the rebasing (recalculation of Medicaid reimbursment) would benefit us; we just didn't know it would take so long to happen,'' he said.
Early Thursday morning, County Board Chairman James Powers, R-Butternuts, said he planned to spend much of the day determining how much the county had subsidized the Manor's operating budget, and whether funds could be transferred back to the county's general fund, which has been under pressure this year.
In an interview Thursday, Edmond Marchi, the Manor's administrator, praised the county board for the vision to build the new facility and his staff, which numbers about 250, for hard work and dedication to make the Manor an efficient, caring place for residents.
``We hear so much negative news about county employees and the contract situation, but here they've done a great job,'' he said.
When the county was still in the old nursing home, it had the equivalent of 239 full-time employees. Now with fewer than 20 more, it's operating a far larger building and caring for needier residents, he noted.
The way services are delivered also has changed, as the county has migrated from a hospital-type model to a social model, where the Manor is divided into homey neighborhoods, and staff members have the flexibility to do a variety of jobs.
Dubben and Lindberg praised Marchi for leading these changes and making Otsego Manor a nice place to live.
``No one really wants to go to a nursing home, but if you need to go, this is the one I'd choose,'' Dubben said.
``Ed and his staff have done a great job, and now, with these new reimbursement rates, the state is recognizing that,'' he said.
