A healthcare executive’s plan to purchase a former county nursing home for $10 has caused a stir among local officials.
Warren County first planned to sell the Westmount Health Facility in Queensbury, NY, to Centers Health Care for $2.3 million in 2015. But state laws don’t allow corporations to own nursing homes, so such sales are typically made to individuals, the Post-Star reported Thursday.
That individual was set to be Centers CEO Kenneth Rozenberg, but he swapped places with one of his employees at the 11th hour. Officials speculated that the executive could not have been the buyer, due to immediate jeopardy violations at two other county-owned nursing homes he previously purchased.
With those state violations now cleared up, Rozenberg is moving to buy a controlling 51% stake in the facility from his employee for $10. County officials may interfere in the matter, however, troubled by the nursing home’s star rating dropping from four stars to one since the 2015 purchase.
“Is this something we should interject ourselves in, because they are our residents?” Queensbury at-large Supervisor Michael Wild said during a recent committee meeting.
A spokesman for Centers Health Care — which operates nearly 60 SNFs in New York, Jersey and Rhode Island — declined to comment to McKnight’s.
