One county-owned Illinois nursing home has pulled off a “stunning” financial turnaround in a single year, swinging from a $1.1 million loss to a nearly $200,000 profit.
The Piatt County Nursing Home, in Monticello, had been mired in red stemming from financial mismanagement by its former administrator, who was dismissed in 2017, the News-Gazette reported. About $840,000 of losses was tied to bad debt, with residents not being billed in a timely or accurate fashion.
“By the time these billing errors were discovered, the accounts were too delinquent to collect and as a result this revenue was lost,” said Kelly Finet, who is with an accounting firm brought to fix the facility’s finances. No theft of funds is suspected, she added.
Along with Finet’s firm holding monthly meetings alongside nursing home staff, new administrator Scott Porter has also implemented several changes at the facility. Those include reducing payroll costs, switching back to an outsourced therapy department, and ensuring that Medicare Part A copays are billed for rehab patient stays, according to the News-Gazette.
