By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com Reporter
MOUNT VERNON — Although details will not be final until after the first of the year, the Knox County Health Department will sell its home health division to Knox Community Hospital.
“We’ve been talking for well over a year to Knox Community Hospital about the potential for us to transition the home health program to them,” Health Commissioner Julie Miller told Knoxpages.com Monday afternoon. “As you can imagine, transitioning between a public and private entity is very complex to work out.”
The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System has to approve the employees’ contract before the sale becomes final. “One of our first priorities when talking with the hospital was to take care of our staff,” said Miller.
Miller said that when she became health commissioner in 2010, the home health program had lost $80,000 to $100,000 a year over the previous six years. “Most of that was due to changes in health care and health care reimbursement and not being able to keep up with the changes,” she explained.
Miller said that with the changes in the marketplace and the salary and benefit package for government employees, it was difficult to improve revenue. When Lane Bellangia became director of the home health program, he made some changes and improved the revenue streams. “We’re still not making money like years ago, but we do have a positive fund balance now,” she said.
Miller said several factors made the future of home health through the health department uncertain:
*Cost of employees
*Decreasing reimbursement
*Trend toward providing a continuum of care from birth to seniors
*Inability to offer specialized care such as pediatrics and I/V therapy due to space and staff limitations
Miller said the board of health weighed several options:
*Stay in business and hope to keep up with the times
*Make the division a nonprofit organization, which is expensive and the board wouldn’t be able to protect the employees
*Sell outright or have another home health organization take over the program
*Approach KCH
“I knew home health was on their radar,” said Miller, “so I approached them. It fits with their mission.”
Additionally, Miller said, 90 percent of the home health referrals come from KCH. “If Knox Community Hospital partnered with another home health organization, the health department would lose that revenue,” she said.
Miller said that the sale does not negate the need for revenue from a replacement levy on the Nov. 7 ballot. “The health center covers all of its costs; nothing comes out of the general fund or tax dollars for that,” she said. “The home health division for the last two years has been able to cover its cost with very little investment of public health dollars. The levy money is used for services such as flu and vaccinations, food service inspections, and sewer and water—true public health services.”