Monday, November 23, 2009 East Central Illinois

Champaign County Nursing Home rates will rise

By Tom Kacich
Thursday, October 22, 2009 7:30 AM CDT

URBANA – A 3 percent increase in room and service rates will go into effect at the Champaign County Nursing Home, effective Dec. 1, the county board decided Tuesday night.

Daily skilled care and long-term care rates will increase from $150 to $155.

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Adult day care rates will increase from $67 to $69, and half-day rates will be $43, up from $42. Adult day transportation will be $9 each way, up from $8.50.

In a memo to board members, nursing home director Andrew Buffenbarger said the nursing home assesses its room rates every year "to ensure room rates for private pay residents continue to meet the cost of care without moving outside of reasonable market rates."

Buffenbarger said six other area nursing homes were surveyed and the average cost for a skilled care room was $160 a day. "So we'll still be $5 a day under the average," he told board members.

The board also agreed to a new policy, replacing the regular six monthly committee meetings with two monthly committee-of-the-whole meetings that will be open to all county board members.

The policy, aimed at reducing the workload on the board's professional staff, will go into effect in January and continue on a test basis through Nov. 30, 2010. Committee-of-the-whole meetings will be held on the first and second Tuesdays of the month, with full board meetings held on the third Thursday.

In other action, board member Steve Beckett of Urbana reported that Champaign businessman James Liautaud donated another $100,000 to the restoration of the courthouse clock and bell tower. Combined with $71,000 contributed from a number of local residents in September, the $1.15 million restoration project is now only about $58,000 from being paid off, Beckett said.

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