Claiming the city is struggling financially, city councilors refused this week to reconsider a decision to wipe out the city’s $70,000 contribution to the Greater Bristol Visiting Nurse Association.The move may mean that the nonprofit VNA will cease offering free or reduced price care to chronically ill poor people in Bristol.
“We’re really at a loss about what to say to the Bristol community,” said Maryellen Frele, the acting chief operating officer of the association.
Mayor Art Ward hailed the century-old group’s work but insisted that it could tap into its $1.5 million in reserves to make up for the virtual depletion of city aid this year – a move that VNA officials said would be fiscally irresponsible and could jeopardize their existence down the road.
Ward said that slashing the aid offered by the city to just $100 was “an economic action that had to be taken” as part of an effort to reduce spending and hold down property taxes.
“Our backs are up against the wall,” Ward said.
But Ruth Tubbs, a Bristol resident, said that people need access to visiting nurses.
Tubbs said she’s had a visiting nurse for three years.
“She’s always there and she’s always taking care of me,” Tubbs said. “I have had the best care that anyone could give me.”
“What are we going to do?” Tubbs asked.
City councilors and Ward said they want the VNA to shoulder the cost this year and then, with luck, the city can renew its commitment to help in 2009.
Ward said Wednesday that he’s scheduled a meeting next week between the city, the VNA and the office of U.S. Rep. John Larson, the East Hartford Democrat whose 1st District includes Bristol, to see if any additional funding may be available from other sources.
Anne Dolson, the association’s president, said the VNA is facing a shortfall already this year and can’t be expected to pick up the entire tab for nearly $300,000 worth of free and reduced cost care for the poor.
“Historically, the burden of providing for indigent care has rested with the city,” Frele said. “It is the city’s responsibility to provide for its indigent, not the VNA’s responsibility.”
“In this time when the average person is suffering from serious economic constraints, it is unconscionable for the city of Bristol to turn its back on its poor and deny them home health care,” Frele said.
Yet city leaders said they have no choice.
City Councilor Ken Cockayne said he spoke this week to an 85-year-old resident who’s facing a $1,200 property tax increase. He asked how he could tell that man to pay more in order to subsidize someone else’s health care.
“What are you going to say to seniors who need home health care?” Frele answered, adding that the VNA doesn’t have the resources to subsidize care the city has traditionally paid for.
City Councilor Frank Nicastro said the problems facing the VNA are “just the tip of the iceberg” as a sinking economy leaves government at all levels pinching pennies to try to cope with the downturn.
Nicastro said that nobody is happy about the cut to the VNA “but it had to be done.”
Comptroller Glenn Klocko, who initially recommended the cut, said that the nonprofit’s budget information showed it had a $200,000 surplus in the previous year. It also listed a contribution of $17,000 from the United Way in its books but never mentioned Bristol’s much larger donation, he said.
Klocko said the city can’t subsidize every worthwhile organization that asks for money.
Frele said that her association’s income goes up and down depending on reimbursement rates for its care, but that it’s looking at a $50,000 loss this year.
She said the available assets in its rainy day fund would only cover three months of operation, money it may need someday if there’s a changeover in the way the government handles visiting nurse care.
Frele said that if the VNA begins dipping into its reserves, the day may come “when we have to close our doors.”
Tom Morrow, the director of the Bristol Community Organization, said Wednesday he doesn’t know what will happen to the VNA’s patients if the group ceases serving the uninsured poor.
“I don’t know of any other resource that these folks could turn to,” Morrow said.
Who loses out?
Though the Greater Bristol Visiting Nurse Association can’t disclose specific information about its patients, officials described in general terms a recent case referred to the organization by Bristol Hospital.
A 53-year-old widow was left without income or insurance after her husband dropped dead in front of her eyes, Maryellen Frele, the acting chief operating officer of the association, said.
As a result, she couldn’t buy her diabetes medication, “which gradually put her into diabetic ketoacidosis, the first step toward a diabetic coma,” Frele said.
At Bristol Hospital, the woman got treatment and doctors switched her from oral medication to injectable insulin.
Before discharging the widow, the hospital asked the VNA if it would take her on since she lacked insurance, Frele said.
Because her diabetes posed a “high risk,” Frele said, the nonprofit agreed.
“The patient required home health for skilled nursing assessment and teaching so that the patient’s diabetes would stabilize and she would become independent in her diabetes management,” Frele said.
“This patient is typical of the kinds of Bristol community residents who are referred to the VNA because they have no insurance, but are in dire need of home health services,” Frele said.
It’s likely, though, the group is going to refuse similar cases in the weeks and months ahead because of the city’s decision to slice its aid.
There appears to be noplace else for people who need the help to turn.
Update on Thursday: Here's a PDF of the Bristol VNA's Form 990 for 2006, which lays out most of its finances at that point.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
39 comments:
Let me get this right..... we're cutting off home health care for the poor, most of them elderly, so we can save about $1.15 a year per person in Bristol? That's sickening.
Most of the country is struggling financially and it's only going to get worse. Cuts have to be made and nobody is going to win a popularity contest making the hard decisions. At least the VNA has a safety net to fall back on.
10:43
But the people don't.
And, the city has a huge contingency account which just sits there, in some cases to fund politically profitable projects!
That contingency fund owns the Bristol center Mall right?
At least the Bristol police and other city hall workers have minimal health insurance copays. That's the important thing.
Never in all my years in Bristol have I heard of the city completely cutting off assistance like that.
Must be the Ward method of management.
Does the United Way allow contributors to designate funds to VNA during the annual drive?
1:55 ~ Actually, it's called a recession, and I don't think that there's much anyone can do to manage it. :-(
I personally love the irony of Mayor Ward drawing great publicity to his efforts at "preparing for a tough winter" and calling together all kinds of service providers to talk about options and then in the next breath kicking the SH-- out of this non-profit. He is in way over his head and taking bad advice from Klocko. The rest of the Council should have stood up for this - a cut might have been appropriate but the entire sum taken away entirely? Very bad.
4:15
Did you expect anything different from him?
Didn't I read that the Bristol VNA has taken over the Terryville VNA ??
Shouldn't the additional revenue have a positive effect on their budget ?
Will Craig Minor settle for a less Fancy Mum Festival Parade...$30,000and the $170,000 for the BOE? that a few of the members Minor, McCauley, Cockayne etc. had ambushed Our Mayor~Art Ward,he wanted a 1 millrate and when he was out voted by these+ clowns the mill went up to 1.5 and some of you are blaming the Mayor for the VNA cuts????? I hope no one in their Family needs the VNA~They cut off their Nose to Spite their Face.
Please don't lump my beloved Cockayne into the same group as McCauley,Minor and etc.
He hasn't voted with McCauley on anything all year!
Doesn't the VNA have their own contingency fund? Why can't they dip into this instead of my pocket? Why don't they run a fundraiser or a capital campaign?
July 9, 2008 7:47 PM:
Yeah, Cockayne, Minor, and MacCauley really "ambushed" Ward on the budget. That would be the budget that Cockayne voted against, right? Right after these guys arranged to have Cheryl Thibeault out of town at a family funeral, so that Ward wouldn't have enough votes for his Frankenstein's monster of a budget, right? The sneaky bastards! But you forgot to blame Ellen. You're slipping!
These people aren't going to be left out in the cold. I think the VNA is playing the sympathy card a little to hard.
Anyone that does not have health insurance can get it through the State through a variety of different programs. If they are "poor" then there are even free health insurance programs that will supply them with what they need. Especially the elderly.
Wonder what Ken Cockayne's 85-year old resident who is griping about his taxes would do if he needed nursing care now?
Let's keep some perspective. The VNA does a tremendous service and the city just pulled the rug out from under them.
If Cockaynes senior's taxes went up $1200, he must have one large piece of property.
If the value went up 20% (high) his property had to be worth $250,000 to start with.
Isn't it time for McCauley to come out with his "No Confidence" motion?
I agree with the 8:47 Poster~The VNA has over a Million Dollars in their Rainy Day Account and had a $200,000(they have not mentioned) surplus last year, they said they had an Extradinary Year and don't expect it again next year~and they don't want to use it so they can keep it in their Account...This makes NO SENSE!
Recession=Rainy(Stormy)Days Ahead for Just About Everyone.
Is it true that Minor wanted $2,500for Billboards in New Britain, Southington and Plainville to Advertise Bristol's Farmer's Market?
I feel the VNA pulled the carpet from under the City by not mentioning the $200,000 until Klocko brought it up...Thank You Mr. Klocko!
The decision to eliminate VNA funding is a devious,heartless political scheme hatched by that incompetent boob in the comptroller’s office. Meanwhile, over a million dollars lies dormant in a fund for retiree health care created by that same office. This fund was established to satisfy the GASB 45 yet if you read the language, it is not a proper trust , doesn’t qualify as GASB funding, and retiree health care continues to be funded pay-as-you-go. It is obvious that VNA is being used as a pawn in contract negotiations. It is one thing when bad decisions and incompetence costs taxpayers money but picking on the neediest among us for political gain is going too far.
Did the VNA have a surplus when they submitted their request to the 2008-2009 year?
The city had a surplus too: did Klocko mention that? Was that calculated in this years tax increase?
Logic dictates that one does know their final numbers until after the books are closed.
Good financial managers know that when an organization draws on their endowement or Fund balance for operations they are on a slippery slope.
You don't see Klocko suggesting that we draw down from the Fund Balance to keep taxes down.
7:47 poster,
Your statement shows just how smart you are. Before you make statements you should get the facts first. Cockayne never voted with McCauley, Block and Minor.
Thank God for Art Ward.
Thank God for Glen Klocko.
Thank God for Ken Cockayne.
Is Ward becoming a Republican?
Maybe he is, now that he is in the big bucks range.
"BAh Humbug", said Scrooge.
To the 12:40PM Poster~
I apologize for the error about Cockayne.
7:34 - so how do you want your question to be interpreted - positive or negative? you can stop hiding, you don't need to give your name - jerk.
Wonder what Ken Cockayne's 85-year old resident who is griping about his taxes would do if he needed nursing care now?
This is the same resident he was trying to help by keeping taxes down and the VNA is one of the cuts. They have contingency money. They should use it.
I'm tired of you people saying that the City has a surplus too. You need to realize that the City also has many more responsibilities than the VNA does.
Let's say for argument that there is a catastophe in town -- major fire at a school, big police action, large destructive summer storm, etc.... and the City needs to put up hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix the problem. Would you want them to say "sorry, we gave the contingency money to the VNA so they wouldn't have to use their own. So we can't rebuild." ??
9:07
The city has access to all kinds of money, including insurance, fund balance, contingency, grants etc.
But they do't use it for operating expenses.
Of course, they expect others to do that.
amazing isn't it that ward is cricized for cutting the VNA, he is criticized for not cutting enough and he is criticized for seeking other than city resources to fund the VNA - if I didn't know better, I might be inclined to believe that you bloggers are dyed in the wool republicans, ferverent ward haters, sorry combination of the two or just plain ignorant.
NO NEED TO RESPOND BECAUSE YOUR OPINION IS PRE-CAST IN PESSIMISM.
Not amazing at all.
While we all wan lower taxes, we also relize that some services are critical and at the same are aware that there are many areas where friends are taken care of.
In this case, many people see that Ward took the easy way out.
There are very few "emergencies" or "catastrophes" that could occur for which the city would not have insurance or appropriate contingency accounts.
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