Weinberg Campus wants $14M from NY to keep nursing home open

In an effort to keep the campus operating, facility leadership and labor union 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East recently sent a joint letter to the state Health Department and elected officials that urges New York to provide up to $14.7 million to support a transfer of Weinberg’s nursing home to a nonprofit alliance.

“We’re really at that point right now that our hands are tied, and we’re just hopeful that somebody will hear our cry in Albany and step in to help us, because honestly, there are no good options left,” said Kenneth A. Rogers, chair of Weinberg Campus’ board of directors.

The option being presented to the state calls for Lineage Care Group, a nonprofit alliance of nursing homes, to take receivership of the campus’ 180-bed Rosa Coplon Living Center nursing home. But for that to happen, funds are required to maintain Rosa Coplon and assist Lineage with operations, according to the letter to the state.

The funds being sought: $3.01 million for Weinberg to resolve its debt and pay wages and benefits to its union employees; $1.13 million in required capital improvements to open up all of the facility’s beds; and $10.53 million in operating support to help Lineage for the next five months while the nursing home ramps up to full census.

“They’re not going to take over the ownership if it’s a failing enterprise, and you can’t blame them,” Rogers said of Lineage.

In a statement, the Health Department said it is “reviewing the letter … and cannot comment while that review is underway.”

Where the situation goes from here could have a big impact in Western New York. For one, the nursing home employs more than 300 union workers, represented by 1199SEIU, and about 140 residents currently live at Rosa Coplon. A facility closure would mean trying to relocate 140 patients into already short-staffed area nursing homes and could also affect hospitals, which count on nursing homes as a place to discharge patients in need of further rehabilitation.

“If Rosa Coplon was forced to close, it would overwhelm the entire health care system,” the letter reads.

Or as Rogers put it: “In essence, we are too big to fail, but we are failing.”

Weinberg Campus, which dates to 1915, has been in a difficult spot for nearly a decade.

In late 2015, Weinberg’s board hired an investment firm to explore a range of options for the money-losing campus, including a possible sale of the 100-acre senior living community.

Weinberg found a buyer two years later: Post Acute Partners, the operators of the Elderwood chain of nursing homes. The $47 million sale included the Rosa Coplon nursing home; Forest Creek and Meadows senior citizen apartments; the Dosberg Manor and Garden House assisted-living facilities; as well as related home health agencies and an outpatient therapy clinic.

But the deal fell apart by spring 2022. Weinberg’s board decided to abandon the sale agreement after a lengthy state approvals process, which was further delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, left both sides in limbo.

The pandemic was already wreaking havoc on nursing home quality, staffing and finances. In 2022, for instance, Rosa Coplon recorded a net loss of more than $6.5 million on revenue of nearly $16 million, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service. Those filings show Rosa Coplon was unprofitable from 2011 through 2022, and the annual losses accelerated in recent years.

Years of low Medicaid reimbursements were taking a toll, and Rosa Coplon was unable to keep up with capital improvements. The letter to the state notes that Rosa Coplon struggled financially to replace broken packaged thermal air conditioning units, which allow residents to set their room temperature.

But things were about to get worse.

That’s because Post Acute wanted its money back after Weinberg terminated the deal. Post Acute sued Weinberg in March 2022, seeking the return of a $1.5 million deposit it paid to enter into the sale agreement.

In its response in May 2022, Weinberg’s attorneys claimed that Post Acute breached its covenants under the agreement by failing to secure necessary approvals, which caused Weinberg to incur losses with lower occupancy and revenues. Weinberg’s attorneys argue that the campus is entitled to a judgment that requires Post Acute to pay at least $17 million.

The case remains active, with a next appearance date of Dec. 5.

That is not Weinberg’s only legal woe.

ATC Healthcare Services, a staffing agency, sued Weinberg in May, claiming the campus owed more than $326,000 from unpaid invoices between May 2022 and December 2022. A judgment was entered last month against Weinberg for more than $446,000, which includes the amount of the unpaid invoices plus interest.

“We, as a board, as executive leadership, have been in a perilous situation for a while,” Rogers said. “It just keeps getting worse.”

More than 300 1199SEIU-represented nursing home workers averted a two-day strike at Weinberg this summer after reaching an 18-month agreement with the company. That agreement included retroactive pay back to Nov. 1, 2023 – but that has still not been paid, said Grace Bogdanove, vice president for 1199SEIU’s Western New York nursing home division.

Union workers picketed at the facility Wednesday over the retroactive pay, unpaid wage increases and unpaid benefits. In addition, Bogdanove said Weinberg is delinquent on pension payments, and while the campus is deducting union dues from paychecks, it is late in remitting those dues to the union.

The union also has been critical of Weinberg management, launching a campaign over the summer demanding that President and CEO Robert T. Mayer and the entire board be replaced.

Bogdanove said the union has supported Weinberg’s previous requests for state funding and is in favor of the transfer of Rosa Coplon to Lineage.

According to the Health Department, Rosa Coplon has received about $4.3 million in Nursing Home Vital Access Provider Assurance Program funding since 2023.

The letter to the state says the funds were used to pay critical suppliers of food, resident supplies, utilities and to fund staffing costs to maintain core operations during implementation of a turnaround plan.

A year after the sale to Post Acute fell apart, Weinberg announced it was joining the Lineage Care Group strategic alliance, which already included Niagara Lutheran Health System and Schofield Care.

In that arrangement, Lineage would act as a “passive super parent organization” that would help oversee strategy and operations while boosting efficiencies at Weinberg.

That relationship has continued to deepen, with more intense integration of management and leadership between Weinberg and Lineage starting early this year. Further, according to the letter, Lineage has helped cover Weinberg’s payroll expenses and has provided nearly $1 million in required supplies.

Christopher Koenig, president and CEO of Niagara Lutheran and also president of Lineage, said it is not possible for Lineage to take receivership of Rosa Coplon without help from the state. Lineage has already put resources into Weinberg, but it can’t afford to do so any longer without endangering the financial health of Schofield and Niagara Lutheran, the latter of which includes the GreenFields Continuing Care Community.

With help from the state, Koenig said the initial plan would be for Lineage to take over the Rosa Coplon nursing home, though Lineage could eventually absorb the rest of Weinberg Campus. In addition to Rosa Coplon, the campus also includes assisted living facilities, senior apartments and in-home services.

“We’ve shared a lot of expenses, but we can’t continue to do that if it’s going to deplete the other two facilities,” Koenig said.