add this to the collateral damage file of electing Republicans and a tea
party governor to office.
Chuck
From: joe harcz Comcast
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2016 6:06 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] high cost of privatization in mi vets home
Privatization savings fade as vets home answers audit
Paul Egan,
Detroit Free Press 10:37 p.m. EDT March 26, 2016
635944370124128607-capitolsummer.jpgBuy Photo
The Grand Rapids Veterans Home is facing extra costs after a scathing
audit.(Photo: Kathleen Gray/Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
LANSING — When the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs
terminated 150 state nursing aides at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans in 2013
and replaced them with a contractor paying much lower wages, state officials
said the move would save taxpayers about $4 million a year.
The state stuck with the cost-cutting move over the objections of veterans
living at the home who complained the private nursing aides were poorly trained,
frequently quit for better jobs, and had seriously injured veterans by trying
to lift them in an unsafe manner.
Now, slammed with
a scathing February audit
that documented the mishandling of neglect and abuse reports and said the
contractor, J2S Group of Grand Rapids, did not meet staffing requirements 81%
of the time, lawmakers and administration officials say they are scrambling to
assure "our heroes" are getting adequate care.
But the planned remedies — another pay hike for the contractor and bringing in
more oversight —could mean higher costs to care for the veterans than existed
before the privatization push.
The audit confirmed warnings the state received about inadequate staffing and
quality of care going back to 2011, when the state first tried to privatize
the nursing aide positions. Though concerns were expressed not just by
representatives of the laid-off workers, but by veterans, their family members,
and state nurses at the home, spokesmen for J2S and others mostly dismissed the
complaints as union rhetoric designed to protect good-paying jobs.
"The only thing we ask for and we deserve is good care," Tony Spallone, a
Vietnam veteran and former construction contractor who lives at the home, told
the Civil Service Commission a few weeks after the switch, urging the
commission to bring back state workers he and other veterans had come to know
and
trust. "We do deserve it, I think."
The complaints of Spallone and other veterans were largely ignored until Feb.
19, when Auditor General Doug Ringler's report said J2S understaffed its
contract
by as many as 22 staff members on a given day. The auditor, by checking
surveillance video, also found that 47% of required room checks were not
performed,
despite documentation showing it was done, and that complaints of abuse and
neglect were not properly investigated.
Gov. Rick Snyder called the audit "deeply troubling,"
accepted the resignation of his former campaign manager
Jeff Barnes, who headed the Michigan Veteran Affairs Agency, and named as the
home's interim director his chief legal counsel, former Kent County circuit
and U.S. Navy judge James Robert Redford. Now, actions are happening so quickly
that officials aren't able to pinpoint all the associated costs, though
Redford told the Free Press he believes there is "still a substantial reduction
in cost" from when state employees served as nursing aides.
The state recently approved the fourth increase in the cost of the J2S contract
since the company bid on the multi-year deal expected to cost less than
$7 million a year. The state also granted the home authorization to hire other
nursing contractors to supplement J2S, especially on weekends. A state ombudsman
is now beginning to serve the home, and the administration has given a
thumbs-up to a suggestion from lawmakers that a "chief compliance officer" be
added
to the home to make sure things are done right.
Suzanne Thelen, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, said
the latest contract amendment is expected to cost the state an extra $746,000
to $1.3 million a year. Total costs associated with adding Grand Rapids
Veterans Home ombudsman to investigate complaints could cost $200,000 to
$500,000
a year, she said. She couldn't give a cost for a chief compliance officer
because officials are still trying to determine whether that is the best way
to go or whether the compliance task could better be handled by "new VPs
(vice-presidents) in the various disciplines," such as nursing and business.
Officials at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
which represented the laid-off nursing aides, say even before the latest
pay hike for J2S — which the union had not received details about as of Friday
— the state is paying more than it did before the switch, and for an inferior
level of care, when the extra costs of supervising the contract and other
associated problems are included.
Under the original contract, J2S, which has not returned phone calls from the
Free Press, had a pay range that went from $13.99 an hour for nursing aides
to $24.50 for supervisors, according to records released by the union. A 2013
amendment hiked that hourly range, bringing nursing aides to a low of $14.48
for nursing aides and a high of $26.24 for supervisors. Another amendment, late
in 2013, hiked the range to between $14.99 and $27.17 an hour. Then, at
the start of 2015, the state hiked the pay again, to a range of $15.95 to
$27.52 an hour.
Mary Openlander, a staff representative for Michigan AFSCME Council 25, said if
J2S provided staffing at the levels the contract called for, the cumulative
effect of the three pay increases prior to the latest one would increase costs
by more than $1.5 million this year, and by more than $5 million over the
life of the contract to date.
State officials, while not confirming the union numbers, said the latest
amendment to the J2S contract will result in nursing aide pay starting at
$16.98,
and a pay for performance clause, based in part on not missing any shifts,
could add up to another $1.51 an hour to the workers' pay.
Even without including the performance bonus provided for in the latest
amendment, the base pay for the private nursing aides has increased about 21%
since
the contract began.
State nursing aides were paid more than $20 an hour.
During a union appeal in 2013, state officials told the Civil Service
Commission the home would easily exceed the required 5% savings threshold for
replacing
state workers with private contractors.
But Nick Ciaramitaro, Michigan AFSCME's legislative director, said the state is
now realizing the perceived savings from hiring low-cost workers to care
for the state's veterans has not materialized.
"You're not going to be able to hire enough people. And even if you do, you're
not going to be able to keep them," he said.
The union has offered to call back former state nursing aides who are willing
to return.
Redford, who is preparing to call for bids on a new contract, said returning
state workers to the home is among the options being considered.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Follow him on Twitter
@paulegan4.
Source to activate links:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/03/26/privatization-savings-fade-vets-home-answers-audit/82228052/
