Advertisement If anyone had contacted either myself or any employee of the business office at Vernon Manor, the correct information would have been given to make the article accurate.
The article uses the terms Medicare and Medicaid as if they are interchangeable. They are two separate programs; Medicare is a federal program and the one that caused us a problem. In June of 2006, we began the arduous task of changing our address with Medicare. This involved submitting a new 41-page application to participate in the program. Along the way we ran into multiple problems that took weeks to months to clear up. Examples are — determining what is the legal name for the facility, changing this name on several documents, applying for an NPI number and determining who has authority and who can delegate this authority to have a contract with Medicare. There are no policies or statutes that explain how Vernon Manor operates as an entity of the county. This process became complicated and time consuming.
In January of 2007, Medicare put a hold on our reimbursement. We have not gone 30 months without payments received, but rather 18 months.
I received an e-mail on June 18 from a gentleman at National Government Services who took a personal interest in our dilemma and he is the one who assured me we would receive a check. I gave this e-mail to a trustee who passed it on to county board chairman Tom Spenner. NGS has no way to personally contact Mr. Spenner as the article stated.
Two other articles about this situation were put on the Broadcaster website. Both of these also gave inaccurate information and referred to administrative boondoggles. What does this mean? My hope is that the people who responded to the articles on the website will see my letter and understand that they did not have the correct facts when passing judgment on this. Of course I understand how serious this was. My vocation is to run a business that is self-sufficient and free from county tax levies. With the help of a wonderful staff, Vernon Manor has remained off the tax levy for four years.
Each county board of supervisors has received a letter that contains dates and detailed information. Please, if anyone has further questions, call Vernon Manor for the answer.
Nancy Witthoft
Administrator
Vernon Manor
(Editor's note: The Broadcaster's stories concerning the Medicare reimbursement came from information included in the minutes of the June 19 Strategic Planning Advisory Committee meeting which state, "Vernon Manor has not received reimbursement from Medicare for approximately 30 months for a total of almost $2 million." Our office made two attempts to contact Ms. Witthoft, on June 20 and June 24, but she was not available. National Government Services did not return telephone calls from the Broadcaster office. In compiling the stories, our staff spoke with a number of county board supervisors. The information we had was corroborated by separate independent sources. We apologize for interchanging Medicaid with Medicare and regret any errors.)
The Broadcaster does not accept blog comments on letters to the editor.
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