AMHERST, N.Y. (WKBW) — After the Weinberg Campus announced that the Rosa Coplon Living Center will close by the end of November, families of residents are scrambling to find new homes for their loved ones.
Many are finding it’s not easy.
Renee Scalzini lives in Atlanta. Her father, Frank Boncore, has been at Rosa Coplon for two years now where he’s lived in a private room where his family said he’s been well cared for.
But they don’t know what will happen next.
“We have applied to several nursing homes and he's been rejected from multiple, I would say at least six at this point,” Scalzini told 7 News. “And our fear is that he's going to end up in a facility that is not a good facility and that's not what we signed up for. “
Scalzini’s family has been paying Weinberg $15,000 a month to take care of their dad.
That’s what private care at the skilled nursing home costs.
They’ve had to sell off all of their father’s assets, everything from his house and land to his car.
That’s what you have to do in order to eventually qualify for Medicaid to cover the cost of nursing home care.
But Scalzini said they decided it was worth it because they knew their father was getting good care in a dignified setting at Rose Coplon.
Her father just qualified for Medicaid – a complicated and lengthy process that involved lawyers and lots of paperwork – but he would have been able to stay at Rosa Coplon based on the Medicaid payments along with his pension.
And then came the announcement that it was going to close.
“The rug's been pulled from underneath us,” Scalzini said.
Assemblywoman Karen McMahon D-Amherst said the problem lies with the state’s reimbursement rate, which is much lower than what many nursing homes charge.
“Unfortunately, in New York State, the Medicaid reimbursement rate does not cover the actual cost of care,” she said. “So for every Medicaid patient in a nursing home, that facility is losing money.”
She showed the rate that Medicaid pays per month for Rosa Coplon: $6,219.90. Far lower than what Weinberg charges.
She said there are also problems with adequately staffing the facilities which can impact how many beds are available.
She was joined by Congressman Tim Kennedy in calling for the state to do anything it can to keep the facility open.
“We're hopeful that the governor will heed our call to have her Department of Health rescind the closure, provide the resources necessary to put Rosa Coplon at Weinberg campus on a road to Receivership,” Kennedy told reporters Thursday.
Scalzini said her situation shows just how broken the American health care system is, especially when it comes to the aging population.
“It's sad. It's very sad, especially for hard-working American citizens that have paid into the system all of their life and that's that's my biggest frustration right there. He did the right thing he paid into the system and here we are," said Scalzini.
