The possible sale of four state-owned long-term care facilities to a private company could be a win for West Virginia taxpayers, but questions remain.

Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that New York-based Marx Development Group (MDG) will purchase Hopemont Hospital in Preston County, Jackie Withrow Hospital in Raleigh County, John Manchin Sr. Health Care Center in Marion County, and Lakin Hospital in Mason County for $60 million.

Once the sale closes on Tuesday, Sept. 30, the deal includes MDG replacing the facilities with between three and five new long-term care facilities, which could mean millions in additional investment in the state, improved services for some of our most vulnerable seniors, and additional new jobs.

On paper, the deal sounds great. I have personally not been a fan of we, as the taxpayers, running these facilities because we have shown time and time again – under both Democratic and Republican governors — that we have no interest in putting in the money and resources into the facilities to do basic deferred maintenance or compensate the employees of these facilities.

As I reported last week, nursing shortages have caused all four of these facilities to not be able to utilize all their available beds, and contract nursing has been very expensive. All four buildings need extensive work to bring them up to proper standards. And equipment in these facilities is old, defective, and dangerous.

Take the story my friend, West Virginia Watch reporter Amelia Knisely, reported last year, where three contract nurses at Hopemont were fired after the death of an elderly non-verbal resident who was left in an overheated whirlpool too long that had a defective thermostat. The facility staff knew about the issue but had never fixed the thermostat.

So, the state should run, not walk, away from running these four long-term care facilities. With that said though, I also understand why the state does run these facilities. Residents at these long-term care facilities are low-income or indigent and cannot afford to be placed in your standard private long-term care facility, such as a nursing home.

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are typically owned by for-profit private companies. Yes, they are providing quality care, but they also have a fiduciary duty to make a profit for their owners or, if a larger company, its investors. I can’t imagine there is much profit to be made off of older people who barely have any income and who rely exclusively on Medicare and other government assistance. But we, as taxpayers, do have a moral and ethical duty to help care for those with no means.

Speaking during a press conference Thursday in Fairmont, Morrisey said there would be provision in place in the final agreement with MDG to ensure that current patients at the facilities would continue to enjoy care by MDG should new facilities be built, and that MDG would continue to provide services to low-income and indigent patients.

“There is a…requirement in terms of the pre-admission screening and resident review to ensure people are in the appropriate place,” Morrisey said. “Then, of course, there is also the non-discrimination rules that have been in place for a very long time to make sure there’s no bias of cherry-picking in place. We anticipate those laws will be enforced.

“There is also a requirement that they will keep those existing patients, and I think we’re going to be seeing higher quality. That’s going to be really important,” Morrisey continued. “I think this is going to be a number of steps up as far as quality and opportunity for these people.”

The state also has an obligation to do right by the public employees, all of whom receive good health care benefits through the Public Employees Insurance Agency and many of whom have built up pensions through the state. In a statement, the Governor’s Office told my friend Tom Susman at WMOV Radio that talks are ongoing with MDG about retention of employees.

“The sale was done knowing we could maximize retention of jobs and staff that have worked so diligently to provide for their fellow West Virginians,” the Governor’s Office said. “Facilities must have people to function, and MDG is committed to retaining substantially all existing employees.”

I plan to do a deeper dive next week into the economics of this potential deal, how MDG came into the picture, and a thorough look at the real estate investment company that owns a number of long-term care companies as part of its portfolio. But Morrisey has encouraged everyone to remain open-minded.

“Give it a chance and you’re going to see some new opportunities for the builds and new facilities,” Morrisey said. “I think it is important to look at the opportunity to invest to get better, especially when you’re dealing with the state, which would have had to invest $100 million to get these facilities to the places they needed to be. This is a win-win-win.”

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One part of this story that is probably getting too much attention is the controversy being drummed up because Morrisey didn’t notify lawmakers in the districts where these state-owned long-term care facilities are about the impending sale.

Anyone who has followed the Morrisey administration closely since January knows that Morrisey doesn’t give anyone a heads up about anything. Even we media are lucky to find out about the topic of a scheduled press conference or announcement prior to the announcement.

Fact of the matter is the bill — passed by these same lawmakers — that split up the former DHHR into the three new departments – including the Department of Health Facilities (DHF) in 2023 — empowered the DHF secretary to be able to sell state-owned healthcare facilities (the state owns seven such facilities). And DHF entered into a contract last summer to begin investigating the possible sale of one or more facilities.

The sale of some of these facilities was always in the cards. Though approximately 45 days until closing is not a lot of notice. And one of these facilities is in the district of Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston.

(Adams is the state government reporter for Ogden Newspapers. He can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)