State panel OKs study of vets home finances
Budget committee punts on prolonged care issues
MADISON – Wisconsin’s state budget writers are greenlighting a plan to study the finances of a long-troubled state nursing home for military veterans but put forth no plan to address prolonged problems with care that have contributed to some residents’ deaths.
Republican lawmakers on the state’s Joint Finance Committee voted this week to require the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs to hire an outside vendor to study the King home over the next two years, to be finished by 2025.
The study, if approved by the full Legislature, would be the latest in a series of state and federal reviews of the finances of the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King. It was also proposed by Gov. Tony Evers in his state budget proposal.
The scrutiny first began after alarm bells were raised in 2016 after the state Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs the home, siphoned profits out of the home as amenities were cut and staffing shortages persisted.
The move to study the finances again follows investigations by the Cap Times in 2016 and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on King and Union Grove last year that showed ongoing problems with care, including serious medical errors and chronic staffing shortages.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have for months called reports of subpar care at the veterans homes troubling. They have called for more oversight, investigations, reviews, and a legislative audit but have not put forward solutions publicly or voted to take action.
“I’m not a doctor. I’m not a nurse. I don’t run those facilities,” said finance committee co-chairman Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, when asked if the budget committee would address quality of care issues at King. “The focus here is on the finances … that is our charge.”
“Veterans are important to all of us. We’re grateful for their service. We care about them and we need to make sure the facilities are sustainable,” he said.
Co-chairman Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said that while reports of problems with the care at King and Union Grove are concerning, he doesn’t plan to address them as a leader of the powerful budget committee.
“I don’t know that I am. I personally have not been working a lot on this issue,” Born said. “Care is, obviously, super important. But so is the long-term financial stability of this thing.”
King’s finances are in a crisis, Born said, and state leaders need to figure out how to manage the homes better.
King’s prolonged financial troubles have been documented for years, by Wisconsin’s legislative fiscal bureau and annual reports from the homes to JFC and a 2016 audit.
The committee also approved increasing funding by $2.5 million each year for the state’s veterans homes. The increase comes after state lawmakers and Evers transferred $20 million out of the King home, including $10 million for permanent staffing jobs, in the previous budget to a reserve fund in anticipation of fewer residents living at the homes. The agency could tap the fund if needed.
The two-year timeline for the study is focused on looking ahead to solve economic challenges at the home in time for the next budget cycle, Marklein said. The home has lost $6 million in the previous year, he said.
Those experiencing the problems at King and Union Grove say they are ready for action now.
“They are looking at rectifying problems in the future but what is DVA doing now to address problems in the home?” said Chris Sekerka, a former employee at King who has tracked state health care inspections there for years. Problems at the homes started years ago and still there has been no systemic fix.
“I don’t know if it’s a way to ‘let’s just get through the next couple of months and people will forget about things,’” he said.