Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

By STEPHEN R. LEVINE [email protected]
Thursday, April 20, 2000     Page: 11A

WILKES-BARRE – The Luzerne County commissioners have hired a medical
director for Valley Crest Nursing Home who has connections to Valley Crest
Administrator Linda Kanarr.
   
Dr. Ernest R. Gelb of West Pittston said he worked with Kanarr when she was
an administrator for Balanced Care, a Kingston nursing home, where he also
serves as medical director. He was hired as Valley Crest medical director
effective April 10, but the commissioners did not vote to confirm his
appointment until Wednesday morning’s meeting.
    The $40,000-a-year job requires Gelb to work 200 hours per year, he said.
   
“This position is mandated by the state. Every skilled nursing home must
have one,” Gelb said.
   
Gelb, a family practitioner who specializes in geriatric medicine, said
he’s been practicing for 21 years and is on staff at several nursing homes
throughout the Wyoming Valley.
   
Gelb said he will not be practicing medicine at Valley Crest but, “should
the other physicians seek advice, I am there to advise them.”
   
Gelb replaces Dr. David W. Greenwald, a Kingston oncologist who resigned to
focus on his private practice, the commissioners said.
   
The commissioners on Wednesday also voted to confirm the hiring of billing
manager Joanne Bannon of Waymart.
   
Bannon, hired at an annual salary of $45,000, is the second billing manager
to be hired in two months. The county hired Lourdes Cruz of Forest City in
March, but Cruz resigned for personal reasons, officials said.
   
Valley Crest is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the
Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services for
overbilling Medicare from 1990 through 1996. Federal officials estimate the
overbilled amount could be as high as $3 million, and the county could owe
more than $8 million in fines and restitution.
   
The nursing home lost $1.7 million in the last two years and county
officials hired Kanarr last year to try to stop the flow of red ink.
   
Officials in recent weeks have said they are trying to offset the heavy
losses with cost-cutting and revenue-boosting measures. A closed system of
staff physicians was replaced with an open one in which virtually any area
doctor can refer and treat patients there, a move expected to save $175,000
per year. The new system is also expected to generate more residents.
   
The county announced a reorganization March 15 in which nine employees were
laid off and several others reassigned. Though nine employees were laid off,
the county said it expected a savings of only about $150,000 from the job cuts
because it simultaneously brought several other new employees on.
   
On Wednesday, the commissioners approved a $42,500 Valley Crest renovation
to create an adult day care center that officials believe may become a steady
source of revenue.
   
In other business Wednesday, the commissioners approved loan projects
through the Business Development Loan Program totalling $1,843,750.
   
Call Levine at 831-7305.