Nursing Homes, Care Givers Hang in the Balance During Budget Delay : Legislature: Unpaid bills and missed paychecks are mounting as lawmakers haggle in Sacramento.

While state legislators squabble over the 1991 budget--already 2 1/2 weeks overdue--nursing home operators and some social workers are footing the bill for Sacramento’s tardiness, fighting off bill collectors and struggling to make payroll obligations.

Two social service outlays--the Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) benefits--have been stopped because no budget exists.

Today is the 17th day the state has operated without a budget, and the fiscal fight between Gov. George Deukmejian and Democratic leaders has apparently left San Diego nursing home operators and IHSS providers stretched to their limits.

“It’s a disaster, the worst this has ever prolonged as an issue,” said Joe Diaz, regional director of the California Assn. of Health Facilities.

In San Diego County, 81% of nursing home residents pay their bills through Medi-Cal. Even after State Controller Gray Davis signed a $115-million emergency check July 9 for Medi-Cal outlays, homes have still not been paid for most of June.

“Elderly people are held hostage by this political turmoil, which has nothing to do with the issues at hand,” Diaz said.

The association filed a writ in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on July 9 to force the state to reimburse providers for all missed Medi-Cal payments, according to Diaz, who said a court date has not been set.

Bill Stover, administrator at San Diego Convalescent Hospital in La Mesa, said he’s “had to juggle to try to make payrolls” because of the delay.

Stover, who says 80% of his patients pay with Medi-Cal, said he won’t be able to meet his July 25 payroll date if the budget is not passed by then.

“We received a small check to help us through one pay period, but we’re in trouble again. We’re not able to pay our bills,” he said.

In National City, Continana Convalescent Hospital administrator John Henning said he still has his head above water, but that the cash reserves are drying up quickly.

“We’re OK for a few more weeks, but we hope to get something by then,” he said. At Continana, 75% of the patients pay their bills with Medi-Cal.

“If any business goes without three-quarters of its income for one or two months, it’s going to be hurting,” Henning said.

“God knows when the money for June will come,” he said.

Hospitals are not struggling as much as nursing homes, because a smaller percentage of their business is paid by Medi-Cal and because they tend to have larger cash reserves to fall back on.

Still, they are uneasy.

“We’re hoping to get the whole thing settled rather quickly,” said Diane Yohe, public relations director at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula Vista.

“We’re hoping the Medi-Cal cases we are sending in are being processed, because as soon as we get a budget we have to get paid,” she said. “This is not a pleasant situation.”

Meanwhile, providers of in-home services have already missed one of their twice-monthly payment this month and will not get checks due later this week.

Many of the county’s 9,000 IHSS providers--people who travel to patients’ homes to care for them--have little by way of savings or cash reserves to buoy them while their state checks are on hold, said William J. Bruner, who oversees the IHSS program and other adult care services for the county.

Bruner said his office has received an average of 800 calls a day about the non-payments.

“There are a lot of crises in progress,” he said. “There are eviction notices and utilities not being paid. There’s nothing that can be done until the budget is passed and signed by the governor.”

Bruner worries that the providers, who normally receive about $250 twice monthly from the state for their services, will be forced to stop caring for their charges and seek other jobs.

“We’ve had concerns and threats about it,” he said. “It has to be happening.”

On the local legal front, Gregory Knoll, director of the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, said that, although his organization has not been asked to file suits to obtain the benefits, it could happen soon.

“They will come to us after a lag when people have been hurt,” he said.

“One of the problems of poor people is they are inextricably bound to government for everything they get. They live moment to moment with just the bare necessities.”