Owners say they will sit before a legislative interim committee to explain personal care homes
Owners of Henderson Manor said Tuesday they will meet this year with a state legislative interim committee in Frankfort to share information about the workings of personal care homes.
Michael Edery and his daughter, Racquel Reynolds, came to Henderson Tuesday to meet with state Sen. Robby Mills and state Rep. J.T. Payne and to give a tour of the Henderson Manor to the local legislators. Edery and Reynolds flew in from their New York homes Tuesday morning and flew back Tuesday evening.
After the tour, both Mills and Payne said the facility was in good condition and the residents and staff in good spirits during the tour.
The meeting comes after the Henderson Manor received public scrutiny following the publication of two Hendersonian articles in April about the facility. The first published in mid-April led with Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church Fr. Richard Meredith’s description that the facility smelled of decay. It also included opinions from the pastor and the parish nurse, Shannon Long, that the personal care home was in poor shape and has been for decades.
The second article, published a week later, centered around Mills’ and Payne’s statements that they wanted to learn more about personal care homes, of which the Henderson Manor is one, and to look for ways to improve them—if that was something the legislature could do.
Mills described the day as a “good visit” and said that one of his goals is to get Edery and Reynolds in front of an interim committee before the next legislative session begins in January.
The Hendersonian sat down with both legislators, Edery and Reynolds Tuesday afternoon. Edery, Reynolds and another partner own 15 of 49 personal care homes in Kentucky, Edery said Tuesday. Edery said that personal care homes operate on the slimmest of margins, especially in Kentucky where facilities receive a flat monthly fee to care for a resident. That fee is $1,523 per month, Edery said.
Edery said more funding per resident is needed. Currently the per month payment comes from state funding and a resident’s Social Security. Additionally, the state gives residents, many of whom are wards of the state, $60 a month of personal money, say the owners.
Mills said the General Assembly last funded personal care homes in 2020 when $2.2 million was put in the budget to fund them.
After saying personal care homes need to be funded properly at the state level, Mills said Medicaid money might be a possibility for increased funding. He said recent expansion of Medicaid in Kentucky has been misguided and that some of that Medicaid funding would be better used for the “medically fragile” people that the Henderson Manor serves. The state senator said that there is an interest in the Republican caucus in helping residents of personal care homes—“We just got to learn about” them.
Beyond the financial aspect, educating the lawmakers about the workings of personal care homes would be a goal of bringing Edery and Reynolds before an interim committee, Mills said.
Reynolds said it’s too early to comment on what owners of personal care homes would ask of legislators.
Both Reynolds and Edery commented Tuesday that they wanted to clear up confusion about personal care homes, specifically regarding their care versus care received in nursing or assisted living homes.
They said that residents at personal care homes are allowed a lot of freedom, which may lead them to wander around town. This freedom and the encouragement of it is very different from the expectations of a nursing home. They said many in communities that have personal care homes expect them to be run in the same manner as nursing or assisted living homes.
Additionally, Reynolds said the conditions at Henderson Manor are up to expectations. “It’s clean. It’s in line with what other personal care homes are,” she said.
She said that when their business Eldercare Partners Asset Management LLC bought the Henderson Manor in June 2023, they immediately put more than $100,000 worth of improvements into the building, which according to the Henderson County Public Valuations Administrator’s website was purchased for $10,000.
Edery and Reynolds also own personal care homes in Missouri and Minnesota, and Edery said in those states the reimbursement structure is based on individual pieces of care given to each individual instead of a flat per month fee. Mills said legislators might also review the reimbursement process for personal care homes in Kentucky.
Edery said very few in the state legislature have a solid grasp of how personal care homes work. He said a better understanding of the facilities is needed going forward.
