September 12, 2018
Dear friend,
There will be a Public Hearing on the sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home (CCNH) tomorrow – Thursday, September 13, 2018 – at the Hyatt Place hotel in downtown Champaign.
Location: The Hyatt Place hotel [1] is located at 217 N. Neil Street, on the southwest corner of Neil Street and Church Street in downtown Champaign. Free parking is available in the attached garage, which you can enter from Church Street.
Times for Hearing: The Public Hearing will have two sessions in order to accommodate people’s schedules: from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., and from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
We encourage everyone who is concerned about the sale of the CCNH to William “Avi” Rothner and his companies to attend this Public Hearing, even if you do not plan to give testimony.
Here is the notice of the Public Hearing. [2]
The purpose of the Public Hearing
The purpose of the Public Hearing is to gather community input regarding the sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home (CCNH). The county plans to sell the CCNH to William “Avi” Rothner and his companies. The input provided at the Public Hearing is gathered and shared with the Illinois Health Facilities & Services and Services Review Board (the “Review Board”).
The Review Board will decide whether or not to grant a “Certificate of Need” (CON) for the sale of the CCNH. Illinois statute requires that the sale of a county owned nursing home must go through the CON process.
You can learn more about the Certificate of Need Program here [3].
The input that will be gathered at the Public Hearing will be shared with the Review Board in advance of the Board’s October 30, 2018 meeting in Bolingbrook. The Review Board will make their decision about the sale of the CCNH at this meeting [4].
Several ways that you can participate in, or observe the Public Hearing
There are several ways that you can participate in the Public Hearing on Thursday:
- You can simply attend and observe.
- You can fill out a form to indicate your position on the sale of the CCNH – you can indicate support, opposition, or neutral. You can turn in the form and be on record, without testifying.
- You can give a public statement at the hearing. Please limit your spoken comments to 2 minutes. You will need to fill out the form to indicate your position and that you wish to give oral testimony. If you also have your comments in writing, you can submit 2 copies of your written comments.
- You can turn in written testimony without speaking. Please bring two copies of your written comments. These should be printed or typed on letter sized paper (8 ½” x 11”).
It is requested that all allegation or assertions raised should be relevant to the need of the proposed project.
Keep this in mind as you think about your testimony: “The CON program promotes the development of a comprehensive health care delivery system that assures the availability of quality facilities, related services, and equipment to the public, while simultaneously addressing the issues of community need, accessibility, and financing.”
The Application for the Certificate of Need for the Sale of the CCNH
You can view the application for the sale of the CCNH, along with all the other relevant materials here. [5]
William “Avi” Rothner has created two new companies to own the CCNH property and to operate the CCNH
You can see from the materials at the link above – the Application, Signed Certifications, and Certificates of Good Standing – that William “Avi”Rothner of Altitude Health, the purchaser of the CCNH, has created two entirely new companies to own the CCNH and to operate it. These companies – University Rehab Real Estate, LLC and University Rehabilitation Center of C-U, LLC – were both established on August 17, 2018.
The creation of the two new companies allows William Rothner to truthfully certify that “no adverse action as defined in 77 IAC 1130.140 has been taken against any nursing home owned or operated by University Rehabilitation Center of C-U, LLC an Illinois limited liability company, in the State of Illinois during the three year period prior to filing this application.” (see pages 73 and 74 of the application.) [6]
We hope to see you tomorrow at the Public Hearing!
Sincerely,
Claudia Lennhoff
Executive Director
Champaign County Health Care Consumers