Portage County committee asks staff to draft resolution advancing sale of county health care center

An ad hoc Portage County committee voted to ask staff to draft a resolution that would advance the sale of the Portage County Health Care Center, the committee decided after presentations from county counsel and representatives of the prospective buyer and public comment opposing the transaction.

The vote, taken by voice, instructed staff to prepare a resolution to approve signing an asset purchase agreement and an operations transfer agreement; the resolution would next be considered by the relevant committees and then the full county board for final action. The committee set its next meeting for Dec. 9, 2025, at 4 p.m.

Why it matters: The proposed sale would transfer an municipally owned long‑term care facility to a private operator and includes negotiated provisions for capital improvements, employee transition and other protections that county leaders said will be negotiated into the final purchase documents.

County counsel Kevin Rama Krishna, an attorney with Reinhart, Warner and Van Goer, told the committee the goal is to "finalize the purchase agreements by the November so that we can have board approval, committee approval, in December," and described several pre‑closing items: title commitments, lot‑line adjustments, a rezoning and a Stevens Point comprehensive‑plan amendment required to allow transfer of the parcel from municipal to private ownership.

Kevin also reviewed publicly available filings about the buyer and its chain: "Ensign has 303 facilities," he said, and that roughly 26 of its facilities had abuse claims on public records — a proportion he described as not high relative to the chain’s size. He noted, however, the buyer’s business model and reliance on Medicare and Medicaid payments as a standing financial risk.

Representatives from Gateway Healthcare LLC and related local operators outlined operational and staffing plans. "Our intention as we shared before is to hire substantially all of the existing employees," said Joe Ostrowski, portfolio management resource for Gateway Healthcare LLC, adding that full‑time county employees with 60 or more days of service would be eligible for benefits on day one after transition. Ostrowski said Gateway’s short‑term capex plan includes about $170,000 for IT infrastructure that it would like to start before a planned Feb. 1 transition date if the sale moves forward.

The committee also discussed contractual protections: counsel said the asset purchase agreement could include escrowed capital‑expenditure funds, rights of first refusal, or requirements that the facility operate as a nursing home for a set period if the committee wants those protections written into the final documents.

Public commenters urged greater transparency and raised concerns about past transactions. Nancy Raffy said the committee’s use of closed sessions was unnecessary and suggested the county was placing public interests at risk: "If what you're doing is so good and necessary for the county, you should be able to conduct that business in the open," she said, and cited Lincoln County's prior experience with a similar operator as a cautionary example.

Supervisor discussion before the vote included at least one member arguing privatization can reduce public accountability and another supervisor noting demographic and fiscal pressures that make a transition to private operation a defensible policy choice; the committee ultimately approved the motion to have staff draft the resolution.

Next steps: Staff will draft the resolution to authorize signing the asset purchase agreement and operations transfer agreement; if a committee approves it, the item will advance to the full Portage County Board of Supervisors for consideration. The committee reconvened on Dec. 9, 2025, to continue the process.