PHMC is closing three residential treatment programs to reduce losses

One of Philadelphia’s largest health and human services nonprofits recently closed several long-standing programs serving youth with behavior problems and people with addictions.

Public Health Management Corp. is working on program closures at subsidiaries as part of a broader effort to eliminate units with chronic losses that threaten PHMC’s stability.

Last summer, PHMC closed a residential treatment program for youth with behavioral problems at the Carson Valley Children’s Aid Center in Flourtown as part of sweeping changes there.

The Bridge, a mental health and substance abuse treatment center in Philadelphia, closed on October 30.

Villa, a behavioral health facility in Ambler, will close on Dec. 23, according to PHMC.

Michael Pearson, PHMC’s executive director, said in an interview that he doesn’t have details on how many children those programs serve. “The count was very low,” said Pearson, a former board member who became permanent CEO a year ago.

The problem isn’t just that housing programs are losing money, Pearson said. They also went against widely accepted opinion.children are better served in their own communitiesInstead of being housed in residential facilities,” he said.

” READ MORE: A PHMC subsidiary failed to regain independence in 2017.

What do the movements reflect? Pearson described more broadly “a public health environment that is less than hospitable to providers like PHMC” in a Nov. 7 email to employees.

PHMC also Visiting Nurses Association of Greater Philadelphia shut down Because he was losing a lot of money last month. For 138 years, nurses had cared for patients in their homes, often in the final stages of their lives.

“Funding challenges and staffing shortages continue to push programs to breaking points,” Pearson said in the email. “We hold ourselves accountable to carefully evaluate our programs, use our resources efficiently, and expand our capacity in areas where we demonstrate strong results.”

Dismissal at PHMC

The layoff at PHMC follows the June 2023 retirement of former CEO Richard J. Cohen, who led the nonprofit for 42 years.

Cohen had been pursuing a vision since at least the mid-1980s. create a collection of non-profit organizations PHMC achieved the deal through more than 20 acquisitions that will enable it to “wrap services around people, families and communities,” Cohen said in a 2018 interview with The Inquirer.

Since then, PHMC has completed at least four more acquisitions. These Includes two of the recently shut down programs, Visiting Nurse and Carson Valley, both purchased In 2022.

” READ MORE: PHMC won the state emergency management contract in 2020.

Their closure shows that PHMC no longer offers a safe haven for financially troubled nonprofits.

In Cohen’s retirement announcement, PHMC said it had generated $500 million in revenue. The organization does not publish audited financial statements that combine the results of parent PHMC and all its subsidiaries. A spokesman declined to provide consolidated financial results for fiscal 2024, which ends in June.

Corporate parent PHMC’s latest available financial statement shows its annual revenue fell to $293 million in the year ending June 30, 2023, from $340 million the previous year. Philadelphia agencies’ revenue fell from $192 million to $110 million.

PHMC has 3,000 employees.

Troubled times for human services nonprofits

The closures at PHMC come in a challenging year for nonprofit human service organizations in the Philadelphia area.

PHMC’s program There were closures in the expanding subsidiary network throughout the region. IT On May 1, he announced that the residential program at Carson Valley, founded in 1917 as the Carson College for Orphan Girls, would close at the end of June. This was two years after Carson Valley’s PHMC agreement, which was supposed to provide financial security for the agency.

Carson Valley had been struggling financially for years before the acquisition, suffering operating losses for five consecutive years. In some years, Carson Valley borrowed money from a foundation to pay other debts or cover operating expenses, according to audited financial statements.

In addition to closing the residential center, PHMC is also restructuring Carson Valley’s other services. A dozen of Carson Valley’s government-funded programs will be moved to other PHMC subsidiaries. A preschool and another program for the general community will remain at Carson Valley’s Flourtown campus.

PHMC Subsidiaries acquiring the Carson Valley business include: National Nurse-Led Care Consortium and Milestones for Children, which has its own set of troubles.

Milestones — tracing its roots An organization founded in 1882 -filed for bankruptcy protection in May because faced at least eight lawsuits Making a claim for personal injury or negligence related to their work in the city’s child welfare system. There were Milestones stopped providing these services By the end of 2022.

As part of PHMC’s efforts to improve its financial health, 419 S. 15th St. It sold some properties, including the former Turning Points offices at . Central City. This property sold for $2.75 million in June. PHMC sold Calcutta House, which provides shelter and other support services to homeless men and women with HIV/AIDS, at 1601 W. Girard Ave. in September for $730,000.

Despite the cuts, PHMC has room for growth, Pearson said. Began directing in July Hundreds of millions in annual government child care subsidies. It beat out Caring People Alliance, a former PHMC, when bidding for the contract The subsidiary that has administered child care subsidies for decades.

Pearson described this agreement as an example of “how PHMC reallocates resources to fulfill our mission of building healthier communities.”