With Vote On New Facility Looming, Select Board Votes To Raise Rates At Our Island Home

The Select Board has begun the process of increasing Our Island Home’s daily rates to $800 to offset higher operating costs, including the projected expense increases associated with the new facility that voters will be asked to approve at Town Meeting this May.

On Wednesday, the Select Board voted unanimously to increase the daily rate for semi-private rooms from $600 to $645 and the rate for private rooms from $620 to $665. The plan is to increase the rates annually for the next three years until a private room in the new facility, if it is approved, will cost $800 per day. If approved by voters, the new facility will have all private rooms.

Our Island Home administrator Bob Eisenstein said that the 2024 average cost per day for delivering care was $725, which will jump to over $800 at the new facility. In 2023, the average price per day was $681, meaning that the cost of care is rising rapidly at the island’s lone skilled nursing facility.

Each of the increases, which are slated to be around 7 percent for the first three years, followed by a final increase of slightly more than 5 percent in 2029, will go into effect on July 1st.

The rates are higher than any of the facilities included in the list Eisenstein presented to the Select Board, but roughly equal to the $650 rate at the new Martha’s Vineyard Navigator Homes facility.

“Our expenses are much higher, being 30 miles out to sea, so we would expect our rates to be significantly higher, but I do think, across the board, in the industry we are going to see an increase in rates for the same reasons that we’re struggling here,” Eisenstein said.

The future of Our Island Home will be determined by voters this spring.