The for-profit company buying Schuylkill County’s nursing home is increasing health insurance premiums to $700 a month for family coverage, cutting hours, and plan to change the name from Rest Haven to Rosewood Health and Rehabilitation Center, angry employees told commissioners on Wednesday.

“You’re going to lose good employees. And who’s going to suffer? The residents,” said retired Rest Haven employee Guy Wiederhold.Clearly taken aback, commissioners told county Administrator Mark Scarbinsky to call the company to arrange a meeting to resolve the issues.“We’ll have a conversation with Investment 360,” Commissioners Chairman Frank J. Staudenmeier said.The employees also said the new owners, Investment 360 of Lakewood, New Jersey, who are buying the home for $10.9 million, are keeping them in the dark about whether or not they will still have jobs after the Sept. 1 closing.Union representative Jo Waugh said the company has told other agencies it plans to “clean house” when it takes control.Company statementInvestment 360, contacted for response, issued a statement:“Over 90 percent of the positions will be filled with former county employees. There are no plans to ‘clean house’, and whoever is voicing that opinion does not speak for the new operators,” the company said.“The new operators have had productive discussions with the union which will continue to represent the employees at Rest Haven after Sept. 1,” the company said.The statement also said work hours, health insurance and job security “have all been reviewed and worked out with the union. Because of the legal obligations of the union and the new operators, we cannot comment any further on those specifics.”Waugh also said employees have not received their severance contract paperwork, although commissioners on Aug. 6 approved the closing agreement with employees covered under AFSCME Local 1721.Scarbinsky said the papers would be mailed by today.She said employees are most upset about the increase in insurance premiums.Now, employees pay $80 a month, with a $1,000 deductible, for family coverage. Under Investment 360, that will go to $770 a month, with an $11,000 deductible.Waugh chided commissioners for failing to respond to phone calls and emails after they said they would “be with us all the way through this process.”Staudenmeier said Scarbinsky was the “contact person” for the employees.Staudenmeier and Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr. said they spoke with commissioners in Butler County, where Investment 360 bought the county nursing home.“The transition went very, very well in Butler County,” Staudenmeier said.“To have that company be that way in one area and a different way in another area is totally shocking,” Halcovage said.Later, Staudenmeier said that 85-90 percent of the employees had been hired by the company, but not all stayed.Halcovage also said Investment 360 officials had said they would keep the Rest Haven name.But a cover letter outlining some terms of employment for current workers refers to the facility as “Rosewood Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.”SurvivalScarbinsky reassured the group that the attorneys handling the sale are “working to make this a positive transaction. I know people may not be happy, but I can assure you that life in the private sector is different than the public sector. A company will do what it needs to do to survive.”He said a private company cannot offer the “same level and scope of benefit packages as the county did.”Commissioner Gary J. Hess said the county had set three requirements for the sale: Current employees would be given first chance at open jobs, the quality of care continue and that it remains a nursing home.“We wanted this to be a win-win-win situation,” said Halcovage.“It’s not a win-win-win situation right now,” Waugh shot back.She said employees have lost substantial amounts of sick days, personal, and vacation time.Commissioners on Aug. 20, 2014, announced they had decided to sell Rest Haven after learning the home, behind the Penn State campus along Route 61 in Schuylkill Haven, was running $4.6 million in the red.“We lost $2 million a year for the last couple of years because of the way it’s being operated down there,” Scarbinsky said.Retired Rest Haven employee Bill East reminded commissioners that several years ago, under former administrator Elaine Schaeffer, who retired in 2011, “Rest Haven made money for the county.”Commissioners in May agreed to sell Rest Haven, in Schuylkill Haven, to Investment 360 after a sale to Nationwide Healthcare Services of Brick, New Jersey, fell through.