13-05-2025
Businessman calls for expanding CCM Health child care project in Montevideo, Minnesota
May 13---- A $2.4 million project to develop a child care facility for the employees of CCM Health in Montevideo is a great idea, but it falls short of what the community needs to accomplish, according to a Montevideo business owner and critic of the health care system.
Kevin Wald told the
on May 6 that he thinks it may be illegal for the publicly owned health care system to restrict use of the child care facility to its employees. He raised his concerns to the Montevideo City Council members one night earlier as well. Brian Lovdahl, CEO of CCM Health, refutes that.
Wald is urging the city and county to expand the scope of the child care project to address a community-wide need for the services. As the CEO of Ritalka Inc., Wald is one of the community's leading private sector employers.
The need for child care is one of the four top concerns facing the community and could be addressed with a larger-scale project, Wald told the commissioners. The city of Montevideo has identified a shortage of 75 child care spots in the community, and the shortage is much larger when considering
as a whole, he said.
The CCM Health project should be expanded to accommodate 110 children, as compared to 70 as is now planned, he told the commissioners. He said he believes that the project could be expanded for up to 110 children if the city and county each invested $800,000 toward it.
Wald said one half of the total openings could be made available to the public on a first-come, first-served basis, and the public facility would be in compliance with the laws.
The Chippewa County Board of Commissioners and Montevideo City Council members approved bids for the child care project in early March. CCM Health is jointly owned by the two local governmental units. The project is aiming for an October completion.
CCM Health's Lovdahl told the West Central Tribune, in response to Wald's statements, that construction is already underway on the facility. To expand its size now would require a major redesign and relicensing.
It would also adversely affect the operational finances. A revised proposal would eliminate the ability to treat the center as an allowable department for required Medicare cost reporting and create a financial burden on CCM Health, Lovdahl told the Tribune in an email on Monday.
Wald said one of his main concerns is the use of Medicaid or Medicare funds towards offsetting costs associated with the child care operations. He does not believe those funds can be used in any way toward child care services, even if indirectly.
Lovdahl responded that
is a designated Critical Access Hospital and reimbursed under Medicare cost reporting rules that state: "Costs of services such as employee cafeterias and day-care centers for the children of employees, which are maintained for the convenience of the provider, are includable as allowable costs to the extent they are reasonable."
Lovdahl continued, in response to Wald's concerns: "This federal guidance has long supported the inclusion of child care centers as allowable operational costs. We work closely with our auditing firm, which regularly evaluates compliance in this area."
Lovdahl also pointed out that the project was developed over the course of a year and vetted through appropriate public channels in the community beginning in January.
When bids for the project were awarded in March, Lovdahl told the commissioners that the center will replace an existing child care center that the hospital operates for employees in the ambulance building. He emphasized that the child care service is very important to the health care system's ability to recruit and retain employees.
And as a point of fact, the commissioners learned just prior to Wald's arrival at their meeting that the availability of child care was an important factor in the recent recruitment of a new health care provider by CCM Health.
Wald told the commissioners that restricting the child care center for employee use is discrimination.
"Discrimination in the use of a public-owned facility for any reason is not legal," he said.
He cited a number of specific federal laws dating from the 1964 Civil Rights Act to more recent acts specific to child care.
"Is it fair and right to exclude people who are paying for the facility?" asked Wald. "We are creating a tiered economy where public-owned jobs have first-rate facilities, but private sector jobs (who pay all the bills) are second-class citizens."
No discrimination laws are being violated, Lovdahl reported to the West Central Tribune. Anti-discrimination laws apply to protected classes, such as race, religion, sex, disability, age and other categories, he said.
"Restricting access to an internal benefit — like child care — based on employment status does not violate these laws," he stated.
The child care facility is licensed by the state Department of Human Services and operates as a staff-only benefit, similar to an employee gym or cafeteria. Families pay for the service directly. The facility is not publicly funded nor open to the general public.
There is no prohibition under Minnesota law — including
of Minnesota Statutes, which governs municipal hospitals — against offering staff-only benefits, Lovdahl added.
Wald also charged that CCM Health cannot allow doctors to use the child care facility if its use is restricted to employees, since they work under contract.
CCM Health is served by physicians who are employees and others who are independent contractors, according to Lovdahl. The state Department of Human Services allows contracted staff to be included in employer-sponsored child care programs if they work under the direction of the license holder, he explained.
