Gracedale's chief administrator confirmed for Northampton County Council that the county-owned nursing home has exceeded its six-month spending plan by 1 percent.

However, Gracedale Administrator Millard D. Freeman told council members at their Aug. 1 meeting "it is too early to predict if [the nursing home] would be overbudget for 2013."

Savings from policy changes and Medicaid reimbursements have not yet been entered on the nursing home's balance sheets for the year.

In the nursing home industry, a resident receives care immediately but the medical reimbursement to the facility lags often by six months. At the end of June, the nursing home had approximately $2 million in state and federal subsidies as well as uncollected payments from residents. Some outstanding payments date back to last year.

On the positive cash flow side, Freeman said the Gracedale is expected to sell some bed licenses and become a 688-bed facility to be more competitive and to keep costs down.

Currently, the census is at 647 beds and there have been no additional staff hired. As the census rises to full capacity, Freeman said state health laws will require hiring additional staff, which will keep overtime costs down.

On the negative cash flow side, Freeman said that $1.9 million in contract-negotiated raises and $2.4 million in the rising cost of fringe benefits have been factored into the request for $5.9 million as the 2014 county contribution. Also included in Gracedale's 2014 budget is the $700,000 for new generators, for which the county recently borrowed money.

The county's auditor is checking to determine if this capital expense can be deleted from Gracedale's bottom line.

In response to Freeman's numbers analysis, Councilmen Lamont McClure and Bob Werner said that they were reassured that the budget would get back in line and that the end of the year would find Gracedale on target with its expenses.

In other business, council unanimously overrode Stoffa's veto of a measure it passed at its July 18 meeting. By an earlier 5-3 vote, council changed the way professional-services vendors are selected as a response to an ongoing legal dispute over Gracedale's nonemergency medical transportation contract. The change in the law would prevent future use of the competitive sealed bid process by the executive as a way to go-around council's vote in the selection of vendors. Stoffa vetoed council's action.

Council's override now prevents the county executive from using a competitive sealed bid process as an alternative if county council has previously voted down a vendor selected using the request for proposal method. Councilmen Scott Parsons, Robert Werner and Council President John Cusick, who had earlier opposed the policy change, supported the veto override. Cusick said he felt in government it was important to keep checks and balances for policy decisions. The policy change now clarifies that the competitive sealed bid process can be used only when price is the sole factor in the vendor's selection.

Council's next regular meeting is at 6:30 p.m., Aug. 15 at Northampton County Courthouse's third floor, 669 Washington St., Easton.